One question still looming over
Humans, even this late in the game, is; who is Karen Voss?
A thinking, feeling Synth - yet apparently not part of David Elster's original batch -
Ruth Bradley's character has been this show's rogue element - and its biggest enigma - since her true nature was revealed in episode four.
Here, the whole truth is revealed - 'Karen' is a synthetic recreation of Elster's dead wife. Unable to come to terms with what he had created, Elster later took his own life - as his beloved Beatrice had done. Karen now seeks to end her own life, but - in a cruel and ironic twist - is prevented from doing so by Elster's programming.
(We also learn a little about the real Karen Voss - though it's a pity this brief and rather extraneous sub-plot is Pete Drummond's sole contribution this week.
Since he was suspended, the trajectory of Neil Maskell's DS has felt rather aimless - a black mark against this show's otherwise first-rate record. Here's hoping he comes back into play in a major way for next week's finale.)
Karen's objective is to prevent her 'son' Leo (Colin Morgan) from achieving his - full consciousness for all Synths. She believes that sentience "can only bring more pain" - an intriguing alternative to the premise that, if Synths are slaves, then cognizance is freedom.
It all brings us back to the biggest recurring question of the series - will the rise of sentient Synths inevitably lead to war? "Maybe she [Niska] is the future of humanity," counters George Millican, when Karen argues that very point.
Whatever the future is, George won't live to see it - a heated confrontation between Karen and Niska (Emily Berrington) ends with the amiable scientist taking a bullet, a significant blow for anyone banking on a peaceful outcome.
The decision to kill off George feels bold but also risky - he felt like a character with much more to offer and William Hurt has been spectacular in the part. His demise is also oddly positioned within the narrative - why 10 minutes into the penultimate episode?
That being said, while it's a pity to lose Millican, his final scene - shared with
a still-malfunctioning Odi (Will Tudor) - is suitably heartbreaking, and Odi's final fate - ordered to be scrapped by Hobb - is another searing kick to the gut.
This week's other strands are no less pessimistic - though Max (Ivanno Jeremiah) is saved by the Synth equivalent of a blood transfusion, he's damaged beyond true repair, while relations between the Hawkins family and the Elster children remain strained.
For the sake of their own children, Laura (Katherine Parkinson) allows husband Joe (Tom Goodman-Hill) to return home, where he's forced to face up to at least one of his crimes when he meets Mia for the first time.
Mia's insistence that "I can think and feel just like you" serves as part-introduction and part scathing comment on Joe's actions - but that's only a tease though for a later, more overt confrontation between the two, where she brutally assures him: "I was there the whole time."
While she's abandoned Anita's more obviously robotic forms of expression, there's still something wonderfully ethereal and, for lack of a better word, inhuman about Gemma Chan's deft performance - and it's a nice touch to have her finally dispose of her old outfit (replaced by 'regular' clothes in a similar hue) to mark the transition.
Of course, what he did to Anita is but one of Joe's crimes - his calling the police on Leo and Max is a ticking time-bomb, a secret certain to disrupt the makeshift domesticity of the new Hawkins household.
Combined with the uncovering of Niska's recent violence towards humans, it's enough to disrupt the temporary calm - those scenes in which Sophie (Pixie Davis) broke through Niska's icy exterior were far too sweet not to be spoiled.
Sure enough, we end with scenes of humans and Synths - having briefly come together as a whole, a family unit - at odds, and that's before events escalate with the arrival of Hobb (Danny Webb) and his goons.
Even if Max could be repaired, and the key to Elster's work could be unlocked, perhaps tensions are too high, prejudices too ingrained, for the conscious Synths to simply live alongside humans.
With the kindly George a casualty of war, the stage seems set for conflict - though I wouldn't put it past
Humans to pull another big surprise out of the bag and perhaps deliver a more sunny outlook next week.
These seven episodes so far have felt fresh and vital in a way that so many other identikit drama series do not - and that has less to do with the show's sci-fi trappings and more to do with its its wonderful unpredictability.
Who could have guessed where we'd end up - particularly Karen serving as chief antagonist - after episode one? It's a rare treat to not have the foggiest how this wonderful drama will resolve itself in seven days' time.
