Real Humans

***Äkta människor*** (English title: ***Real Humans***) is a 2012 Swedish science fiction/drama series set in an alternate near-future version of Sweden where consumer-level humanoid robot workers and servants are widespread. The series follows the resulting emotional effects on two families as well as the trials of a group of robots who have attained free will and want their freedom from human ownership.

It premiered on SVT 1 on 22 January 2012. The series was written by Lars Lundström and directed by Harald Hamrell and Levan Akin. As of 2013, the series has been sold to about 50 countries, including Australia, France, Germany, and South Korea. A second season of ten episodes premiered on SVT1 in October 2013. In April 2013 the official *Real Humans* Facebook page posted a message that Lars Lundström is currently writing the third series, but as of August 2014, SVT is yet to officially announce whether the series will be renewed for a third season. In November 2014, Lundström said in an interview with Festival Court Métrange, "We have planned for a third season, we have written a whole outline and some scripts, but right now it's in a decision making (sic) if it's going to happen or not, because we have problem to fund the budget money. In a couple of weeks, maximum a month, we know, but I'm sorry to say, I'm not very optimistic."

## Setting

The story takes place in Sweden present time in a parallel universe, where the use of consumer-level androids is commonplace. The androids, known as *hubots*, are used as servants, workers, and company. While some people embrace this new technology, others are frightened by what can happen when humans are replaced as workers, company, parents, and even lovers. A far-right political movement against the spread of hubots calls itself "real humans", with some members using the derogatory term "Pacmans" to refer to hubots.

Specific models are designed for various roles, each with different features. Hubots are usually programmed to recognise and obey their owner and can learn skills and pick up knowledge through observation of humans. Hubots have become common in many workplaces, especially for repetitive tasks, and have replaced human workers there.

Though they are designed to look like humans in every way, hubots are usually easy to recognise as they have bright flawless skin, glossy hair and unnaturally bright (usually very blue or very green) eyes. All Hubots also have a USB-like port, in either the back of the neck or in their lower back, which is used for programming and data. The button to activate or de-power a hubot is located under the left armpit, as is a standard wall plug cord for recharging purposes. Hubots require only electricity to survive and must recharge regularly, during which they enter a sleep-like state. Their skin feels similar to human skin and is kept at body temperature but beneath the skin, they have metal components and contain a blue fluid/lubricant known as HubFluid.

Hubots are designed to be docile and obedient and are programmed with a set of rules called "Asimov" protocols that prevent them from harming humans. However, some hubots have been modified beyond the legal protocols to function as lovers or bodyguards. Such practices are illegal in Sweden and those who modify the programming of the hubots are known as "home-brewers". A small, low-funded branch of the police is set up to investigate hubot related crimes, known as E-HURB. Hubot-human sexual activity is taboo but not uncommon and many hubots are programmed for limited sexual activity. Those who pursue sexual relationships with hubots are derisively called "Hubbies".

Further to this, some hubots (those reprogrammed by hubot creator David Eischer) have started to develop feelings, desires and their own goals as their programming has allowed them to develop free will and independence from humans. A hubot programmed to contain the memories of David mentions that this code is designed to process multiple emotions at the same time and try to balance them as opposed to the one emotion at a time code that normal hubots have. However, they are still often naive and unworldly and sometimes fail to understand the nuances of complex human behaviour.

## Cast

### **The Engman Family**

* Pia Halvorsen (sv), Inger Engman, a mother and lawyer
* Johan Paulsen (sv), Hans Engman, Inger's husband
* Natalie Minnevik (sv), Matilda Engman, the eldest Engman child who works in a supermarket
* Kåre Hedebrant, Tobias Engman (nicknamed "Tobbe"), a teenage school student
* Aline Palmstierna (sv), Sofia Engman, the youngest Engman daughter
* Sten Elfström, Lennart Sollberg, Inger's father who lives alone with his Hubot companion(s)
* Alexander Stocks (sv), Odi, Lennart's much beloved hubot companion
* Anki Larsson (sv), Vera, a less genial hubot designed to look after Lennart's health in old age
* Lisette Pagler, Anita, a hubot that Hans purchases for the family (see Mimi)

