‘Emergence’ Episode 9: Has the creators’ treatment of Piper more as a human than an AI served the show well?
When Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas’ brilliant creation ‘Emergence’ first aired on ABC, through the pilot episode alone, the series well-established its mystery-thriller factors giving rise to many questions.
However, within the next two episodes, ‘Emergence’ gave away too much by making some of the biggest revelations about Piper. And how long did we get to watch her move metal and water with her powers? Not more than a few minutes all season!
The series is nearing its end and we aren’t able to help but question some of the choices made by the creators, as we begin to comprehend all that they have offered in the past eight episodes.
Since the beginning of ‘Emergence, a lot of comparisons were drawn between Piper and Eleven from ‘Stranger Things’. Although the premises of both shows are different, the pivotal characters share a lot of resemblances. But Eleven’s powers in ‘Stranger Things’ were always on display, unlike Piper’s minimal usage of hers.
We have observed how the series has always treated Piper more like a human than an AI. Even when the doctors ran her through the CAT scan and drew blood from the synthetic body, nothing in the results popped up that reflected her true identity.
It would have made more sense for us as viewers to relate with Piper better if her identity of an AI was kept under the wraps while she was looked at as a human. However, knowing who she is and what she is capable of, we aren’t able to show much empathy to Jo’s foster child anymore.
As ‘Emergence’ has another episode to go, we are just hoping to see more of the AI, who could once again use her powers to wipe the bad guys off. All this while we’ve seen asking ourselves if Piper’s feelings are real. Maybe the answer is hidden in the next episode ‘Where You Belong’ which airs on ABC on December 10.
