Summary
“Brothers and Sisters” provides a brutal reintroduction to See, as the show’s world begins to expand.
This recap of See season 2, episode 1, “Brothers and Sisters”, contains spoilers.
It has been a while since we last heard from Apple TV+’s See. It was an underappreciated show in its first go-around, all things considered; perhaps it wasn’t quite the rival to Game of Thrones that Apple was looking for, but it was an intriguing dystopian adventure all the same, with visuals that wouldn’t look out of place in a nature documentary, surprising attention to detail, and wonderfully unique fight choreography. It takes the Season 2 premiere, “Brothers and Sisters”, about two minutes to reassure everyone that those qualities are absolutely still intact, only now they’re coming bundled with much more expansive worldbuilding. The second season feels like a bigger, better version of what came before, and that’s precisely what a second season should feel like.
See season 2, episode 1 recap
“Brothers and Sisters” begins with a bloodthirsty action sequence, one perhaps a bit more intentionally nasty than those of the first season, though admittedly they weren’t exactly fun for all the family either. But Baba Voss has a point to prove. He might later lament having to teach Kofun to fight and survive in this way, but he’s determined to do it properly all the same. Voss isn’t the kind of dad you’d want — he’s a bit too into the joy of killing someone than seems reasonable — but he’s the kind you’d need in this world, especially under the circumstances following last season’s finale. Baba, Kofun, and Paris are still out in the wild, but after being sold by Jerlamarel, Haniwa is currently a guest of Edo Voss (Dave Bautista), Baba’s brother, in the militarized nation of Trivantes. That’s where Baba is heading next, in full homemade samurai-style armour, leaving Kofun with Paris and the pair of them instructions to wait for him only seven days. If he isn’t back by then, they’re on their own.
The introduction of the Trivantians is only part of the show’s expanded worldbuilding. When we catch back up with Queen Kane and Maghra as they arrive at Pennsa, we realize pretty quickly that there’s a fairly tenuous political situation here. Lord Harlan, an obvious Littlefinger type, has been ruling in Queen Kane’s absence and clearly — along with his brother, Kerrigan — has designs on long-term leadership. Since Queen Kane purposefully sabotaged Kanzua, the hydroelectric dam she and her Witchfinders called home last season, Maghra is worried that the act might be exposed, especially given the queen’s arrogance and petty jealousy over Harlan’s current station. Harlan is exceedingly smug but also clearly switched on, so he’s one to watch. Maghra, though, has a longstanding connection with him, and is smart enough to ask him and Captain Gosset, Pennsa’s chief military officer, to send out a search party for her husband and children before Kane has time to do anything reckless.
Baba, meanwhile, sneaks into Trivantes’ Eastern Gate while Edo’s second, Lieutenant Commander Wren, gives Haniwa some backstory. Edo has been looking for Baba for 25 years in order to avenge the death of their father, whom Baba apparently killed. Edo has a great deal of power and influence within the Trivantian Empire, and that empire is not to be trifled with. As Haniwa quickly figures out, Wren is mysteriously sighted, having been born to blind parents, and with blind brothers and sisters. Nobody knows her secret, which is perhaps just as well, since she’d be executed for it — not out of superstition, she explains to Haniwa, but practicality. Vision destroyed the world once, after all.
It’s a long time since Baba was in Trivantes, but he still has a friend in a blacksmith, Yakis, who theorizes that Haniwa is probably being held in Base 3, a secret army installation where Edo has his own commando regiment. Getting there, though, will require descending into the dangerous coal hub to meet a contact named Snell, who can lead him to a tunnel that’ll take him to the base, provided he can hold his breath for the thirty heartbeats (a measurement of distance in this world, which is a nice touch) it’ll take to make it. If not, the blazing hot air will cook his lungs from the inside. The trip takes Baba on his hands and knees across ashes and skulls, right to an ambush. Snell sold him out. Baba is able to fight his way outside, and through a good number of Trivantian guards, but a sighted lookout, a young boy, spots him and rats him out. He’s eventually caught and taken captive.
“Brothers and Sisters” ending explained
The second season of See is moving quickly, so a flurry of late scenes send each character on a different path, or at least alter their current dynamic. For one thing, Kane’s Witchfinders, though on Maghra’s orders, find Kofun and Paris in the wilderness, revealing to them that Maghra is alive. Kofun wants to wait for Baba and Haniwa, but Paris agrees to stay behind as long as he goes to be reunited with his mother. Not long afterwards, she’s approached by some mysterious figures whose identity will presumably be revealed in the next episode. She offers them tea, though, which suggests they’re probably not immediately dangerous — not to her, anyway.
Meanwhile, Queen Kane consecrates Pennsa as the new capital of the Payan kingdom and blames the Trivantian army for the destruction of Kanzua, who she claims destroyed the dam because she’s pregnant with a sighted child (she’s pregnant to Boots, though has no idea whether or not the baby will be sighted). With war on the horizon, Baba a captive of an entirely unsympathetic Edo, and Haniwa developing a somewhat unique relationship with Wren, there is plenty to be getting on with here.