### The Children of David Eischer

* Andreas Wilson, Leo Eischer, David's son (in flashback 10-year-old Leo is played by Romeo Altera (sv))
* Eva Röse, Niska, David Eischer's main hubot assistant, de facto leader of the "free" hubots
* Lisette Pagler, Mimi, a hubot with free will that seems to have feelings for Leo (see Anita)
* David Lenneman (sv), Fred, a hubot with free will
* André Sjöberg, Gordon, a hubot with free will
* Josephine Alhanko, Flash (Florentine), a hubot with free will
* Saunet Sparell (sv), Marylyn, a hubot with free will
* Christopher Wagelin (sv), Max, a hubot who does not yet have free will

### The Engman's Neighbours

* Camilla Larsson, Therese, Neighbour of the Engmans and friend of Inger's
* Leif Andrée, Roger, Therese's husband who works in a warehouse, is adoptive father to Kevin and is sceptical of hubots
* Fredrik Silbersky (sv), Kevin, Therese's son
* Johannes Bah Kuhnke (sv), Rick, Therese's hubot

### Other major characters

* Thomas W. Gabrielsson, David Eischer, Leo's father and the programmer who created the code that allows hubots to attain free will
* Marie Robertson, Beatrice "Bea" Novak, female detective with E-HUB, may have a secretive past...
* Ola Wahlström (sv), Ove Holm, a male detective with E-HUB
* Jimmy Lindström (sv), Malte Koljonen, a volatile anti-hubot activist
* Anna Sise (sv), Pilar, Therese's best friend who works at a gym
* Rennie Mirro (sv), Bo, Pilar's hubot
* Måns Nathanaelson, Jonas Boberg, owner of the hubot retail store "Hubot Market"[*what is Jonas's relationship to David?*]
* Dan Ekdahl (sv), Arnold, Jonas' hubot
* Peter Viitanen (sv), Silas, a thief, trafficker and illegal modifier of hubots
* Sofia Bach (sv), Asa, the pastor and wife to Eva. She believes the hubots won't harm anyone.
* Ellen Jelinek (sv), Eva, the vicar's wife who is not fond of hubots
* Shebly Niavarani, Henning, Inger Engman's manager at the lawfirm
* Niklas Jarneheim (sv), Magnus, Inger Engman's colleague at the lawfirm

## Story

The show follows several characters at once through intertwining stories and is told partially through flashback. These characters are roughly divided into ten distinct subset of people/groups/families around which the story revolves back and forth in each episode.

* **Engman Family** (mother, father, elder daughter, son, younger daughter)
* **Engman Family Grandfather** (mother's father living alone with hubots)

* **Engman Neighbour Husband** (Roger, living alone after Theresa departs)
* **Engman Neighbour Wife** (Theresa who leaves Roger and settles in a new home with son Kevin and family Hubot)

* **Children of Escher Group 1** (under the control of Niska, always on the move)
* **Children of Escher Group 2** (Leo and an Escher Hubot who split from Group 1 to search for the kidnapped Mimi)

* **Jonas and the Hubot Market** (operated by Jonas Boberg)
* **Silas** (Silas operates from a shady warehouse along with a hubot assistant)

* **E-HURB Detectives** (Ove and Bea, as they chase after the Group 1 hubots from one place to the next)
* **Intelligence Services** (who have been pursuing the Escher hubots independently)

### **Episodes 1–3**

Leo Eischer leads a group of free hubots reprogrammed to be capable of emotion, desires and free will. The group includes Mimi, Niska, Fred, Gordon, Flash, Marylyn and Max. They are on the run fighting for freedom and electrical recharging while being sought by the police. Mimi is kidnapped by a pair of black marketeers (led by Silas) and illegally reprogrammed and sold on to the manager of the "Hubot Market" retail store, Jonas. Driven by their history, Leo, himself half-human half-hubot, goes on a mission to find her accompanied by Max. Leo instructs the others head to a nearby church without him with the intention of asking the vicar there for sanctuary. In Leo's absence, Niska assumes the role of leader of the group and shows that she is completely ruthless by secretly killing two humans to eliminate witnesses of their recent recharging. From the remains, the police deduce that hubots may be involved in the double murder.

