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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
The third shortest episode of HBO Max’s Raised by Wolves Season 2 is here, and it shows that living in the tropical zone has become more difficult. The second season’s penultimate episode is titled, “Feeding”. Series creator/ executive producer Aaron Guzikowski returns as the writer, while co-executive producer Lukas Ettlin takes over the director’s chair.
In this review, I will be discussing Raised by Wolves Season 2 Episode 7. There will be no spoilers here, as the title of this article suggests. Nonetheless, please read ahead at your own discretion to avoid any possible revelations.
Plot Synopsis
According to WarnerMedia, here is the synopsis for Raised by Wolves Season 2 Episode 7.
Reeling after Sue’s tragic fate, Marcus and Paul join forces with Mother to try and stop a now-transformed serpent before it kills Campion. But when Mother realizes her caregiving program won’t allow her to do battle with her own child, she has to seek help from Father’s ancient android.
WarnerMedia
Discussion
This week’s episode of Raised by Wolves covers more ground with the few differing subplots that the show has provided. All the cinematic aspects of the narrative continue to hold up, with the episode opening with an overhead shot of Kepler-22b’s tropical zone. This conveys how large the overall journey has become this time around compared to the show’s first season. Guzikowski’s characters are essentially split up, so the story trifurcates, taking place by the tree area, the sea, the zone’s forest area, as well as the colony.
“Feeding” is an interesting title for the episode, as it shows the season’s minor characters fulfilling their appetites as a form of survival. In last week’s episode, we’ve seen Marcus Drusus (Fimmel) eating a strange ruby red-looking fruit from a mysterious tree. This turned out to be his wife (and Paul’s adoptive mother), Sue (Algar), as far as we know. However, this week, the theme of feeding only gets worse — in an intriguing manner, of course. The only way I can explain it is through concepts found in the Gothic movement of literature.
Gothicism
This episode gives us the return of the young android, Vrille (Santo), who survived the events of Episode 205 — “King”. There, she kills Marcus’s followers, all while the most terrifying face is unveiled to them as well as the viewers. In “Feeding”, the character returns — which is no surprise since she has not been killed off –; although, this time she wears a mask to conceal the horror that exhibited her inhuman physiognomy. She explains what her human mother had done to her, stating: “I’m afraid my face is no longer presentable”.
In the introduction of her critical text, Masks in Horror Cinema: Eyes Without Faces, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas elaborates, “Masks are uncanny because they are faces-that-are-not-faces”. Vrille, in juxtaposition with most other characters of the show, is Gothic because she looks normal. She puts on a human appearance, albeit a robotic copy of her late human mother’s deceased daughter. Heller-Nicholas also cites Catherine Spooner, who explains that masks alienate the wearer from their “‘original’ identity, entrapping [them] in a role experienced as” foreign to their self. Vrille hides the horror that is the face stripped off by her mother. This reveals some thing psychological (e.g. terror, horror, secretiveness) and physical (e.g. monstrosity, the grotesque, revulsion).
We also find a group of characters searching for another by venturing into a couple of caverns by the acid sea. Carol Margaret Davison’s essay, “Gothic Architectonics: The Poetics and Politics of Gothic Space” best explains this; she defines the Gothic term “grottophilia” as “an adventure within a contractive enclosure” involving a symbolic “return to the darkness of the womb”. What is most horrific about this investigation into cavelike areas is what the characters of the show wound up discovering and how they react to it. Of course, this is only the start of the show’s plunge into Gothicism.
The Crew of Raised by Wolves Season 2 Episode 7
Caitlin Saunders is the series’ story editor, while Kolja Brandt returns as the director of photography.
Stephen Philipson serves as the editor, with additional editing by Jennifer Macfarlane. Marc Streitenfeld composes the show’s music, while Matt Friedman and James Bladon act as the music editors.
Raymond McIntyre Jr. serves as the series’ visual effects supervisor; while Ruth Irvine-Hauer is joined by David Yrisarri as the VFX producers. Victor Dimichina does additional VFX supervision. Rachel Chang serves as the VFX editor and is assisted by Tanya Teresa Phipps.
Tom Hannam serves as the production designer, while Kate Carin and Jamey Scott design the show’s costumes and sound, respectively. Birrie Le Roux returns as the episode’s set decorator. Christa Schoeman designs the hair & make-up, while Jaco Snyman designs the digital art.
Chris Bass serves as the supervising art director. The art directors of the episode consist of Catherine Gaum, Alan Munro, Ella Rushforth, and Jonathan Hely-Hutchinson.
The Cast of Raised by Wolves Season 2 Episode 7
Amanda Collin portrays Mother/ Lamia. Abubakar Salim plays Father, while Winta McGrath plays Campion. Jordan Loughran, Felix Jamieson, Ethan Hazzard, Aasiya Shah, and Ivy Wong play Tempest, Paul, Hunter, Holly, and Vita, respectively.
Niamh Algar is given a credit as Sue, while Travis Fimmel plays Marcus Drusus.
Morgan Santo returns as Vrille, while Selina Jones portrays Grandmother. Natalie Robbie and Carel Nel return as Marcella and Bic/ Able, respectively.
Megan Theron plays a colonist, while Adam Neill plays a hard looking colonist.
Performances and Character Developments
The characters of the show undergo a series of challenges that range from risking their families’ lives or risking their own. I admire that we get to see Mother/ Lamia (Collin) establishing a sort of dynamic with Marcus but only towards some common goal. This could be their rapport with Sue or the fact that they both have children to protect. However, I believe the serpent is not their only concern. We also need to remember that the acid sea contains unusual creatures that make locals’ lives miserable. There is even the Sue tree, whose fruit can endanger humans’ lives.
Campion (McGrath)’s relationship with Vrille continues to flourish. The human boy’s love for the android could suggest an Oedipal complex due to the way Mother raised him: as a wolf. This is what Raised by Wolves is all about; while Mother has gone from a bestial to a human state of being, we see Vrille taking this role of the savage. Only time will tell how long this will last, though.
I usually like Hunter (Hazzard) as a character, especially in the portrayal of his father-son relationship with Father (Salim). However, in this episode, he makes a huge choice that is not his to make. I would not call this development — if we have to dive into the semantics of the word — and while he believes it so, I have to disagree with the decision.
Final Thoughts
“Feeding” continues to confirm this theme of both androids and humans as machines that I discussed in a previous review of the season. While Mother suggested in last week’s episode that she and Father made a wrong choice in becoming too human, I do not perceive this as detrimental to the family. I believe that the androids have become human in much the same way that humans have become machinelike. They work hand-in-hand, comprising what some philosophers would render the “mega-machine”.
While this episode and last week’s episode may not have possessed the substantial amount of suspense and thrills that “King” had, “The Tree” and “Feeding” are still worthy of merit for keeping the season on its feet as long as it had. For these reasons, I have no doubt that the second season finale will be worth the wait.
Raised by Wolves Season 2 is now available to stream via HBO Max!
Have you seen the second season of Guzikowski’s series? If so, then what are your thoughts on it so far? Let us know! For more drama and science-fiction-related news and reviews visit and follow The Cinema Spot on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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