Human 1.7 - Fear

Human : Fear
Genre : Sci-Fi / Drama
Showrunner: Michelle MacLaren
Writer : Ann Morrow

Cast: Justin Theroux, Letitia Wright, Bryan Batt, Michelle Fairley, Adrian Rawlins and Rhea Perlman

Plot : Charles (Adrian Rawlins) rushes back to his office. He made a mistake in his design and he needs to fix it. He wants to separate the androids, they can’t always be with each other. On his way to his laboratory, he imagines a great plan. He wants to take advantage of their isolation to teach them a new emotion. He also wants to get back at Adam (Bryan Batt) and Julia (Michelle Fairley) for letting the androids fall in love with each other. It is the perfect opportunity for them to learn what fear is.

James (Justin Theroux) asks Julia how he could touch Eva (Letitia Wright) through the screen and she says it’s impossible. She paces around the lobby, trying to find something that could help them get out of here. Adam does the same thing, but he’s a little more aggressive. He doesn’t like any of this and, as crazy as it sounds, he just wants to go back to the houses and simply be with Julia. A woman comes up to Julian and asks her to follow her to the elevator. Obviously, Julia doesn’t want to do that, but her grip is too tight. They stop on the second floor and she pushes Julia in a room and closes the door. A woman does the same to Adam, James and Eva, but they all stop at different floors. Charles designed the buildings so each floor has a different fear stimulus.

Julia opens her eyes, she can’t see anything in the pitch black room. A woman opens a lightbulb. Her name is Anna (Rhea Perlman). Julia wants to know where she is, but Anna isn’t programmed to answer that question. Anna talks down Julia and insults her, saying she’ll never find success in life. Julia Connor will never succeed and she’s a bitch. Julia now recognizes it. Anna is her childhood bully, but in its adult form. She tries to get out her the room, but the door is locked. Julia hides into a corner. She doesn’t want to see Anna again.

Adam is left alone in a dark room. He paces around, trying to find something, but he rapidly comes to the conclusion that there’s nothing in there, except a small fire burning in the center of the room with a chair. He sits on the chair and a screen appears in front of him. He sees Julia, but she can’t see him. She tries to get away from Anna, but she grabs Julia by the ponytail and pushes her through the ground. Adam tries to do something to help Julia, but there’s nothing he can do. He chooses to look away when Anna starts throwing rocks on Julia. She reminds her that she used to do that during recess.

Eva is tied up to a chair and she calls for James, not knowing that he will never come. She asks if anyone’s here and a hole opens on the floor. A box comes up and it opens. A snake comes out of it. The snake crawls on Eva’s legs and she tries to shake it off, but she’s restrained. The snake crawls all the up to her head and he twirls around her neck. A spider crawls out of the box and rests on her foot. Eva screams, she’s terrified and bugs and snakes.

James didn’t go up, he went to the basement. He asks a faceless robot where’s Eva and Charles, talking through the robot tells James to look to his left. James sees Eva on a screen struggling with the snakes and spiders. James runs towards the screen, but the floor splits open. There’s fire below and James is terrified, he doesn’t like fire. The robot tells him that he needs to get to the other side of the room to see and help her. James progresses carefully. He reaches the screen and tries to touch it, but it is sent back further in the room. The floor cracks open again and it looks like it will be more difficult.

Adam sits near the fire silently. He looks into it, as if he was trying to find answers to questions he doesn’t know the answers too. Julia is tired of being bullied and she stands up to Anna, who initially laughs at her attempt to stand up for herself, takes a step back when she sees that Julia is done being bullied. Julia says that she shouldn’t hold on to the past and she’s different and better person now. Anna isn’t programmed to do anything else than bully her. From the comfort of his laboratory, Charles presses a button to stop the experiment on Julia and Adam. Their doors unlock and they can leave.

All sorts of small creatures are climbing on Eva. The snake continues to apply pressure on her neck. She keeps calling James’ name. On his end, James is struggling with the obstacle course. Charles watches him carefully. He checks on their vital signs and he can see they know feel fear. James tries to jump on a platform, but he slips. He legs catches on fire and Charles stops everything. He puts out the fire on James’ leg with a perfectly placed dysfunctional extinguisher. He also lets Eva go. They deserve it. They now know what fear is.

Everyone reunites on Julia’s front lawn. She grabs her dog and follows Adam home. They can let the androids live together. Julia asks Adam what was his fear today and he says that he realises it now, he’s afraid to die alone, but as long as he has her, he’s going to be alright. James and Ava passionately kiss and move in together. Eva asks him what happened to his leg and he says  he did this trying to help her. She thanks him for his kindness and she says she doesn’t deserve him, he’s too good. Everything is back to normal after a scary incident.