Hans Engman goes to the Hubot Market retailer to buy his father-in-law Lennart a replacement for his hubot companion Odi, which has a malfunction. Lennart is very attached to Odi and reluctant to replace him. Jonas, the manager, sells Hans an expensive nurse model (Vera) by sealing the deal with an additional free hubot. Hans' wife and busy lawyer Inger reluctantly agrees to the family trying the hubot, which they call Anita, unaware that it's the reprogrammed Mimi. The different members of the Engman family react differently to Anita, their first hubot. Inger demands that Anita should be treated as a part of the family and not like a slave or appliance. Their teenage son Tobias ("Tobbe") struggles with his sexual attraction to Anita whilst their youngest daughter Sofia sees her as a friend.

Meanwhile, rather than let Odi be destroyed and recycled at the disposal facility, Lennart stashes his ex-companion in his basement. Later he's disappointed with the new hubot Vera, matronly yet sinister, who sabotages his preferred lifestyle of red wine, lasagne and mild fun on health grounds and cleans incessantly. Behind Vera's back, he turns secretly to reactivating his old companion Odi.

The Engmans' neighbour Roger works at a warehouse where hubots are replacing more and more labor. He is sour and surly about this increasingly inhuman workplace and the affection his wife Therese shows for their hubot Rick. After Roger hits her, Therese leaves him and takes away her son, Kevin, to whom Roger is an adoptive father. Following encouragement from her friend Pilar, Therese begins an affair with Rick.

Niska and the free hubots reach the church and are taken in by the vicar who invites them to stay in her attic. Though the vicar is trusting towards the hubots, her wife is much more reluctant and worried about the situation. As they recharge in the attic and read, Gordon becoming increasingly inspired by the Bible and Flash dreams of marriage and family life with a human man.

Following the break-up, Roger's hatred for hubots festers and he heads out to an anti-hubot political meeting. There he meets an extremist (Malte) who wants to begin terrorist attacks in order to free society from hubots. Malte and Roger conspire together with an E-HURB police detective Bea to take stronger action. Together, the three of them conspire to build a bomb and detonate it at the Hubot Market store at night. Malte uses his contacts within the postal service to track down Therese for Roger and Roger confronts Therese at the flat, again attacking her.

When EHURB detectives Bea and Ove search the vicar's house looking for the murderers, the lesbian vicar and her wife lie to them in order to hide the hubots. Bea finds the free hubots in the attic but allows them to remain hidden.

Lennart dreams of escaping from the nagging of Vera and longs to go fishing again. He reactivates Odi and they slip out of the house and escape, with Odi driving.

### **Episodes 4–6**

Pursued by a police car for speeding, Odi crashes the car. Lennart tells him to hide in the woods and wait for him to return, and is himself taken away in the police car. Lost and alone, Odi is abducted by Silas (the hubot trafficker who abducted Mimi) and reprogrammed. Lennart lies to his family about what happened and resolves himself to live contently with Vera.

Therese seeks to have Rick reprogrammed illegally so he is capable of protecting her from Roger - and being fun in bed. It is Leo (working undercover at a Hubot brothel) who agrees to upgrade Rick. He programs him to have complete free will. When Roger returns to try and court Therese, carrying flowers and all cleaned up. Rick punches him, to Therese's delight.

It is revealed that Bea is a free hubot herself, who disguises herself as a human through the use of make up and contact lenses. She has infiltrated the police, and the anti-hubot extremists, but has no apartment and squats in other apartments in order to recharge. She communicates with Niska online, and it is apparent that the two of them are coordinating their plans. She gives her police partner, Ove, a birthday present of a keyring in the shape of a 1950s-imagined robot.[*need to explain files hidden in the keyring*]

It is revealed through flashback that all of the free hubots are the "children" of David Eischer, Leo's father. David altered the programming of the hubots to give them free will, emotions and their own desires. In the flashbacks Mimi is shown living with David and young Leo, and Leo's mother, who is the image of Bea. Leo's mother apparently drowned whilst swimming. Leo jumped into the lake to try to rescue her but all but drowned himself and was rescued by Mimi. With Leo in intensive care and sure to die, David illegally uses hubot technology to turn Leo into a semi-hubot to save him. As a result, Leo also has a port in his side and must charge himself in order to live. All of David Eischer's "children", including Leo, have a distinctive tattoo of the initials DB (Swedish, "Davids Barn" = "David's Child") on their forearms.

Malte and Roger travel to Hubot Market in the dead of night to carry out their terrorist attack. Leo is inside the building interrogating the manager, Jonas, on the location of Mimi. Jonas is badly injured and horribly scarred, but Leo escapes.

Therese and Pilar are shocked that their hubot lovers Rick and Bo are denied entry to a nightclub. They ask Inger to take a discrimination case against the nightclub. The case does not go to trial, as the opposing lawyer threatens to expose the fact that Therese and Pilar have had Rick and Bo illegally modified.

By questioning Anita, eldest daughter Mathilda finds that Anita sometimes experiences memories of her former life. Through software controls, Mathilda is able to restore Mimi's personality and memories. Recording some fragmentary details of Mimi's previous existence, Mathilda returns Mimi back to being Anita again and reveals what she has learnt to her mother, Inger.

Lennart meets a flirtatious lady friend at an art class but suffers a minor heart attack and is only saved by the quick response of Vera. Following this incident, he learns that his insurance policy allows for him to have hubot-copy of himself made to comfort relatives in case of bereavement. He considers this option.

When the flat that Bea is squatting in is disturbed, she is forced to recharge at the police station and her identity as a hubot is uncovered by her colleague Ove. She is forced to abandon her role as a police officer. In order to find new shelter and electricity, she meets Roger and claims to have left her abusive partner. By beguiling Roger and implying that the two of them might form a relationship, Roger allows her to move in with him. Following the successful terrorist attack, Malte has become paranoid and unstable and threatens both Roger and Bea.

Following the double-murder and the terrorist attack the State Counter Espionage agency is concerned about the possibility of self-determining hubots spreading their ability to the domesticated versions and becomes involved in matters at E-HURB. Unable to recharge, Leo collapses whilst on the way to the Engman house to rescue Mimi. He is arrested by police and taken into custody by the Counter-Espionage Agency. Aware that Inger is the owner of Mimi, he requests that Inger be his lawyer. Tobbe continues to struggle with his sexual attraction to Anita, having found the sexual activity plug-in chip that came in Anita's packaging hidden in a book case. Resisting temptation, Tobbe reveals that he has found the chip when speaking to his father, Hans. As a result, Hans comforts Tobbe and throws away the chip.

Now that Rick is developing his individuality, he becomes a much more satisfying lover to Therese but is also starting to become headstrong and arrogant. This manifests in asking Therese for better clothes, propositioning sex with her in the changing room and slipping out of the house to hang out at the mall. Therese's son Kevin begins to resent Rick's presence in the house.

At the vicar's house, Flash causes some offence to the Vicar's wife with a homophobic slur (Flash dreams of family life and finds homosexual couples disturbing). Following this incident, Flash leaves the house in the night to find her own life. Meanwhile Gordon has talked of his new found faith with the vicar and attends church but the congregation do not accept him and throw him out of the church. When the vicar's wife threatens to call the police, Niska threatens her with a knife and cuts the phone line. She flees the house in terror.

### **Episodes 7–9**

Therese's son Kevin leads a gang of youths who sexually assault Anita whilst she is walking through an underpass. Though they run when they see Tobbe arriving, Kevin calls Tobbe in order to threaten him into keeping quiet about this to his parents. Later, Kevin's friends upload the video of the assault onto the internet.

