The Collective
Mother is found smothered under a thin layer of leaves by atheist soldiers in Raised by Wolves Season 2. They contemplate what to do with her, eventually settling on moving her to their colony.
Since the first season, Mother has been struggling with her new role as a mother and has developed a virus that causes her computer to crash. If you may also remember, this was hinted at being responsible for Mother’s programming and computer virus woes.
HQ has found two other android bodies, one of which is Mother. The colonists are quickly dealing with the android bodies and realize that Mother is not a service model. Her objective is to find her children.
Marcus has been on a journey to find the Mothership, which is no longer in flight. Despite crashing down in the acidic water, Marcus makes it to safety and proceeds on foot.
Marcus finds a cave and enters, dropping to his knees and clutching his necklace upon seeing the familiar sigil of the sun up on the wall. It’s a sign from Sol, and interestingly, this spot is precisely where sunlight filters through a gap in the cave. Marcus ventures out and sets to work trying to convert atheists into believers of Sol.
Marcus manages to save both Decima and Vrille from a nasty fate by leading them away from the blast site. ..
Meanwhile, Mother and Father both join together, and rejoice that their mission isn’t a failure. They’re soon joined by Campion who greets them both. The rest of the kids are here too, although when they ask about number 7, Mother lies and claims it died. Father’s confused look is an interesting tidbit to note.
Father apparently no longer appears to be angry with Mother, especially if their chat soon after is anything to go by. However, there are still hostilities between them. However, he decides not to “rock the boat,” with Mother promising to do her best to make it up to him. ..
Mother and Father quickly get into the swing of things, embracing this new socialist community. Each day the colonists are given a new task, with Father and the kids given the same role – collecting food. For Mother however, she’s told to report to Tarantula and see Marcella.
The Lamia woman teaches the children of the community how to paint using her eggs as canvases. When one of the children paints a snake, Mother interprets it as scary. Interestingly, she’s challenged on this idea, with the boy claiming that all living things are beautiful.
Father begins his exploration of the new world by exploring a cave. He finds evidence that an android was killed here and there is scratch marks on the wall that look like it was attacked. Father also finds a broken android skeleton.
Elsewhere, Marcus is determined to start anew. He intends to use his new companions to start a new order and convert every member of the colony, one at a time if need be. As the episode closes out, a flaming sigil of Sol is left outside Mother’s house.
The Episode Review
The worldbuilding in Raised by Wolves is always the stand-out component of this series and the opening episode to season 2 proves as much. There’s a beautifully eerie tone hanging over large swathes of this, along with some excellent visual cues too. The setting is also very well realised, giving the sense that you’re right there in the thick of it.
This episode has a lot of movement, swinging back and forth between Mother and the colony as well as Marcus and his new followers.
The show seems to be back on track again with a strong chapter full of strong themes and thought provoking ideas. The changed setting, with lush greens and beautiful rivers, is a bit of a far cry from the dusty desert of the first season and it does help a lot to give this a new color palette and identity.
This latest development in the case of the missing girl seems to be pointing in a positive direction.
