Sense8 - Obligate Mutualism

Written by Lana Wachowski & J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Lana Wachowski

Croome (to Will): "What I want from you is time and trust."

And we're back. Five months ago, we were a prelude to the second season with a two hour Christmas special that was high on the feels factor but somewhat low on actually advancing anything with the ongoing Whispers plot. After the opening episode, this episode still has some of the feels but it's mainly focused on giving us a far bit more with Whispers though.

First of all, the episode began with Will and the rest of the Sensates reading Milton the riot act and making a few demands so they could see Jonas once again. The episode also lead down the path of believing that Milton's days were numbered with the seemingly more cooperative Croome stepped in and Milton was taken away.

Then the episode ended on a far different note. With Will and Croome actually coming close to striking a mutual trust and assurance that the BPO could go back to being more benevolent towards Clusters, Milton had to show up at the last minute with an unknown female assassin to royally wreck things but thanks to this episode we did learn a little more though.

Thanks to Jonas, we now know there are possibly tens of thousand of Clusters actually out there and this episode alone, we also learned that Lito met one of Jonas's former Cluster mates while Wolfgang has now also gotten involved with one himself, named Lila along with an embezzling storyline involving Felix and some other guy that Lila is working for.

Going by the trailer for the new season, Wolfgang's involvement with Lila is not going to be good for him or the gang. If Wolfgang and company are the nice Clusters, then Lila and her lot are the baddies of the piece and that's going to lead to one hell of a smack down later into the season itself.

Outside of learning a little more about Whispers and Clusters, another focus of the episode was Sun getting out of prison. Namely because of another hit on her life and easily the episode's most intense four minutes going but seeing Sun finally get out of there was nice, even if she is a wanted woman and had to break her older prison mate out too, but considering how the latter saved her along with the rest of the gang, it's only far she gets to come along for the ride.

As for the rest of the gang, not too much happened with them. Both Kala and Capheus had little to do outside the Sun and Jonas bits and when Lito wasn't dealing with career rejection, he was also playing house with Hernando and Daniela while Nomi and Amanita were craving a date night of their own as Will and Riley met with Jonas.

- Aside from Wolfgang and Lila, the episode was a little lighter on the sex than expected. Lito did have a thing with Raoul in flashback as did Jonas/Angelica.
- Lovely moment in the episode with Jonas and his father too and I do like Bug's comparing Nomi and Amanita to Charlie's Angels.
- How many of Jonas's Cluster are actually alive? Could both Todd and Raoul still be out there perhaps?
- Chronology: Not too long since the Christmas special I imagine.

Obligate Mutualism was a good way of opening things up further. Not quite as amazing as the back half of the first season or the Christmas special, but it certainly piqued a lot of interest, serving as an excellent reminder that Milton is serious trouble, showing new Clusters and furthering the connection with the Cluster we know and love the best.

Rating: 8 out of 10