‘Devs’ Episode 3 Review: Will Devs’ predictive algorithm pose a threat to Lily?
When ‘Devs’ dropped a week ago, our initial reaction was of shock, awe, a little horror, and thrill. However, as the story progressed, it became clear that it is indeed a story that doesn’t explore an uncharted territory but does raise questions. In simpler words, the idea of predictive analysis, creating an algorithm to map future events, is nothing new. But in the context of the series, Devs is a program that not only predicts the future but also human behavior.
As fascinating as it may sound on paper, predictive analysis has a very different implication on human life. In this context, it’s no one other than Lily Chan.
In the initial two episodes, the writer had established and clearly implied that there is a secret quantum computer, with extreme capacity. With the help of the right code, it can render past events and predict the future. Now, it may seem quite fancy when you see slow, moving images of major social, political, or economic events that changed the world. But consider that the program used to monitor you, day in day out.
Again, in this context, it’s none other than Lily, who will most likely become the next best subject for analysis. Forest might have started ‘Devs’ with the idea of reconnecting with her daughter, whom he had lost years ago, but with Sergei’s discovery of the program’s real intentions (which most likely looks political now) it changes everything.
And now, with Lily trying to dig into the facts of her boyfriend’s death, and uncovers that Amaya is behind it, it could easily lead Forest into trying to map her behavior and stay a step ahead of her at all times. If at all Lily does find out what exactly Devs is designed to do, then she might be too late to do something about it, knowing how the program would easily be able to predict her next steps.
While episode 3 of the dark, sci-fi thriller continue its original disturbing tone and feeling of paranoia, it also manages to give a few moments of light with Lily and Jen’s charade proving worthwhile. But the question remains: if looking for Devs will turn out to be more dangerous for Lily than she can even imagine?
‘Devs’ drops on FX on Hulu, every Thursday 12 am.
