Raised by Wolves 204 review: “Control” brings things to a head

Things are getting serious this week on Raised by Wolves, the heady sci-fi drama from Aaron Guzikowski and veteran filmmaker Ridley Scott. Last week’s episodes left us with some pretty big cliffhangers: Father (Abubakar Salim) inadvertently discovered a way to revive an ancient android; Paul (Felix Jamieson), Campion (Winta McGrath) and Holly (Aasiya Shah) ditched their daily fruit-picking assignment to go warn Marcus Drusus (Travis Fimmel) and his Mithraic followers that the Atheists were coming for them; and lead android Mother (Amanda Collin) reconnected with her flying serpent baby, discovering that it is in fact not the blood-thirsty terror we all feared but a gentle herbivore.

Only on this show can all those different plot beasts exist coherently. Raised by Wolves is one of the boldest and weirdest sci-fi shows on the air right now, and its second season has been upping that ante in some pretty significant ways.

A head’s up: this review will contain SPOILERS for this week’s episode of Raised by Wolves. So if you haven’t watched it, go do that. Then come back and dig through all the nitty gritty with us.

Raised by Wolves 204: “Control” review

This season of Raised by Wolves has only eight episodes, as opposed to the first season’s 10. As a result, some of these episodes have been rather long and overstuffed. That is not the case this week. “Control” clocks in at right around 45 minutes, making it the shortest episode of the season so far. It’s also the biggest in terms of character deaths, major moments, and shifting dynamics. This is the halfway point of the season, and just like in season 1 — when that point was marked by Marcus and Sue defeating Mother and confiscating her eyeballs (which she needs to “weaponize,” and become the most dangerous thing on Kepler 22-b) — it totally rearranges the chess board. Except this time one of those major beats revolves around Mother getting said eyeballs backs in a great showdown between her and Marcus.

At the core of “Control” is an idea that we’ve seen brewing all season: that the Atheists are as awful as the Mithraic were last season, just in a different way. Raised by Wolves is great at slow burn arcs, and the climactic events here totally paid off this one.

After discovering the Atheist Collective was going after his “father” Marcus in the last episode, Paul rushes off to warn him with Campion and Holly in tow. The conversation between Marcus and Paul, where Paul reveals he knows Marcus isn’t his real father, was one I’ve been waiting for since basically the beginning of the show. It paid off my anticipation so, so well, including by addressing the irony of Paul hating his fake mother Sue. It turns out that’s because Sue is still an Atheist while Marcus has gone full zealot mode. Go figure.

The good vibes are short-lived, however, as Paul’s pet mouse — which was given back to him by the Trust last episode — breaks down in a puff of deadly spores. The Trust knew that Paul would run straight to Marcus, and used him to deliver a “biobomb” weapon to the Mithraic hideout. One of the zealots is killed and Paul is infected, breaking out in scaly hives that form a cocoon around his body.

This event is the turning point of “Control,” as various characters react to the fact that the Trust sacrificed one of Mother’s “children” to try and get at the Mithraic. As you might guess, she doesn’t take it well. After Campion runs back to warn her about what happened, Mother heads straight for the hideout and gets into a fight with Marcus…where she discovers that her eyes, which the zealot leader was forced to digest last season, are the cause of his newfound super strength. She takes them out using magnetism, pops them back into her eyesockets, and voila, she can once again fly and turn human beings into red mist with naught but a scream.

Her assault on the Atheist mother ship and subsequent deactivation of the Trust is some great edge-of-your-seat fare. It’s hard to make things compelling when you have a character who is so powerful that nothing can really harm them, but because it’s been so long since Mother was able to do her Necromancer thing, it was easy to get on board and root for her.

However, there are some writing and editing oversight issues that jarred me out of the episode. For instance, when Campion kills an aquatic humanoid creature that tries to drag his android crush Vrille (Morgan Santo) into the acid sea, he brutally smashes its head in with a rock…and there’s not a single mention of his dedication to pacifism, which was a huge plot point of season 1. I’m all for having characters change over time — that’s a mark of any good show — but it doesn’t feel as intentional as it should.

Raised by Bullet Points

• Father’s efforts to revive the ancient android paid off, and I’m excited to see how that continues next week. Campion thought this flying light-emitting being was Sol, but the final shot of the episode makes its identity clear. Although…could that android be Sol? The “deity” is certainly real from what we’ve seen on the show, so anything is possible.
• The design of the show continues to be wonderful. Raised by Wolves has an aesthetic that evokes classic ’70s and ’80s sci-fi while still feeling very much like its own thing, and it’s been great to see the Tropical Zone get so thoroughly explored this season. The medieval armor on space soldiers still throws me a bit, but there’s no denying it’s a bold choice.
• Sue had a quiet episode this week, mainly testing Mother to try and discover the truth about serpent-baby. But of course Paul would be brought to her for healing. It looks like next week she’ll be undergoing a crisis of faith as she tries to bring her adoptive son back from the brink.
• That scene where Vrille gets her face sliced off was brutal. A good ol’ dose of sci-fi horror. It was compelling and awful. I hope we haven’t seen the last of Vrille, though.
• Marcus and the Mithraic are developing in an interesting direction. Apparently the reason he’s gained all these followers was because the android eyes he ingested were infusing him with power. Now that Mother has reclaimed them, his followers are quick to start looking at him differently. Despite his fanatical devotion, Marcus has always gotten off most on having power and being revered. He can be seriously manipulative and dangerous, especially when he’s backed into a corner. Wherever that leads, the path will probably be paved with a few dead bodies.

The verdict

All in all, “Control” was perhaps the best episode of the season so far. There were still some issues, but they were mostly minor and didn’t detract too much from the viewing experience. The last couple of episodes of Raised by Wolves have largely revolved around the flying serpent, which featured only briefly in this one. The result is that “Control” was a much more grounded and focused episode that set the stage for the season’s back half. Mother is now back in business, and ruling the Atheist colony until a suitable human leader can be found. (Can there be any doubt she’s going to try to pick Campion?)

Grade: B+

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels