By Sorenya Miller
Score: 7.5/10
Have you seen the 2011 film Unknown, starring Liam Neeson? If you have, then you might notice some similarities between it and Biohackers Season 2. After the conclusion of Season 1, where Mia and Lorenz are kidnapped, Season 2 starts with Mia waking up to a new reality. In this new reality, Mia finally took down Lorenz, she has moved into a new apartment with her roommates, and is dating Jasper who tried to kill hundreds of people on a train. However, she has no recollection of the events that unfolded after her kidnapping.
The series’ pace drastically slows down and just like Mia, the audience has to follow a trail of breadcrumbs to uncover the truth. In addition, not many new characters appear on screen but the ones that do contribute to the plot significantly, such as Mia’s therapist, and Lotta’s family. It turns out that Lotta’s father, Baron von Furstenberg, has been the one funding Professor Lorenz’s unethical side research and was aware of Mia the entire time. Not only that, but Lorenz knows that he was the one behind her and Mia’s kidnapping.
After the fall of the mighty professor Lorenz, we finally get some development and backstory for her character. Lorenz is forced to reside with her mother after she loses everything, and their relationship is not the best. Eventually, Mia goes to Lorenz and asks her questions about the kidnapping and if she knew who was behind it. At first, Lorenz was reluctant to help Mia because she lost her life’s work to Mia exposing her. However, after considering that Mia might be the only one who can help her redeem herself, she agrees to help. The pair work with Jasper and Mia’s roommates, Ole and Chen-Lu, to work together to help Mia recover her memories and expose Baron von Furstenberg.
While trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, Mia starts to get sick, and occasionally gets nosebleeds and flashbacks. When she first visited the doctor everything was fine, but later she finds out that her brain is rapidly deteriorating. This was due to a project that Baron von Furstenberg and the journalist from Season 1, Andreas Winter, tried to develop called “Oblivion” which they tested on Mia. Oblivion was created to erase the memories of individuals and still keep them intact. Since Mia cannot get sick and has perfect antibodies, they thought she would have been the perfect test subject. This is a classic example of the wealthy using their influence and power to try and create something to disrupt or control humankind. This brought out a theme in the series; the power of the wealthy. Furstenberg controls the new reality of Mia’s life and even implants people in it to keep a closer eye on her. Not only that but Baron von Furstenberg is quite smart in his business deals, and he leaves no electronic trail of his shady investments. He thought he was smart because he kept written records, but that eventually turned out to be a mistake.
The series is nothing short of drama, especially the relationship between Jasper and Mia which was quite questionable. Jasper has done some very suspicious things, and him and Mia getting back together should have been the first red flag for Mia’s friends that she wasn’t herself. Although Jasper did explain to Mia that she had forgiven him, it was still weird seeing both of them together on screen. The show likes to create unexpected relationships among the characters and maybe throw off the audience a bit. For instance, Lotta and Niklas’ pairing was quite odd, also Mia and Lotta’s brother. However, it looked like the creators were trying to keep all the characters connected in some way. The actors for the show also had good chemistry and there were not many weird acting moments.
Another thing that we see portrayed is blind loyalty. When Lotta found out what her father was doing she still took his side. As expected the rich people are always going to stick together and nothing comes before family. Overall, Biohackers also revealed the dangers of science in the wrong hands. First it was Lorenz, who sacrificed innocent children so that she could find the perfect cure for diseases. Next it was Baron von Furstenberg and Andreas Winter trying to erase the minds of individuals and giving them a new reality. All in all Season 2 was still enjoyable to watch and the show had a lot of questions which were mostly all answered. Each episode had me wondering what was going to happen next, but the storyline was dragged out a tiny bit. Once again, I was left with another cliffhanger at the end. Now I can only hope that Netflix renews Biohackers for a third season.