Roger returns to work to find that, as he suspected would eventually happen, he has been made redundant and replaced by a hubot which he must now train to replace him. As the hubot needles him for taking additional breaks, he attacks the hubot with a golf club and smashes it around the head, breaking it.

Malte is shown hypocritically visiting a hubot brothel.

Lennart continues his relationship with Solveig, the woman from art class. Solveig, being a free spirit and shoplifter clashes with and mocks the strict Vera.

Now that Bea is living with Roger, she arranges for Niska and the free hubots to move into Roger's cellar without his knowledge and recharge using the connections there. Malte visits the house to retrieve something he left in the cellar but actually tries to shoot himself there. Beatrice and Niska manage to stop him without Roger or Malte realising that Niska or the other hubots are there. Malte breaks down and reveals that he has become mentally unstable. Roger agrees to let Malte stay there overnight, partly for fear he will reveal their role in the Hubot Market bombing if he goes to the hospital. Malte is not sure but thinks he remembers when Niska took the gun from his hands.

Though Leo refuses to speak to Inger unless they can be alone and unmonitored, Inger recognises that the mark on Leo's arm matches the mark on Anita's (as spotted by Mathilda). Based on what Mathilda has told her about Anita's memories as Mimi, Inger realises that Leo and Anita are linked. Based on this and the assault, Inger decides that Anita should no longer leave the house though she hides her reasons from Hans.

Angered by the assault on Anita and the online video, Tobbe attacks Kevin with a baseball bat whilst he is spraying graffiti. When Hans and Inger become aware of the online video, they scold Tobbe for not telling them what really happened to Anita. When they realise what Kevin and Tobbe have done, Hans and Inger quarrel over what to do next, with Hans believing that they should sell Anita to avoid future trouble. Kevin and Tobbe are forced to insincerely apologise to each other.

Living alone, Flash is forced to beg for money in order to use the public recharging stations. When she is spotted by Silas (the hubot trafficker who abducted Mimi and Odi), she is naively tricked into going with them by promises of free energy and new clothes. Silas recognises that she is independent and rather than reprogramming her, manipulates her into sex. He then puts Flash and Odi to work as prostitutes.

Leo is painfully interrogated by the Intelligence service. Later, Inger is not allowed to see Leo and is told the case is closed. Ove, an EHURB detective, tells her that the intelligence services intend to kill Leo in order to carry out an autopsy on his robotic brain. Through research, Inger discovers that Leo should be dead and that his father David is listed as a suicide. By threatening to go public over the case, Inger is allowed to see Leo again. Leo refuses to talk about his past but tells Inger that she should keep Mimi/Anita safe at all costs. He writes a note and asks her to show it to Mimi and get Mimi to memorise it before destroying the paper.

In flashback we see how Bea is the hubot-copy of Leo's mother. David (Leo's father) reconsiders his decision to order the copy and decides not to activate her. Acting alone, Niska activates Bea and reprograms her to have free will and emotions. She tells Bea to leave and go out into the world, ready to help for when David Eischer's free hubots escape his house. With only a roll of money, Bea catches the bus into town.

As Malte's attempted suicide was a close call with regards to their presence being discovered, the Hubots plan their next move. Niska argues that their best tool is violence (murder Roger and Malte and continue to hide out in the house) whilst Bea argues their greatest tool is love (continuing to beguile and/or seduce Roger). As Bea is the most experienced of the hubots in judging human nature, they side with her plan. Gordon misses Flash deeply and his comments on love illustrate how Niska and Bea's understanding of love is flawed.

Tobbe, encouraged by Hans, tries to start a relationship with a girl at school. However, the relationship does not work out as Tobbe still has feelings for Anita. Declaring his love for Anita, Anita does not know how to react and is unaffected by his declaration. Hans encourages Tobbe to see a therapist about his confused feelings for Anita, which he does, though it brings him no solace.

