Home News Raised By Wolves Episode 2

Raised By Wolves Episode 2

1136
0

Raised By Wolves’ Episode 2 Recap And Review: ‘Pentagram’

Raised By Wolves is out today on HBO Max. The first three episodes were released early this morning, with subsequent episodes releasing each Thursday.

This is similar to how Hulu releases The Handmaid’s Tale—something of a compromise between the traditional weekly episodic releases of the past and Netflix’s binge culture.

I prefer weekly episodes, since it extends the conversational life of a TV show, giving us all something to talk about each week rather than stuffing it in all at once. But I’ll take the compromise.

You can read my recap and review of the Series Premiere right here.

In episode 2, “Pentagram”, we learn more about Marcus (Travis Fimmel) and his wife Sue (Niamh Algar). When we first meet Marcus he appears to be a Mithraic soldier.

But all is not as it seems. Mother, it turns out, is not the only one who borrows that ruggedly handsome face.

The episode opens during the Battle of Boston, as Mithraic and atheist forces clash throughout the city.

A man and a woman move through the rubble-strewn streets, violence all around them.

They come across a half-destroyed android and let him down from where he’s stuck, put out the flames that lick at his body.

He’s a medical droid and the man asks if he can perform plastic surgery.

They’ve found two Mithraic citizens who are about the same size and shape as them, and they have the droid transform their faces.

When the bandages come off, the man is Travis Fimmel’s character, Marcus. The woman is Sue, his wife.

They’re imposters—atheists who have read the writing on the wall and decided to get off of Earth while the getting is good.

They travel to the home of the real Marcus and Sue, who look resigned and puzzled in turn.

Real Sue begins to chant a Mithraic saying and the imposters shoot them both dead on the spot.

When they search their things they discover that they have a son—Paul (Felix Jamieson).

They make their way to where the Ark, Heaven, is being boarded. As a respected captain and veteran of the Mithraic peoples’ wars, Marcus and his family are shoe-ins for the voyage.

When they meet Paul there he seems awkward, a little uncertain. You wonder at first if he suspects they’re not his real parents, but later we learn the real reason he seems so standoffish. (See my next recap).

Back in the present timeline, Mother uses parts taken from the “dead” Mithraic android to replace her eyes—temporarily, in any case.

Her eyes, we discover, are what allow her to weaponize. If she uses another set, her deadliest powers are inert.

So she keeps her old eyes, but wears new ones to be safe around her family.

She also takes the android’s “heart” and uses it to fix Father. I admit, I was somewhat dismayed when she killed him in the very first episode because I enjoyed Abubakar Salim’s performance so much. (Fun fact: Salim voics Bayek in Assassin’s Creed: Origins).

Campion is overjoyed when Father returns—almost in disbelief. The boy has lost almost everyone he’s ever cared about and none of them have ever returned until now. But that joy is soon replaced with concern.

Campion is justifiably freaked out by what Mother has done, by the sheer ferocity of her violence.

He wants Father to take her eyes so that she can never do that again.

Father is tempted. He’s worried, too. But he puts his trust in Mother.

But Campion isn’t so trusting. When her eyes go missing, Mother blames Father.

Strange, terrifying creatures have emerged from the desert, perhaps drawn by the Ark’s crash.

For the past 12 years, they have never encountered animal life of any kind.

These things are scary, whatever they are, and they come for the children.

Mother needs her eyes to fight them off and Father goes to Campion and forces him to give them back—just in time, it turns out.

Earlier, we learn that the eldest girl taken from the Ark, Tempest (Jordan Loughran) is pregnant.

Mother senses it and takes her aside (quite ominously, I might add).

Tempest reveals that one of the powerful Mithraic leaders was able to leave stasis aboard the Ark and have his way with sleeping girls.

Her baby is the product of rape and she tells Mother she can’t handle thinking about it.

Mother tells her not to, then. Think only of the child.

Tempest tells her that the man was scheduled for execution and Mother robbed her of the satisfaction of seeing him die.

But at least he’s dead—unless there’s a twist later on.

Mother leaves Tempest in the domed tent to rest, but when the creatures show up she (rather foolishly) runs outside, hoping to get to the safety of others.

The creature is about to snatch her up when Mother arrives, arms spread wide, flying above the ground—and screams.

Apparently she can really aim these vocal attacks because she manages to kill the creatures and avoid hitting Tempest even though they’re barely a meter apart.

It’s a very exciting scene. Raised By Wolves manages to keep things interesting and exciting by shifting rather skillfully between slower character-building moments and edge-of-your seat action sequences.

The first episode was rather a slow burn until Marcus and company arrived.

Then it was all vicious melee and one of the bloodiest assaults on spaceship I’ve ever seen. This episode is similarly structured.

I also very much enjoyed Campion’s interactions with the newcomers.

Paul is morose, withdrawn, but he offers to give Campion his pet mouse.

Campion has never seen a mouse before, or any other animal. Mother makes him give it back after Campion gives her attitude.

We see that brittleness in her again—the loving mother one moment, the about-to-snap mother the next.

Amanda Collins is wonderful in the role, ratcheting up that creepy menace while still somehow garnering our sympathy.

Tempest is the one child who seems least impressed by her former culture and religion, though I suppose being raped in stasis might have contributed to a little loss of faith.

The oldest boy, Hunter (Ethan Hazzard), is more devout—and seems determined to turn Paul against his android parents, for better or worse.

The other newcomers are Holly (Aasiya Shah) and Vita (Ivy Wong) who is the youngest, not much older than Tally when she died. She looks a lot like her, too.

Five in all, and six with Campion. What will befall them remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Marcus has managed to avoid the fate of his companions but the night is dark and full of terrors. It’s also incredibly cold.

He goes to the pit where the androids’ space craft is lodged and ties himself to Father’s rope, curling up next to a rock on the very edge of the hole.

We remember from the first episode that warm air emanates from these abysses, and that warmth may be the only thing that keeps him alive.

Well, that and the rope. The creatures come upon him while he dozes and knock him off the edge.

He doesn’t wake even when he’s jolted by the rope. Later, other Mithraic scouts show up and pull him—still asleep, likely concussed—from the pit and to safety.

The true Marcus may be dead, but Fimmel’s character lives on.

Read Also :