Humans S1E3 - "Episode 3" Review

Another week, another Synthetic round of Humans. Before we delve into the meat of the show's plot and character developments, can we all take a moment to appreciate the gratuitous eye candy being served up by Jack Derges, as Simon the synth carer and physiotherapist? In a world where women are typically the ones to be treated as object, it's so refreshing to see the script flipped. But all jokes aside about beefcakes, Humans is smartly written enough for us to assume that Simon may yet serve to catalyse some plot by surfacing some insecurities of D.S. Peter Drummond, which will make him all the more erratic in his quest to solve the brothel-murder perpetrated by Niska.

Emily Berrington was given more room to flex her acting abilities this week, as we see Niska grappling with the unravelling of her existential crisis as well as reclaim her own autonomy, and nearly kill an apparently innocent nice-guy in the process. She nearly mistook him for a cheater based on finding a girl's hair-tie in his bathroom, which was reason enough to attempt to murder him, but upon learning that this belonged to the man's daughter, she left without harming him or further fracturing her moral compass. However, Niska still seems very much a force to be reckoned with that's just starting to come into her own. Her reign of terror is likely far from over and we couldn't be more thrilled to watch it unfold.

Anita is still as enigmatic as ever but this time, we were hurled headfirst into getting a glimpse of the other incarnation of herself, the one that Leo has been searching for. When Laura's teenaged daughter, Mattie began tinkering around in Anita's data, this other version of herself came crying out for help before disappearing as fast as she appeared. Then after Mattie uploaded the code of this prior identity to the internet, Leo's synth companion Max discovered it and now the pair are set for a course to reuniting with their long-lost synth.

Leo's a perfect match for Anita, not simply because we're still swooning over the forehead-touch in episode one. But we're as befuddled by him as we are her. We went from thinking he was human in episode one, to a Snyth in episode two, but now it seems as if he's some sort of in-between. Maybe this is a Will Smith type of situation a la I, Robot? Except instead of being full of self-loathing for having robot parts, Leo seems to be trying to be their saviour. There's enough characterisation to pique our interest but enough mystery to truly grip us. The Humans writers have certainly concocted a brilliant mixture of the two. We can't wait for next week's episode!

Humans airs on Sundays on Channel 4 at 9PM.