Being part of the club of orphans in the series Raised by Wolves puts you in a not-so-small circle because it is worldwide but with a bizarre taste. The series produced by Ridley Scott (who directed the pilot) redefined any mention of “thinking outside the box”. It was so strange – and yet profound – that it spawned a cult like the antagonists who worship the Sun God, the Mithraics. I don’t even need to remember that I’m among them.

The series was only on air for two years, the two years of isolation in which discussing the end of the planet was even darker. Written by Aaron Guzikowski, the story revolves around a premise that seems simple but is quite the opposite.

A simple but complex plot

In a not-too-distant dystopian future, Earth was destroyed in a violent war between two groups: the theocratic Mithraics and the technocratic atheists. The two groups try to colonize the only planet where it is possible to have human life, Kepler-22b, and everything leads us to believe that mutual intolerance travels through time and space in an unchanged form. To make matters worse, stranger things (a phrase that is almost an understatement in Raised by Wolves) suggest that Kepler-22b is more hostile and dangerous than it appears, and the split only weakens everyone’s chance of survival.

Full of secrets and twists, the first season is told with some flashbacks that change the course of the story every time. First, we meet two androids, Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim), who arrive on Kepler-22b with nine human embryos, which were sent to grow without Faith and are the hope of humans. Mother is the leader, and Father obeys her, but some losses and threats make us cry and root for them, although there is something strange in the air.

The arrival of an “ark” of Mithraic settlers disturbs the couple’s peace. Religious fanatics, they are already in charge because on Earth they were the ‘winners’ and want to maintain the dynamics in Keppler-22b. In the group, we meet Marcus Drusus (Travis Fimmel) and his wife, Sue (Niamh Algar), who we soon discover are atheist fakers who stole other people’s identities to escape Earth.

You’d think Marcus and Sue would side with Mother and Father, but they hate androids and Mother is a reprogrammed Necromancer and Marcus only hates one thing more than Sol, and that’s androids. To make matters worse, Mother kidnaps the couple’s son (I’ll talk more about Paul) and this forces their hand to rescue the child.

What makes everything go wrong is that, upon hearing voices, Marcus suddenly converts and starts acting like a despot, forcing Sue to save Mother and run away with Paul. Everyone wants to go to a less arid area of the new Planet, where there is a human colony, and we end the season with Paul discovering that Sue and Marcus killed his parents and Marcus – isolated – gains powers.

Science or Faith: dangerous when they inspire fanaticism

The interesting thing about Raised by Wolves is playing Faith and Atheism as equal antagonists, with many religious elements mixed with SciFi. The downside is that the imagination is so free that we have bizarre scenes that only make sense to those who follow the plot. Do you want to try it?

Mother becomes pregnant and gives birth to a snake through her mouth, and the snake (Number 7) flies and attacks people. Voices from beyond transform Marcus into a dangerous fanatic and some beings come out of an acidic sea looking for human babies. A person turns into a tree and an android girl reveals herself to be a serial killer. We end with the resurrection of an ancient android, Grandmother, who deceives Mother and Father, while Marcus is kidnapped and crucified upside down, levitating goodbye to us. Got scared? I bet so.

Even with all that, Raised by Wolves was interesting. Having it canceled before concluding so many loose ends was a shame. Even as the transformations were beginning the forced partnership between Mother and Marcus was going to provoke an interesting twist.

Sue suffered the most traumatic fate of the entire series

The protagonists of Raised By Wolves are Marcus and Mother, practical, dangerous, and effective leaders, but always on opposite sides (even if with the same goals). Even before the soldier’s conversion to the faith he so rejected, he was horrified by the technology represented by Mother. Father and Sue were more empathetic, the characters who softened the conflict. Being Sue, she quickly became our favorite.

As we saw in the first season’s flashback, Mary (Sienna Guillory) and Caleb (Jack Hawkins) are two atheist soldiers who are looking for a way to escape the uninhabitable Earth. To gain entry to the Ark heading to Keppler 22-b, they hunt, kill, and steal the identities of Marcus (Travis Fimmel) and Sue (Niamh Algar), including their faces.