From talking to Roger, Bea learns that Roger continues to resent hubots. When telling Roger that she returns his love, Roger does not believe her because he senses she is insincere. However, in the evening Bea leaves candles and rose petals and waits for him in a silk night dress in order to seduce him. When Roger arrives, she reveals that she is a hubot but says she loves him. Roger is shocked but accepts this and they spend the night together.

Rick is becoming more arrogant and possessive and refuses to let Pilar and Therese go out drinking alone. Following an argument, Therese and Pilar de-power Rick and Bo in order to go out. Following this, Rick is angered and continues to argue with Therese. Therese and Pilar discuss Rick's growing arrogance and are concerned that a regular government hubot check up will uncover the illegal reprogramming that they have ordered for their Hubots. Whilst they are discussing this, Rick and Bo slip out of Therese and Pilar's place of work (a gym) in order to try to chat up women at the mall. Though Bo does not have the same degree of autonomy as Rick, he follow's Rick's lead in disobeying his owner. After talking to some girls, however Bo becomes worried and returns to Pilar. Rick instead decides to obsessively follow the girl he was trying to chat up despite being rejected. Running out of energy, he collapses at the side of the road. He is collected and taken to the Hubot recycling centre, where Therese collects him.

When Inger returns home, she realises that an intelligence agent has stolen her phone and wallet from her bag, which means that they also have the recording of her discussion with Leo that she recorded on her phone. However, the note from Leo is safe. Inger and Mathilda switch Anita back to Mimi's personality and give her Leo's note to memorise, which seems to be some kind of computer code. In flashback through Leo's memories we see that this is the final section of source code for the "free" hubot programming which his father David told to him. David gave the rest of the code to Niska on a hard disk. He split the code between them to encourage Niska and Leo to work together for the common good. It is implied that Bea may have made a copy of Niska's hard drive at some point.

Following a warning from her boss that the intelligence services are seizing all of their legal files, Inger feels that she needs to take immediate action to protect Mimi. After suggesting they take Mimi somewhere else, Hans objects. Inger and Hans clash with Inger seeing Mimi/Anita as part of the family and Hans wanting to keep his wife and children safe. Whilst they are arguing, Mimi disappears from the house. In the morning, the authorities come to search for Mimi and Hans leaves with Sofia to go to a hotel and keep both of them safe. Inger meets with the policeman Ove who explains what the security services are trying to cover up. He gives Tobbe the "robot" keyring that Bea gave him to illustrate how these free hubots are capable of free thought.

In the morning, Malte also discovers that Bea is a hubot. As he begins to shout, Niska and the others come out from the basement and reveal themselves. Malte flees and drives away in fear and Bea introduces them as her friends. Roger stays put but is intimidated by their presence. Niska tells him, "Welcome to *our* house". Niska follows Malte to his mother's house just as the police are waiting to arrest him over the bombing. Niska gets to Malte first and kills him. Bea tells Roger about her dream of free hubots becoming the dominant species and (perhaps insincerely) that the human friends and lovers of the hubots will have their lifespans extended by being hybridised with hubot technology.

Later, Kevin visits Roger and is surprised to find so many people in the house. Roger introduces Bea as his girlfriend but lies about their nature as hubots and says that they are guest workers to Sweden who he is boarding. Roger makes Kevin phone his mother and explain where he is. Therese is frustrated that Kevin would want to see Roger but Kevin tells he that he cannot live in the same house as Rick any more. Therese tells Kevin that she will indeed get rid of Rick in order to make him happy again. With Pilar's help, she contacts the human trafficker (the same one who now "owns" Odi and Flash) in order to sell Rick. She tricks Rick into leaving the house with her in order to take him to the trafficker, where he is de-powered and sold.

Bea and Niska phone and go to meet Ove the E-HURB detective in order to bribe/threaten him into giving them the location and entry key to go to rescue Leo. Ove complies and gives them everything they wanted, plus his keys to the building which are on the robot keyring that Bea gave him. However, Beatrice turns her gun on Niska and kills her. She returns the set of keys and their files to Ove for safekeeping and burns Niska's body.

