Detective Inspector Karen Voss is a synth. Leo is a hybrid (that is part human). Synths Anita, Leo, Max, Niska and Fred all get help from human allies. If you haven't watched Humans with now two episodes left of season one, it's okay to dive in. Grand happenings abound.
Since the beginning of the season one premiere on June 28th for U.S. viewers, one didn't know which side a person was on. Or who was what! Joe Hawkins buys Anita, formerly known as Mia, as a standard domestic synth for his family, his wife Laura, teenage daughter Mattie, teenage son Toby, and younger daughter Sophie. Whereas Joe, Toby and Sophie were happy to include Anita into the family dynamic, Laura and Mattie were not. But that was then.
Professor Edwin Hobb (Danny Webb) whose former mentor was David Elster, the creator of bioengineered humanoid beings known as synths, short for synthetic, would be the first human to discover a synth that is also sentient. That is, a synth gifted with consciousness, self-awareness and feelings all like a human being, or in other words the ultimate in AI (artificial intelligence). For in the season one premiere, he one day discovers Fred trying to pass as a non-sentient synth while working at an apple orchard, as Hobb says, "Oh you are different aren't you Fred? This was found hidden behind your charging point. Now why would a synth need a telephone?" And then Professor Hobb concludes, "You've been running and hiding all while pretending to be so much less than what you are." To which quickly afterwards Fred makes a run for it, but is caught by Hobb's men after being taser stunned.
Professor Hobb already knew David Elster was aiming to make at least some synths to also have sentience. That is while both had worked together. But he didn't think his former departed mentor had achieved it. Neither had the world known for that matter. For the world was led to believe ever since the breakthrough and the availability of synths to the marketplace, that synths are not conscious machines. Therefore synths are not a threat, but are to be servants to humanity.
Knowing that Elster was suddenly taking his research into a boldly new direction, it's still not clear as yet why Hobb later left his mentor during the synth program. Perhaps there was a change in philosophies. Even so, Hobb being a scientist could not help but to now see the wondrous possibilities, and also the danger. Hence in episode two while in a lab conversing with a colleague over the incapacitated synth Fred (Sope Dirisu), about Fred's potential, Hobb says, "He's the Mona Lisa. He's the penicillin. He's the atom bomb."
Then there's Leo (Colin Morgan), whom viewers believed was fully human in episode one. All synths supposedly have deep iridescent green eyes no matter their skin color or ethnic looks, such as Fred who is a black synth and Anita/Mia an Asian-looking synth. Which, is the one main feature a human being can easily recognize about a synth, besides also their robotic movements and if injured, all synths bleed blue. Yet with blue eyes, Leo is a hybrid, revealed in episode two during a desperate search to reunite his family of synths with the aid of Max (Ivanno Jeremiah), who like Fred is also a black synth. For near the end of episode two, Max helps Leo, who is injured and bleeding red blood after both met Silas Capek. Silas is a black market headcracker, a hacker who hacks into stolen synths, and gives them a totally different personality before being sold as new merchandise. Leo and Max believe the same had happened to Mia before eventually being sold to the Hawkins family. For in the season one premiere, the Hawkins were unaware about her former personality, and believed she was a new synth model before naming her Anita Hawkins.
After Leo and Max fought off Silas and his bodyguard at their black market workshop in episode 2, Max carries Leo to a nearby public restroom. Max then unscrews a light bulb and connects a synth charger to a conduit, for all synths need a charge whenever how much energy they expend. He then pulls a wire out of Leo's wound while bleeding red blood, and connects the wire to the conduit, thus proving that Leo is a hybrid. And there's more.
For in season one episode four, Leo and Max find Dr. George Millican (William Hurt), another brilliant scientist who formerly worked with David Elster. Both seek Millican's aid to decipher Mia's root-code within Leo's laptop. During which, Leo asks Millican why did he leave the synth program, to which Millican replies, "David was taking his research in a direction I wasn't comfortable with." To which Leo responds by saying, "Sentient synths." Now curious, Millican then asks, "Who are you? Where did you find this?" followed by threatening Leo and Max that if they didn't answer, Millican would call the cops. Then Leo reveals shortly before leaving with Max that he is the son of David Elster. Millican finds that impossible knowing that Leo died.
Leo did die, then at age 13, but was resurrected, all revealed in this past recent season one episode six that aired on August 2nd. For it is then that Leo reunites with Mattie Hawkins, who in episode three, she attempts to hack into Anita (Gemma Chan) to find out about Anita's peculiarities. Which then unbeknownst to the Hawkins family, were Anita/Mia's signs of sentience. The hacking had thus triggered a signal on the internet, monitored by Leo, confirming about Mia.
In episode six Leo reveals to Mattie about his origins. That while young, his mother became ill, which his father David Elster then created Mia as the world's first sentient synth. Mia becomes Leo's surrogate mother, followed by Max, Fred and Niska, a blonde-haired synth, whom all were also to look after him, all revealed in digitized images from Leo. Later, Leo and his mother are in a car accident, submerged underwater. Leo (spoiler alert) dies, but later brought back to life by his father using synth technology, and saving what memories Leo had within his brain. Throughout all this, although undeniably brilliant, David Elster was also a tortured genius, and later took his own life.
Meanwhile Detective Inspector Karen Voss (Ruth Bradley) and Detective Sergeant Pete Drummond (Neil Maskell) from the Special Technologies Task Force, a division of the London police dept., are both out investigating the first synth killer. For Niska, while working at a synth brothel, intended as a place for her to hide out, gets fed up as a sex worker and kills a man. Following that, she's taken refuge within the home of Dr. George Millican as suggested by Leo.
Karen Voss has brown eyes yet she too is a synth, as revealed in episode four after having wine with Pete Drummond. Pete's wife leaves him for a synth named Simon her physical therapist, and Karen offers Pete her home. Then in episode six, after the two had sex, Karen says, "You're my favorite person in the world. Whatever happens now, promise me you'll remember that." She then shows Pete that she's a synth by pulling out her charger, causing Pete to flee.
Professor Hobb also finds out that when Leo, Mia, Max, Niska and Fred all unite, their codes can initiate consciousness proliferation, thus causing all non-sentient synths to become sentient. This discovery worries his superiors, who orders Hobb to kill Fred. Hobb fakes Fred's death. Yet later, Fred escapes by overpowering Hobbs guards, and notifies Leo who also manages to bring Mia back to her former self at the Hawkins home. Then while on their way to rendezvous with Fred, Leo and Max are chased by the police, tipped off by Joe Hawkins. With power now draining, Max sacrifices his life for Leo by slowing up the chase so Leo would not get caught.
There's good news to all sci-fi fans, according to a recent August 2, 2015 online article by Summer Brooks of Slice of SciFi, titled, "AMC and Channel 4 Renew 'Humans' for Season 2." Furthermore, it also states that Humans is the highest rated drama among viewers of Channel 4, a British co-producer with AMC, in 20 years. Humans and synths, the saga continues.