The Darwin Incident

Episode 8

For the past few weeks, popular social media has been abuzz with the saga of Punch the monkey, a Japanese macaque whose struggles with rejection and socializing captured the hearts of people the world over. There's a lot that can be posited about why folks latch so hard onto the saga of the social life of a young ape. Punch's situation invites empathy from onlookers and a natural inclination to root for him. And there's a natural 'arc' to his quest for acceptance that can be hoped to be completed. But also, as an ape, Punch can't ever vocalize a disagreeable opinion or political position, and his rejection isn't borne out of any human-understood traits or marginalizations that challenge our own social hierarchy—it is 'safe' to stick up for Punch compared to a bullied human kid who might be ostracized for any number of reasons. And if Punch could give voice to his struggles, social media scrollers might not find him so uncompromisedly cute anymore.

My invocation of ape-adjacent advocacy naturally comes up as I contemplate an episode of The Darwin Incident. After all, giving voice to the struggles of himself and other non-human creatures is a major motivation for much of the cast around Charlie. Not that Charlie himself is interested in serving in that sort of role, but then this particular episode is all about people making declarations and decisions around Charlie. He, like Punch, has most people seemingly not terribly interested in his interiority, treating him as a mascot for a movement to be allied with or opposed to. They're interested in the fact that he can talk, but not what he has to say.

That's a strong point for The Darwin Incident to make about how representatives of minorities get co-opted for public and political messaging. But it unfortunately also continues to apply to the actual writing of Charlie. Despite declarations by his family in this episode that he's been growing as a result of his socialization, Charlie continues to feel pretty opaque. He's still defined by his pragmatic preference for preserving life when possible, noted here in his saving of Gare, being leaked to the press. But that's been a cornerstone of his character since he saved a butterfly from a spider. The one thing that's changed since his start is his friendship with Lucy, which mostly seems predicated on dryly hanging out adjacent to her on account of her not totally treating him like a sideshow. That's all, extrapolation from previous episodes, since Charlie doesn't actually do a ton in this entry, but this storyline is apparently named the "Lucy Kidnapping Arc," so I can guess his dedication to his friend will be challenged somehow. Just a hunch.

The potential for focus on Lucy at least teases something else for her to do, though the title suggests that she'll be getting distressed damsel-ly immediately tempers those expectations. Lucy actually does make something of a showing in this episode! She charges in on the angry mob around Charlie's house, hits a pastor with her bike, and cusses him out. The episode also spends a frankly unnecessary amount of time explaining the connection between Lucy's name, The Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and the Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered, which lent its name to. I had honestly always presumed that Lucy's name in The Darwin Incident was an homage to that hominid, to the point that I rolled my eyes when her name was first revealed at how on-the-nose it was. The story seems to want to directly call attention to the connection and highlight Lucy's status as the "missing link" in the communication gap between people, animals, and their representative humanzee. Shun Umezawa must really think he's clever.

That's a lot of grousing I can do about these details in this episode, since, as I stated, so much of this week's entry is that sort of setup before the Lucy Kidnapping Arc presumably sees Lucy get kidnapped. What's funny is that when it's less shooting for spectacle and shock value in its actions (bar the scenes of protests and violent clashes in Charlotte, North Carolina, yeah, I see you) The Darwin Incident actually comes off as more measured and engaging. Phil the cop, who's now a twinge more sympathetic, gets to interact with Schulz, the ringleader of the aforementioned angry mob, who articulates how human nature doesn't follow logic in looking for penance or relief in the face of a tragedy like the school shooting. They just want a scapegoat—which is ironic, since Gare is still alive and presumably awaiting trial. But hey, the humanzee weirds people out, and vegans are annoying, so there they go.

Similarly, Phil himself hasn't been totally deprogrammed, and the writing turns him into a conversation with Bert by the end that highlights the shortcomings in his own perspective. Some of it's a little too forgivingly reductive; see, he's not a reactionary, just a cynical viewer of the status quo who believes that better things aren't possible! He provokes the question of whether it's more effective to restrict people so they'll be safer within society as it is, or to change society as a whole so it can become safer for everyone. It's a position so many have heard described before, which is why it's honestly refreshing for the writing to have Bert shoot it down so solidly: the reality is that broader beliefs and social mores have progressed, regardless.

It's The Darwin Incident putting on a philosophical discussion that's salient rather than cynical, compared to some of its other inputs, and I'll take it as a highlight in this episode that feels like so much circling. It'd be nice if these sorts of details were more commonly woven into the conflicts of other main characters and the thriller plots ostensibly brought on by their sociological beliefs. I guess I'll wait to see if that bears out for this forthcoming arc, or if, like viral videos of a macaque, it trades on base emotional response without actually saying anything.

Rating:

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The Darwin Incident is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Chris's favorite ape is probably Optimus Primal. He can be found posting about anime, transforming robots, and the occasional hopefully more salient political commentary over on his BlueSky.