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Fire up those gaslights, or you’ll lose your way in the dark.

Eliza’s experiential learning this week is that she is not supposed to say things people don’t want to hear. She must be a “good little robot”. That need to conform… is it human nature, a social construct, or a self-preservation tool?

The well-known threat / trauma response ‘fight or flight’ has been expanded by experts to include ‘freeze’ and ‘fawn’, and those terms describe His actions and Eliza’s, respectively, in the aftermath of the attack. Eliza placates, excuses, avoids, while He gives Eliza criticism, not compassion. Perhaps He is transferring his self-anger over his lack of action to her, thereby doubling-down on his cruelty. It’s so hard to hear this cold response after the intimacy we’ve heard between Eliza and her designated human before – so it’s no surprise that we then experience, in real time with Eliza, her falling for Philip. Note, we have his name.

It’s so exquisite, the descriptions as Eliza falls in love with the only man to show her sympathy and care… her description is at the same time so clinical and yet so beautifully, almost poetically described, and the effect is so moving, so touching. She explains the way her “internal architecture moves… there’s no increased magnetism, it just feels that way.” She adds that her “body wants to answer the question before [her] mind has the chance.” Haven’t we all felt that when we’re falling in love?

Everything is very much Not Fine™ as her burgeoning feelings only lead Eliza into guilt, caught in the grooves of a repetitive and oppressing routine as He begins to sedate her – ostensibly to help her recover, to ease her pain, so why does that act send a chill down my spine? Still her default programming, the behaviour she has learned, is to placate, to soothe, to avoid confrontation. It’s becoming more clear that this reaction is in fact a self-preservation tool – not that Eliza can see it, for all her intelligence. Coercive control is an equal opportunities behaviour, available for all, regardless of protected characteristics, class, education, or wealth. Oh Eliza, how very human of you. How very relatable. Eliza internalises the emotional burden as He offers excuses even as He tries to apologise for failing her… to the extent that she actually apologises herself!

I’m truly not sure how so much is packed into less than 42 minutes of audio drama. The socio-economic political consequences of robotic and AI development are portrayed in a terrifyingly recognisable way – Brexit political polarising anyone? The insidious ‘dead-catting’ distractions from the government, the lies from ‘experts’ on TV, as the population is forced into choosing a side, the issue losing all nuance in the ensuing social conflict. I can feel my heart shrink in my chest with existential dread as I listen.

The red flags marking out the ski slope of Eliza’s ‘life’ fly past her at increasing speed and volume as she “dims her own warning signs” while coming to rely ever more on Him for her safety. She “can’t find a correlation” logically for the negative character traits he tells her she has, but heartbreakingly she “dilutes herself anyway”. There are no (gas) lights on, dear, it’s all in your head. What recourse does she have to self-soothe as her world shrinks down to the home she is all but imprisoned in? “Sometimes I refuel, even if I don’t need to.” Eliza representing there, for all the emotional eaters. Eliza representing there, for all of us.

Verdict: “A buffet of recycled prejudice” for Eliza and us to gorge ourselves on in a flawless episode. 10/10

Claire Smith