This recap of Biohackers season 1, episode 2, “Secrets”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Check out our spoiler-free season review.
Biohackers episode 2 opens with young Mia — or is it young Emma now? — at what seems to be some kind of vigil, during which she overhears an argument between a man and a woman who we have to assume at this point is Dr. Lorenz. “Secrets” offers no confirmation at this point, but it’d only make sense.
Back in the present day, Mia wakes up and fondles her toy — not like that! — before getting ready for the day ahead, which is to include, among other things, preventing Ole from drowning, even though his latest gene-hack is the ability to hold his breath basically indefinitely. Talk about nightmare housemates. (Side note: The women are childishly infatuated with Jasper and his roommate, who’s Niklas from the train.)
In Dr. Lorenz’s latest lecture, Mia shows off again, going off-road in her creative solutions to problems. This highlights the fact that the textbook the class has been using is three years out of date — Mia hasn’t been using it, which endears her to Lorenz, who tells her that modesty won’t get her anywhere. Mia takes this as an opportunity to nag Lorenz about the clinical trials, citing her professor’s own success because of giving her a chance as a freshman. It’s a good pitch. Mia has her meeting for 9 am the next morning.
The flashbacks in Biohackers episode 2 get a bit more frantic, showing us a car crash which young Mia and presumably her parents are involved in as they flee from the woman with fancy heels we saw in the earlier reminiscence. The woman, her identity still unconfirmed, steals some documents from the wreckage as young Mia tries in vain to rouse her dead parents. In the present day, Mia is also receiving text messages from an anonymous sender who asks her if she has any new information. This is, inevitably, all connected.
Lorenz and Monique take Mia on a tour of the facilities, during which she learns that Lorenz stores the DNA of her patients and has done forever — everything is on file. The current trial is a fertility one, and since there’s a missing patient, Mia herself participates — not that she’s given much choice in the matter. However, a flashback reveals that Mia has been swabbed before, as a child, meaning when Jasper runs the sequencing she’ll flag up in Lorenz’s database. Uh-oh.
So, Ole fancies himself as a “body hacker”, and is so concerned about his paltry followers — 300 at the last count — that Mia finds him slicing himself open to implant a subcutaneous chip so that he can take some shine away from his online rival, “Double Felix”, which is admittedly a great name. Of course, he’s an idiot, so Mia has to patch him up before he bleeds to death. As payment, she requests the pills that let him breathe underwater for a date at the lake with Niklas and Jasper. Jasper is tee-total — I forgot to mention that in the last recap — so doesn’t take any pills, and neither does Niklas, which is probably for the best given Ole’s track record. Everyone tries to hold their breath underwater for as long as they can — the pills don’t work, naturally — and Mia and Jasper finally kiss. While they cuddle, he spots and questions her scar, so she tells him about the car accident that killed both her parents.
The romantic shenanigans are interrupted by Lotta getting so drunk that she spews everywhere and Mia has to take her home. There she confesses that she’s used to everyone finding her the hot one, but Jasper and Niklas obviously both have a thing for Mia, which is pretty frustrating for her. Eventually, she passes out, and Mia takes the opportunity to swab her DNA with a kit she stole from Lorenz’s lab, which should hopefully get her off the hook with the database. She charms Jasper into letting her into the sequencing lab, where she swaps the samples around. But she’s extremely unsubtle and Jasper clearly notices what she’s done, even if he doesn’t say anything about it in Biohackers episode 2.
After an odd encounter with Jasper during which she mentions their goals and plans in a rather ominous tone, Lorenz pulls up Mia’s genetic makeup so they can both take a look at it, which is missing the gene variant that should have produced her freckles. The blond hair and blue eyes are all correct, though, so Lorenz assumes that the sequencing wasn’t entirely accurate. Lorenz offers Mia a place on the trials, and she texts her anonymous co-conspirator to let them know she’s in. As she kisses Jasper in celebration outside, Biohackers episode 2 ends as Lorenz watches both of them through the window.
