Fate
Escaping The Train
After 5 episodes of shaky character motivations, lots of middling angst and scientific talk, it all boils down to this. The season 1 finale of Biohackers. The train has come to a stand-still and inside is a very shaky and confused Mia. (She’s now openly admitting that her name is Emma. For consistency purposes, we’ll continue to call her Mia). The doctor infront of her is Petra Eller and she’s from the University Clinic in Freiburg. It’s here Mia finally realizes what’s happened regarding the mosquitoes holding the virus. The Coxsackie virus to be precise. She urges the doctor to take everyone to the hospital as only then can they find a cure. Mia pleads with them desperately to help, throwing herself at this doctor. Believing she’s having a psychotic episode, she locks the door to the carriage and keeps her quarantined in the carriage. Instead, Mia decides to break open the window and sneak out.
Jasper’s Lab
Meanwhile, Lorenz smashes up a fridge of her own but calls it in to the police as an act of vandalism. As police cars wail past on the road, Mia urges Chen-Lu to meet her at the lab and reveals that Lorenz attacked them all on the train. That same train ends up as big news, as media reports claim that this was a terrorist attack. Back home, Chen-Lu rallies the troops (Lotta and Ole) to help her. With nowhere else to turn, Mia heads to Jasper’s lab to try and find an antidote. Only, Jasper shows up and snatches it from her. There, he reveals that he’s working with Lorenz and believes in her project for healing sick people. Given his jealousy toward Niklas and Mia hooking up, he smashes the vial and quickly phones the police, revealing the location of the “terrorist.” Time is certainly of the essence though and as armed guards race up to the lab, Mia’s friends arrive to help try and create an antidote. As police surround the area, the three teens sacrifice themselves while Mia sneaks away.
Jasper’s Betrayal
Mia heads straight up to the hospital and sneaks inside. There, she finds that same familiar doctor who realizes she was from the train. Mia shows her the vial and explains it’s an antidote to the virus. Handing it over, the doctor encourages Mia to write down her number and promises to phone if anything changes. Outside, Mia phones her contact and reveals that she has the DNA samples. Asking to meet, she awaits a reply as night draws in. Jasper meanwhile looks through Lorenz’s computer and starts studying the Homo Deus project. Looking through a list of different names, Lorenz eventually finds him in the basement. There, Jasper realizes that Lorenz hasn’t been wholly truthful and never did produce antibodies. Once again Jasper has been duped. Even worse, Lorenz uses this against him as police arrive at her door. She tells them Jasper is the one who vandalized the place as he’s forced to flee.
One Final Push For Salvation
In the morning, Mia learns that the antidote isn’t working. Instead, Lorenz used a mutated virus that won’t allow antibodies to work. Silently, she heads straight into Lorenz’s house and hands over the DNA samples, asking for the antibodies. Lorenz hasn’t produced any though. Instead she wants to provide better immune systems to her patients by using the Homo Deus research on the train passengers, essentially turning them into glorified guinea pigs. As she continues on, Lorenz has one more ace up her sleeve. She asks Mia to hand over the DNA samples in exchange for the research blood that could cure the patients at the hospital. Without much of a choice, Mia begrudgingly agrees to this. Back at the hospital, Mia manages to sneak in and inject the blood into the IVs of the different patients. When Niklas awakens, Mia gives him a kiss and watches as the other patients seem to have miraculously cured. As the doctors look on dumbfounded, Mia slips away.
The End…Until Season 2
Back home, Chen-Lu and Ole start kissing (I guess their off-screen romance really took off) while Mia returns to her room to mull over what’s happened. However, she receives an email with an attached zip file for the Homo Deus Study. “Mia. You were right.” The email states. As she opens it up, she realizes this was from Jasper and the research has not been completely destroyed after all. Mia phones her contact and asks to meet at the park by 6pm. There, she meets a shifty guy called Andreas Winter. He’s glad she’s continuing the work her Father started and promises she can trust him. After handing over the files, two masked goons snatch her up and bundle the girl in the back of the van. Tied up, she also finds Lorenz there too, whose also being kept captive which is where the episode ends.
The Episode Review
As Biohackers draws to a close, this German series stumbles and limps over the finish line despite a relatively promising opener. The entire action-packed drama here leaves little room for logic or plot continuity. Unless I missed something, how did the kids manage to get free from police custody after being captured? Even worse, the whole Chen-Lu and Ole romance has been completely under-developed and it would have been nice to see more screen-time for that. Instead, we get this stone cold romance between Niklas and Mia which feels like it came out of nowhere. That’s before even mentioning all the plot inconsistencies that rear their ugly head in this episode. Why didn’t anyone go to check on Mia in the train carriage? How has Mia managed to sneak into all these places and avoid detection? And how did Jasper get free from the train? Surely there would have been security footage the police would be checking so they could probably detect Jasper opening the jar and rushing away. Then again these questions may be answered if Netflix renew this for a second season. And that really is the kicker here. Whether people will get invested enough for that to manifest itself remains to be seen. There’s certainly enough to whet the appetite for a follow-up – namely with the big bad Andreas Winter – but not enough to be devastated if this isn’t renewed. Whether Netflix will green-light this or not remains to be seen but one thing’s for sure – this show is most certainly not the next German sci-fi sensation. Looking For Something To Watch After Biohackers? Click Here To Check Out Our 10 TV Recommendations!
