Summary
“Betrayal” provides an interesting setup for the finale, as we finally catch up to the ill-fated train from the opening episode, with all the context we need. Where will it all end?
This recap of Biohackers season 1, episode 5, “Betrayal”, 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 5, the penultimate chapter, begins right where the previous episode left off, with Mia confessing to Lorenz that she’s really Emma Engels, which is big news to her. Mia shows her the scar from the accident that she assumed killed her, but Lorenz is still convinced that she’s an Ethics Committee spy rather than the real deal. Mia brings up the argument Lorenz had with her father at Ben’s funeral, which seems to do the trick.
Meanwhile, Niklas returns home to find Jasper sulking at the kitchen table. He immediately states that Mia lied, faking her DNA sample in the clinical trial, and mentions that he told Lorenz she’s after their research. Niklas tries his best to fight Mia’s corner, but Jasper isn’t listening, so he sends a sneaky text message tipping Mia off. He suggests that they chill out and play video games and eat pizza, which is a sure way to distract any man, but Mia doesn’t pick up when he makes a frantic phone call; “Betrayal” shows the phone buzzing away in Mia’s bag as Lorenz takes a swab of her DNA. It’s a match for Emma Engels, of course, which throws Lorenz for a loop; she fondles Mia as if she’s back from the dead, which in a way she is. She’s also proof that her gene therapy is functional, and Mia fronts that her father was wrong about Lorenz’s work and she’s just a super swell gal. Lorenz’s ego loves this, throwing her right off the scent of Mia’s real agenda, and sending her frantic with the possibility of mapping Mia’s entire genome and figuring out how she survived. They’re going to make history together. On the way out, Mia thanks her, though takes several big, calming deep breaths outside.
The first thing Mia does is call Niklas, who makes some weak excuses to Jasper about meeting a classmate. She explains to him that Lorenz was onto her because of Jasper, so she had to make a decision. She reckons if she can find the modifications Lorenz made to her genome, she can track down the other kids from the experiment, but she needs close access to Lorenz in order to do that. Niklas hugs her and they kiss and have sex — his attempts at saying they probably shouldn’t amount to a single “I can’t” and then no further protestations. In the morning, though, he feels pretty guilty. He wonders what’s going to happen to Jasper when Lorenz goes to prison, and apparently Mia has an idea about that.
This includes a “business proposal” for Lotta, who makes breakfast tremendously awkward. They’re going to cure Huntington’s Disease — it’s as easy as that, I guess. Biohackers episode 5 offers no more explanation on this proposal for now.
While Mia goes to work with Lorenz, who’s very excited, Jasper goes to use Niklas’s printer and inadvertently discovers the train ticket receipts for he and Mia, which he idiotically just dropped at the top of the bin despite the fact he lives with the man they were trying to hide this journey from. Jasper goes through Niklas’s messages and sees that he tipped her off about Jasper tipping Lorenz off, but when he tries to warn Lorenz, she’s doesn’t pick up since she’s excitedly looking at Mia’s stellar immune system, which is the best she’s ever seen in a human being. They’re interrupted, though, by Jasper turning up.
When Niklas returns home, he sees that his message thread with Mia was brought up on his laptop and puts two and two together. He tries to call Mia, but she isn’t picking up. He tries to call Jasper, but the call’s rejected, as he’s busy showing Lorenz where Mia and Niklas went. This prompts Lorenz to call Monique so she can block all Mia’s keycard access, a conversation Mia overhears, so she bolts downstairs to copy the files. Why does Lorenz slowly walk everywhere? She knows what’s happening, give it some legs!
Lorenz’s Michael Myers act gives Mia enough time to copy the files and bolt. She’s able to make it out and call Niklas telling him to get Jasper’s keycard and meet her at the Excellence Center. Mia tells Chen-Lu that Lorenz intentionally modified human embryos, including hers, because she needs her help again to search for synthetic DNA inside her that acts as a kind of genetic barcode. She finds that code, and if Mia types it into Lorenz’s database, she’ll find the Homo Deus patients.
Meanwhile, Jasper confronts Niklas, and the two of them get into what is quite easily the softest fight I’ve seen on TV for quite some time. That’s until Niklas is able to clout Jasper with a fireplace log, at least, which I suppose explains the red eye we saw him boasting in the train flashforward at the end of the third episode. Niklas steals his keycard, which he and Mia use to gain access to the Excellence Center archive, where Mia types in her gene barcode and turns up hundreds of results, proving the disturbing extent of Lorenz’s experiments. With this new information they set about retrieving the DNA samples, but opening the storage units sets an alarm off. They’re able to make it out just as Lorenz pulls up the CCTV and sees the storage unit’s door sagging open. She knows what they’ve done.
Jasper, looking worse for wear, goes to see Lorenz, who patches him up and tasks him with figuring out what Mia and Niklas are up to. He figures out they’ve booked a train to Berlin, leaving in the next half an hour, and Lorenz makes it pretty clear that if they get where they’re going, it’ll be the end for both of them. She has an idea for how to “control” the situation, but it’d require his help. And I think we realize what she’s got in mind.
Next news, Mia and Niklas are aboard the ill-fated train we’ve been waiting to catch up to since the first minute of the first episode. Both characters are smug in the kind of way that mandates calamity, as we see Jasper, also on the train, help an elderly lady with her luggage, let the mosquitoes loose, and do a runner. The passengers collapse, including Niklas, and eventually, the locomotive screeching to a halt sends Mia to the ground too. That’s where Biohackers season 1, episode 5 ends things, teeing up a very intriguing finale.
