'Raised by Wolves' Episode 9: Is the show trying to convince us that Sol is real and cover up its weak writing?
Spoilers for 'Raised by Wolves' Season 1 Episode 9 'Umbilical'
As the series' unexplained mysteries grow increasingly dramatic, it feels like the show is definitely pushing the limits of our disbelief. By making the central figure of Mithraic faith Sol instead of the Judeo-Christian God, combined with and making the majority of the show's protagonists atheists, 'Raised by Wolves' has an interesting approach to the age-old story of those who are slowly losing their faith in a dark and corrupt world. On Keppler-22B, as things go from bad to worse, what we've been seeing happen to our protagonists is the slow creep back into faith. It's a risky move - especially as an attempt to erode an audience's disbelief comes dangerously close to losing an audience's suspension of disbelief as well.
There are a lot of things presented on the show that do not yet have an explanation even as the series reaches its penultimate episode - no explanation, that is unless you choose to believe that Sol exists and is manipulating events according to some mysterious plan. It should be noted that the show never asks its audience to start believing in Sol - it's just been presenting increasingly inexplicable things and the only thing thing that ties all of it together is a belief in an all-powerful being capable of miraculous things.
'Umbilical' escalates things and through the series we've been presented with what appear to be ghosts, prophecies coming true, resurrected mice, ethereal voices, an impossible virgin pregnancy for Mother (Amanda Collin), a mysterious object in the desert that judges the worthy and punishes the guilty and men empowered by the synthetic blood of androids. It's getting harder and harder to be able to comfortably say, "I'm sure there's a logical, scientific explanation for all of this" and that's a feature, not a bug.
A part of this show's story is illustrating the failings of atheism as much as the failings of organized religion and even someone as logical, calculating and anti-religious as Mother is finding herself bereft of explanations, turning to her belief in impossible things despite a lack of evidence. While many sci-fi stories examine the question of what could drive an android to love, 'Raised by Wolves' asks what could drive one to faith and thematically, it works, as long as you confine yourself to the framework of the story.
Unfortunately, unlike Sol, the show's actual creators are far from infallible. What may look like a miracle to some may look like a plot hole to many others. 'Raised by Wolves' wouldn't be the first series to present the unexplainable and it's always a risky business. What is the difference between a show whose themes are about having the unexplainable explained by faith and a show where the unexplainable is more simply explained by weak writing?
One of the biggest threats to the suspension of disbelief this episode was Ortho's (Brendan Murra/Adrian Schiller/Danie Janse van Rensburg) sudden transformation into a superpowerful being once Mother's android blood was transferred to him as if the androids' white blood was some kind of magic potion that has been underneath everyone's noses all along. The show seems to double down on this idea as Marcus (Travis Fimmel) is left to choke on Mother's Necromancer eyes and begins bleeding out white, not red - suggesting he will return more powerful than ever.
While the Mithraic may not fully understand how androids work, it's hard to believe that no one noticed the possibility that android blood would have a positive effect on humans. Androids are understood enough to be able to create more, have been examined in depth by those like Campion Sturges (Cosmo Jarvis), and somehow in all this, the only explanation we're given as to how this works is Otho's mention of "your power is now mine." It's something that works thematically, but 'Raised by Wolves' isn't a world that works on magic - unless you choose to believe in Sol.
That's a legitimate take to have and something the show seems to want its viewers to conclude - either to reveal that Sol is real after all or to pull out the rug from beneath everyone when the long-awaited logical, scientific explanation is revealed. There is, however, only so much hand-waving the series can do before it stops being clever and starts looking like weak writing.
The next episode of 'Raised by Wolves' airs October 1, on HBO Max.
