Episode Recap: Built, Not Born

After the cliffhanger last week we finally find out what Victor needed the Android’s help with. He and some other free androids got themselves into a predicament when they inadvertently killed one of their former owners. To their credit, the rest of the Raza crew agree to help out and take the androids onto the ship. Then they set course for an unexpected location, the place where they’ll find their creator.

 

Three is having a really hard time accepting the various androids. Sure, their Android is special, but these other guys are just unnerving. He complains about them to Sarah who is understanding but a little hurt. After all, she’s not exactly alive either.

 

The big thing in this episode, beyond all the other things, is the fact that we finally get a look into Android’s missing memories. We’ve seen everyone else’s but not hers and Victor offers her a chance to get to know who she was. The first memory is the day Portia brought her onto the Raza, an event that precipitated Portia’s takeover of the ship.

 

Before we have a chance to learn more, the Raza is attacked by the GA and we lose two of the three androids they picked up earlier. Anya kills herself since she’s the reason the GA could track them. The other, Ruac, shuts down because the damage he sustained was too much for him.

 

Another Android memory reveals a bit more about Portia’s relationship to Android. Sometime in the past, Emily (Five) helped to bring Android online and we get to see a very different, thankful and emotional, side to Portia. She mentions how Android isn’t just a machine.

 

Finally, they reach their destination and run into Chase, an android who looks just like the one Five befriended before he blew up outside of EOS 7. He recognizes Two (as Rebecca) and Android (as Sookie) and brings them to the android creator: a woman in stasis who looks exactly like Android!

 

This is Dr. Irena Shaw, the mother of the modern android, the woman who introduced the upgrades that gave them free will. Oh, and she used to work for Dwarf Star, overseeing the creation of one Rebecca, now Two. According to Chase, Shaw saw Rebecca as more than property. She’s the one who helped Rebecca escape from Dwarf Star and who brought her to this facility. Two also learns that she and Shaw had a romantic relationship, but that Shaw developed a brain tumor and was put into stasis before she could die. Android, Chase says, was given to her to help her grieve. A piece of Shaw to take with her.

 

Two and Android react very differently to this information. Two wants to use her nanites to see if they’ll cure the brain tumor. Meanwhile, Android is very freaked out and heads back to the ship. She tells Six that she feels as though Shaw’s existence makes hers somehow less. She’s an imperfect copy of a real person who was loved, but Six assures her she is an original.

 

Meanwhile, Shaw wakes up and she’s heartbroken to learn that the woman she loves doesn’t remember her or their time together.  She also tells Two that the nanites will only be a temporary solution. She’s on borrowed time.

 

Android is having an identity crisis back on the ship, telling Five that she’s trying to be more human, but that she doesn’t want to use the upgrade because it’s not her. You see, she and Two have both figured out her real purpose. She was meant as a shell to hold Shaw’s consciousness when she died. It’s a “greater purpose,” Android thinks, but Five says that without Android, they would have died.

 

Shaw tells Two how she refused to transfer her consciousness into Android and that she won’t change her mind this time around. Two agrees but there’s someone else she was hoping to convince: Three and Sarah. Sarah is totally down for a new body and after a conversation with Three they both agree.

 

We get one last Android memory, this time it’s a very cute moment where Ryo treats her like a person. Then Portia walks in and starts talking about a “manufacturing facility” and an “invasion” they need to stop. This is all just before they lost their memories, of course.

 

Just as they start to transfer Sarah’s consciousness, the GA attacks because Victor also has a tracker. Shaw kills the tracker but the damage is done. They need to leave, but Sarah’s not finished yet. She needs to go with Shaw and Chase (and Victor) while the rest escape on the Marauder. Goodbyes all around.

 

Three and Android drown their respective sorrows in their beverages of choice while Three attempts to apologize for his thoughts about Victor and the others.

 

Elsewhere, Sarah’s upgrade is successful. She’s got a fancy new body, but Shaw warns her that she is now extremely dangerous. Then Victor gets all creepy because, as it turns out, he lied about what happened on the station. Anya set a trap for her owner and Victor killed him. Now they want Sarah to “help them.”