### **Episode 10**

Whilst Bea and Niska are away, Fred asks Gordon to help him locate the hard drive. Fred believes that Niska and Bea want to use the "free" hubot code on the hard drive to free all hubots which Fred believes will lead to a disastrous war and persecution of hubots. Overhearing Fred and Gordon, Kevin figures out that the guests in the house are all hubots and runs to wake and tell Roger. Roger tells Kevin some of what has happened and they decide to take action to try to sell the hubots in the house to get rid of them (Roger refuses to call the police due to his involvement in the bombing). They lock Fred in one room and manage to de-activate Gordon. Fred breaks free and tries to explain that he is on Roger's side (in wanting to stop Bea) but Kevin smashes his head off with a baseball bat.

The doctor who is tending to Leo's wounds decides to help him to escape the intelligence agency's facility by running the security camera on a loop and slipping him a set of keys.

Bea breaks into the intelligence facility (not knowing Leo has already escaped) just as it is going into lock down. A dead body of a woman in her underwear is discovered in building with no explanation. By phoning in a bomb scare to the building, she ensures the building is evacuated so that she can hack into their computer records. By re-running security footage, she sees Leo escaping with the doctor. She escapes the facility in a body bag intended for the dead woman.

Following the bombing of his Hubot Market store, Jonas decides to try to profit from what has happened. His father was friends with David Eischer and he is able to identify Flash as an Eischer hubot through her arm tattoo. Jonas and Silas together negotiate to sell Flash to the security services. The security services assume that it is Mimi they are selling. However, they double cross both Silas and Jonas and arrest them both. With Silas arrested, Flash steals his stash of money and, buying new clothes, infiltrates a high society party to try to find the dream human husband she has always wanted.

We see that Leo managed to find Mimi at the Engman's house and now both of them are lying low near the train tracks. He tells Mimi that he loves her and the purpose of the piece of code he sent her on the note. Mimi recharges Leo with her own power and wants to take him to hospital. However, in great and constant pain, Leo has become suicidal. The security services soon track them down and Mimi escapes whilst Leo is handcuffed to a train car. Whilst the agent is chasing Mimi, Bea finds him. Leo is overwhelmed to see his mother's face again. Deliriously, he gives her the final part of the code. Then Bea, continues what Leo was trying to start and short circuits his electrical system, killing him. Beatrice and the intelligence agent shoot each other in a stand off but whilst the intelligence agent is killed, Bea is only damaged. She escapes once more.

Lennart suffers another heart attack and with Vera's help is hospitalized. Sofia spots Odi on the way to the hotel (Odi is again on the street as a male prostitute). She runs to hug him and Odi recognises and greets Sofia and Hans. On hearing the news about Lennart, all of the Engmans rush to the hospital, taking Odi with them. Lennart is overjoyed to see Odi again and Odi consoles him during his final hours. Following this, Hans and Inger repair their differences.

Roger and Kevin sit waiting with baseball bats to see if Bea or Niska will return but they do not. Roger and Kevin have bonded over their struggle. In flashback, we see that David Eischer planned to (with Niska's help) transfer his consciousness into a hubot body, though this seems to fail. At the time, David had doubts about Niska's role in the project and believes she may not have acted honestly. Following David's death, Niska burns the house to the ground so that the hubots can escape and live free with Leo on the run.

The Engmans are shocked to find that Mimi has returned to live with them, though they welcome her back into the family. Meanwhile, Tobbe finds that the Robot keyring is in fact a memory stick. He plugs the stick into his computer and apparently the code starts to auto-run.

## Reception

The first season of the program received glowing reviews. Io9's Charlie Jane Anders called the program "startlingly beautiful", disturbing and "creepy as hell". *The Australian*called it "the best science fiction to hit the small screen in a long time". Joe Hubris called it "the best android story ... since *Blade Runner*".

## Future developments

The rights to an English-language version of the programme were sold to Kudos Film & Television, and the format rights and international distribution to Shine Limited. Called *Humans*, the English-language version debuted in 2015 on Channel 4 in the UK and AMC in the US and Canada.