Raised By Wolves recap: Episode 6, ‘Lost Paradise’

Mother gets distracted by her feelings for her creator as the Mithraic close in on the settlement in Raised By Wolves episode 6.

And we’re back with another frustrating hour of Raised By Wolves, a show that started so strong and has somewhat waned in its intrigue by the latest episode. In Raised By Wolves episode 6, Mother continues to be fascinated by her memory archives and again revisits the pod in the woods.

This time, she and a vision of her creator have sex. It’s as stupid and cheesy as one would expect. What is the point of Mother developing these feelings for the creator? Did he program her that way? Doesn’t spending so much time away from the settlement detract from her core programming to protect the children?

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In episode six, we see how her compulsion toward visiting the pod puts everyone in the settlement at risk. Marcus, Sue, and the other Mithraic soldiers discover her little hideaway and concoct a plan to attack her while she’s in stasis. It doesn’t work according to plan, however, as Mother is more powerful than they, or we, could have expected.

Despite being beaten down, she still manages to access her powers in her unconscious state, using telekinesis to lift massive boulders and shatter them, killing several soldiers before she takes off back to the settlement. There, Sue has managed to retrieve Paul while the rest of the children pile into the lander on Father’s orders.

While not as powerful as Father, he isn’t without his skills. He holds his own against the Mithraic for as long as possible until Hunter betrays him by shouting his destination from the lander. It’s hard to watch as Father is gunned down and killed for the second time this season. By the time Mother returns, it’s too late.

She tries to save Father by pulling the bullets out of his body but is distracted when Paul returns and steals the pouch containing her eyes. Marcus sends Paul back to the settlement after Sue rescues him, giving him this new task. It’s directly correlated to his time spent as a child soldier, although perhaps not a trait he should want to pass on.

As Mother chases after Paul, she doesn’t notice Marcus waiting in the wings for her until he delivers a crushing blow to her chest. But before Marcus can deliver a finishing blow, that voice in his head returns, demanding he let Mother live.

Raised By Wolves episode 6: Campion grows increasingly frustrated.

A lot of what I found frustrating about the sixth episode is the lack of answers and the continued presence of the same mysteries we’ve seen playing out all season. The mysterious version of Tally returns yet again, this time seen by Vita, and briefly, Campion, yet we come no closer to understanding her purpose. Campion meets some interesting new frustrations this week when he sees Paul succeeding him in terms of intelligence.

Paul quickly solves a stick puzzle within seconds when Campion took almost 23 minutes to do the same thing. Then he creates a trap to kill the creatures, and Campion feels betrayed as he doesn’t want to kill anything and especially because Father praises him for his skill. It results in Campion attacking Paul and striking him in the face multiple times.

Growing up, Campion was always told he was special by the androids due to his resilience and the fact he didn’t get sick. In reality, we don’t know Campion to be extra special beyond his immunity to toxins. In this episode, he acts his age by displaying surliness and frustration at being bested by Paul, the child to whom he has felt the closest.

Raised By Wolves episode 6: Do all living things have souls?

Campion mentions all living things have souls in this episode. He has cultivated an interesting system of beliefs on Kepler-22b, and I wonder where they stem from. I also wonder if his idea has taken root in the overworld like maybe the veil between life and death is different on this planet. Perhaps a version of Tally is still alive.

Maybe that could mean Father continues to exist even if his android body is out of commission.  I sure hope so. I found his character to be one of the most compelling on the show, and it feels like we barely scratched the surface of his relationship with Mother or his past. As MEAWW pointed out, while it’s difficult to know who to root for between Mother and the Mithraic, Father is the “underdog with a heart of gold” that you really hope succeeds.

As for the other children, nothing else in this episode feels new with them. Right now, they exist more as a plot point rather than three-dimensional characters in their own right. Paul and Campion are the only ones to receive significant arcs. Even Tempest and Hunter, the most outspoken of the group, don’t have much significance to the overall plot yet.

What did you think of Raised By Wolves episode 6? Is Father really dead? What will happen to the children next with the androids out of commission? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

New episodes of Raised By Wolves debut on Thursdays on HBO Max.