Raised by Wolves Review: Umbilical (Season 1 Episode 9)
Sol’s favor is a fickle thing on Raised by Wolves Season 1 Episode 9, “Umbilical,” as Marcus learns the hard way.
Marcus’ cruelty and dictator style has put a finite limit on his leadership, but the turn against him comes sooner than originally thought. Once he puts Hunter in harm’s way and murders a Mithraic soldier simply for voicing his concerns, all bets are off and his leadership has failed.
But what’s interesting is that he still believes he’s untouchable at the very end. Marcus has grown so disillusioned that he believes that his followers will not turn on him, and that Sol will protect him no matter what. He has bought into his own hype to a certain degree, and only death can cure it.
But is it death? The orb-like substance that Lucius forces into his mouth acts almost like a cyanide tablet, maybe in case of capture, and the foaming certainly looks like the same effect.
As is the case on Raised by Wolves, though, the dead can come back in mysterious ways, and maybe this is just a slow-acting poisoning agent that he can still beat somehow.
Plus losing Travis Fimmel with a finale and a second season to come will hurt a little, as he’s been gracing the show with a fantastic, unhinged performance.
Besides, there feels like there is a little bit of unresolved tension between Marcus and Sue, where their connection has a better function for emotional and story catharsis than simply leaving him to die in the desert.
There’s always the possibility that the dead can come back in mysterious ways, and so maybe Marcus will become a haunting image not unlike Tally that Sue and others will now have to contend with.
All the same, the voice of Sol appears to have shifted to Paul. He’s been voicing his belief in Sol more and more, especially since his mouse returned to him, and his destruction of the silver cards is a sign he’s doing as the voice says without regard.
It will be interesting to see if the show shifts to a style where it’s Campion against Paul, which feels like the natural progression. Believers against non-believers, and stretching that out over generations, could do Raised by Wolves well, but that may be looking too far ahead from where we are now.
There’s also the fact that Sol seems to hop pretty frequently, given how fast Marcus loses the voice, and so it’s possible Paul will lose this power before too long, as well.
The silver cards mentioned earlier appear to react to Mother and produce visions, and the one vision is rather creepy for what it entails.
Is the creature locked inside a box (of a similar shape to the orb the Mithraic find) potentially what Mother’s child will look like, or is that a vision of the future, of possibly more Mithraic that are coming?
We don’t know if it’s a human baby yet, though it could be a result of the sex scene with the digital Earth Campion from Raised by Wolves Season 1 Episode 6, “Lost Paradise,” which has even more ramifications. Is this the Ark’s computer or something from her memory bank that has produced this, or something else entirely?
We still don’t know for certain what is giving everyone images of Tally, or why Marcus and Paul only hear the voice of Sol (or what they think is Sol), or where the strange sphere has come from. We also don’t quite know who the runaway is from Raised by Wolves Season 1 Episode 5, “Infected Memory.”
After taking flight from the cave, they could be the ones who place the cards at the caves, and so the imprint and digital nature of them add to this mysterious stranger’s skilfulness.
But one thing is for certain: Niamh Algar shines on this episode. As Sue, she has been spending a lot of the show battling Marcus and trying to do what’s right for Paul.
Here, she’s in command and while she’s reluctant, is starting to accept this new world order. She bonds with Mother, and it’s a wonderfully touching moment where she sees the care of Mother’s child as her way of accepting an android she’s been trained to hate.
It takes some doing to get there, though. The confrontation scene is great for Algar, as Sue finds it nearly incomprehensible that the children are protecting a danger while also learning that androids, at least in Mother’s case, can reproduce.
It’s like her entire world is turning upside down while she faces her prejudices, all during a single moment.
Father is back! I didn’t expect it to be such an emotional moment when Campion sees him again as his old self. It’s a testament to the writers and to both Abubakar Salim and Winta McGrath, as they make their reunion this heartfelt juxtaposition to the creepy chase in the woods on the previous episode.
Hunter and Father make a good team, too, so hopefully their friendship continues.
Raised by Wolves Season 1 Episode 9, “Umbilical,” also brings back the monstrous rapist as its villain, where his towering stature and workaround for the android head in the backpack make for a devastatingly clever enemy.
It’s perfect to have Tempest be the one to finally put him down, a great and triumphant moment for her to take back her power from him. These are the sorts of areas where Raised by Wolves really land with impact, and hopefully with the finale and the second season, it can keep that great momentum moving.
What did you think of this episode of Raised by Wolves? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Raised by Wolves streams Thursdays on HBO Max.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.
6 comments
I believe the “orb” we see is one of Mother’s eyes. That power her a necromancer form. Hence the white Android blood coming out of Marcus’s mouth at the end. But maybe it will power him up like it did Otho? We shall see!
I hadn’t even considered that, good catch! That would be a fun way to keep Marcus around.
It was definitely Mother’s eyes – Marcus was wearing them in her original pouch around his neck. They very clearly take it off his neck and put it down his throat!
Definitely my mistake, from the screener (which can be a little dark at times) it looked like it came from the pendant.
Yeah, its interesting to think about the power those eyeballs have! Lucius pulls it out of that little brown bag that Mother keeps her eyes in and if you look close you can see it does look like an eye in a couple of shots.
Wondering why they couldn’t use the blood from prisoner Otho whose skull was crushed – Mother used blood from the creature which she killed, so what was wrong with using the blood the prisoner supposedly took back?
Anyway another intriguing episode, sad to discover there’s only one ep left! Bring back 26 episode seasons, I say, this 10 or fewer ep business is just way way waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too short.
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