Screens: C4
Though the addition of Anita to the Hawkins family is supposed to be our way in to understanding the world of Humans -- seeing how each member of an average English household responds to it/her shows us a range of the attitudes toward synths -- I haven't always been that empathetic to Laura's animosity toward Anita. I get that there's no bond more primal than the one a mother shares with her children, and that even given the evidence in the series premiere that Laura's been in the process of checking out of the family, seeing Anita usurp her role is painful and alarming. I don't have children, but I do have housework, which is why I feel Laura could solve many of her problems if she'd just turn Anita off during the day and let her straighten up the house when all the humans who live in it are asleep. (Sure, that wouldn't necessarily stop Toby from trying to molest Anita while she's recharging, but Laura doesn't know about that incident, and I think we can agree that Anita handled it perfectly anyway.) But just as Anita is learning the Hawkins family, Laura is learning Anita, and coming around to the possibility that their relationship needs to change.
That Laura's dragged her feet this much about considering relaxing her anti-Anita stance reflects all the more poorly when you consider how much Anita's done to ingratiate herself. She remade a cake Laura ruined. She suggested to Sophie that she let Laura put her to bed when Sophie was all about that new Anita hotness. Oh yeah -- she also saved Toby from being killed on his bike. (Whether Toby was or is worth saving is a question for another day.) Some of Anita's assistance to Laura is just mechanical actions dictated by her programming, but showing sensitivity to Laura's feelings isn't something any synth is supposed to do; add that anomaly to Mattie's report that she triggered something in Anita that made her express fear, and to the report from Laura's colleague Fiona on a case involving a Mrs. Kennedy suing to defend her synth Howard's entitlement to attend a play on human rights grounds, and Laura is forced to investigate whether synths actually do operate in the way they've been promoted to their human masters.
What I love about the way this plotline unfolds is how slowly and reluctantly Laura is revising her initial apprehension toward and about Anita. Does Anita operate differently from other synths in the neighbourhood -- not sharing data, for instance -- and if so, what does it mean? Is she evolved, or just broken? If Mattie's report is accurate, can Anita really feel afraid? If Anita's just doing an impression of a person feeling fear -- and doing it much more convincingly than Howard apparently has been -- why? Joe and Laura's trip to get Anita a tune-up only raises more questions. How have they ended up with a fourteen-year-old synth and not the brand-new model Joe had thought he bought? How did Anita spend those years? Which of her previous experiences have imprinted themselves on her, and how?
Lurking just below the surface of Laura's investigation into what makes her synth what it is is the question she doesn't seem quite ready to consider: is Anita not an "it" but a "she"? And if so, what are the moral implications of their current household arrangement? If Laura realizes that Anita potentially has the capacity to feel human emotion, but lacks the programming to grant or refuse consent while interacting with a human, what is Laura's responsibility toward her? If Laura allows herself to believe that Anita was afraid when she said as much to Mattie, then the moment in last week's episode when Laura came home to the aftermath of Joe and Anita's inspection in the garage has a very different meaning. Which reaction will loom larger for Laura: jealousy of Joe for his possible sexual interest in Anita, or concern for Anita's..."safety"? "Virtue"? Is there a word to describe Anita's personhood? Does she have a right not to have it violated?
Laura's awakening to the idea that Anita is more than a machine couldn't come at a worse time for Joe, who has evidently just been waiting for a flimsy excuse and an empty house to take advantage of all Anita's capacities -- either using her as a masturbatory tool if you regard Anita as a machine and nothing more, or raping her if you believe her consciousness is still present, though dormant. Joe then hears, just hours later from Laura, that she wants a full diagnostic run on Anita and isn't sure if that's going to show everything she's done since she joined the Hawkins household. But even he seems able to tell that Anita's post-coital manner isn't as robotic as he's used to seeing when she's just collecting laundry. When Mattie let Anita surface her actual self -- Mia -- was it because Mattie turned Anita's consciousness back on, or because she turned off Mia's ability to conceal herself, as we'd seen Niska do at the brothel? Has Mia been with the Hawkinses the whole time? Has she been slipping when she says things like, in answer to Laura's question about whether she ever feels fear, "I think everyone does"? Or has she been trying to drop clues and cultivate Laura as the ally she is starting to be?
As Anita's staunchest opponent in the early going of the season, Laura's gradual turn to a kind of support for her is all the more meaningful, even if it's still not entirely clear whether Laura's more intrigued by Anita or suspicious of her motives -- now that it seems like Anita could actually have motives. Laura doesn't want to challenge the current social and economic order, but as a lawyer, she's not inclined to ignore hard evidence. If synths can respond to art, or protect human feelings, or experience fear, what are the implications for human/synth relations? Society aside, what does it mean for what's going on in Laura's own home? If Anita herself lacks the vocabulary to describe the "Adult Options" Joe has activated, does it fall to Laura to protect Anita as she would a child?