“Episode #2.1” is episode one of season two of Humans.
This episode starts in Berlin, with a now red-headed Niska going into a nightclub. She has apparently been there quite a few times, but this times she makes a new friend, a German girl. Or, rather, she’s picked up by one. After the season one finale, Niska has the code that will allow all Synths to become intelligent – just like her and the other few. She’s been trying to decide whether or not to use it – and now she is, and is uploading it to all the Synths. It didn’t work as she expected though; the Synths are all still the same. At least for now. In Bolivia, at a mine, one of the mining Synths suddenly becomes intelligent and leaves. It looks like the upload does work, but perhaps not for all Synths, or maybe not all at once.
Then it goes to six weeks later. The Hawkins are moving into a new house and Anita/Mia is working in a seaside cafe, although Sophie is hoping she will come back. The elder Hawkins are also going to counselling. At a chemical plant in Nottingham, another Synth suddenly wakes up and she flees the plant. Some of Anita’s real personality is showing through.
Hester, the Synth from the plant in Nottingham, meets up with Max and Leo. Hester is more than a little confused by what is happening. Ten, the Synth from Bolivia, is also with them. Synths are becoming conscious, but very rarely. Why only a few Synths are becoming sentient isn’t known. Hester has also been followed, and she is confused as a result. Some of those following her seem to have a rather different motivation.
In Berlin, Niska is still with the woman she met in the nightclub. As yet, she probably doesn’t know that what she did is having much in the way of effect, but that changes. In California, a scientist is also experimenting with artificial intelligence, but she’s also running out of storage space and power. Her AI is not up to the level of the intelligent Synths by the sound of it.