Marcus and Sue’s plan is to separate from the Mithraics as soon as arrive on the new planet, but, to their surprise, they have a son: Paul (Felix Jamieson) and now they will even have to deceive the child to avoid being killed. The arrival of the child changes the couple’s dynamics and objectives unimaginably.

Sue’s sweetness, the family I always wanted

The panic of dealing with Paul also comes up against the trauma of Sue’s past: she tried to have Marcus’s children but lost them all and began to believe she had no maternal skills. She is afraid to become attached to the child, especially since Paul is now an orphan thanks to the two of them, but the boy was practically ignored by his biological parents and becomes involved with the two fakers so that they are quickly no longer lying about truly feeling like family.

Paul’s religious fanaticism bothers them both, he plans to tell the truth when everyone is in a safe place. As they bump into Mother on the way and Paul is kidnapped, the truth is delayed and what was already difficult becomes more complex.

Sue, who is a doctor and therefore has everyone’s respect because they need her, is terrified of being exposed, but her fixation on her son puts everything at risk. Marcus suggests leaving Paul behind since he knows the boy won’t forgive them for killing his parents, but Sue doesn’t accept it and it’s on the rescue mission that their fate is definitively tied to Mother’s.

Marcus starts to hear voices and begins to believe he is the Messiah so his and Sue’s marriage quickly deteriorates. The two fight over the son, but she manages to escape with him once she partners with Mother.

Upon discovering the truth, Paul turns against Sue and seeks out Marcus, now a man with the same faith as him. But maternal love will be fatal for her.

The unexpected friendship with Mother

Among adult humans, Sue is the only empathetic one and, although suspicious of androids, she connects with Mother precisely because of the love they feel for their offspring.

When Paul is attacked and infected, Sue despairs because science finds no alternative to saving the child. It’s when in tears, she cries and prays. Sue offers herself in Paul’s place and miraculously he improves. The debt will be collected unexpectedly.

Mother is literally programmed to protect and love children, but she and Sue find in this ‘condition’ the common ground where they prioritize knowledge, Science, and technology, but only to take care of their children. Sue struggles to convince Paul of her love, but when he wakes up and asks them to meet the exiled (and dangerous) Marcus, she gives in. The mistake that will cost you dearly.

The tree of knowledge

Thanks to a box that accidentally ends up in Sue’s hands, she becomes the character with the most tragic fate in the entire series. Due to Sol or Keppler22-b’s forces, the doctor falls into a trap and… is transformed into a tree.

“She negotiated with Sol to…she wanted to protect Paul at all costs – ‘not hurt him. Whatever you want, just don’t hurt Paul,” Niahm commented in an interview. “She was sacrificed to save Paul,” she added.

The shock will become even greater soon, but here’s a comment on Niamh Algar’s sensitive interpretation of a character whose arc transformed her into a courageous leader, but also in the role she most wanted and left her insecure about that of mother. This unconditional love for a son who wasn’t even hers is moving and makes her fate even sadder.

When we discover off-screen what happened to Sue until she became the tree, it’s terrifying. “Aaron [Guzikowski] wrote that she was digging like a dog [laughs],” she recalled, explaining the physical difficulties of a harrowing scene. “If you actually pause the episode when she’s really digging, you’ll see blood running down my arm. I really went for it. I had blisters and cuts. So yes, there was a total commitment – really going for it. I felt like I was digging for my life,” she recalled.

We – Marcus and Paul – hoped there would be a return for Sue, but no. In a desperate attempt, anticipating what is yet to happen, she asks her son and husband to burn her, yes, to set the tree on fire but they hesitate because it means burning her alive. When they realize that she will be swallowed by the serpent, they try to respond, but it is too late. Sue is killed by Number Seven.

With the cancellation, the sacrifice was in vain

Sue’s unexpected death was one of the most bizarre moments in the entire series. Even traumatic. But it was a transformation of a murderer who somehow paid with her life for what she did to the real Sue and Paul. It was also the price of having embraced a faith that I wholeheartedly condemned.

The delayed consequence of Sue’s vain sacrifice was to bring Marcus back to “normal” and take away Paul’s fanaticism. They both understood, as we did, that it was an exaggerated sacrifice. Without even a third season to tie up all the ends, we are left with a tragic ending for Paul: orphaned twice. Just like us!

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