Soulmates has created a world where everyone one can find their perfect match, but this week’s episode asks: what if your soulmate has already passed on?

The episode opens with Heather, a woman videographing her world travels. She goes to a Soul Connex centre for her ‘next adventure’ and her results tell her that her match is not yet in their system. During a group session in a church, Kurt (Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton) talks about Heather, who has died in a car crash. She was his soulmate, only discovering their compatibility after her death, and Kurt claims not to think about her any more. The pastor tells him it’s hard to see God’s path sometimes, but to take heart that he’s given Kurt a second chance after having tried to commit suicide.

Kurt’s parents pick him up after therapy. At their ranch his father tells Kurt he wants him to take over when he retires, but he needs to know that he’s ‘done with all this test nonsense’, and Kurt promises that he is. That night Kurt watches Heather’s travel videos.

At his next session, Kurt is approached by a woman, Martha (Malin Akerman), who tells him about her lost soulmate. They go to a bar and Martha asks him why he took the test so young, and he tells her, ‘what could be better then spending the rest of your life with someone that is meant for you and only you?’ Martha says she took the test because she got divorced for the third time, asking God to pick for her, but says she has to wait thirty years or so to meet him. They have sex out the back of the bar, and Kurt finishes quickly, telling Martha that it was his first time. Surprised, Martha hurriedly leaves, and Kurt returns to his car crying and apologising to Heather. He receives a message from Soul Connex asking if he still wants to meet Heather, and the app sends him a location to meet her the next day.

It’s nice to see Soulmates giving us a glimpse of a world where Soul Connex is not the perfect solution to all relationships. For people of Martha’s age the test isn’t even a viable option, just as with normal dating. Plus cracks have been starting to appear in Soul Connex’s perfect system, with another character’s account being hacked in episode two and now here.

Kurt arrives at a barn where Samson (Steven Mackintosh) is preaching to a group of people. He invites Kurt in and shows him a vision of Heather saying she loves him. Samson tells him and the congregation that while they believe in God, suicide cannot be a sin if their true love is waiting for them.

At night, Kurt meets up with another man, Travis (Joe Anderson), who tells him it will be nice to meet their respective lost soulmates before a van pulls up and the pair have bags thrown over their heads and are placed inside.

They arrive at the church of Righteous Transition and are greeted by Brother Hickock and Sister Laurelann. Laurelann tells them they are all one there and they need to shed themselves of all possessions that tie them to the world. They are given new clothes, and she takes their phones.

They arrive at a sermon led by Samson, who tells them to greet fellow parishioners by telling each other they are worthy of love and Kurt bumps into Martha. Meanwhile Hickock has been handing out vials of liquid to parishioners and Samson tells them all to drink and be free, which they do.

Kurt wakes in a forest and is approached by Heather. She holds up his phone to his eye to open it and Kurt realises it’s actually Laurelann, who reveals that drinking the vial was a test to their commitment. As the other parishioners wake, Kurt asks Travis if he saw his soulmate, but Travis says he saw his children. A van passes them, leaving the grounds of the church, and Laurelann tells Kurt that not everyone drunk the vials and they are not ready for the journey. She then hands him a shovel – they are to make their own beds before they lay in them.

As Kurt is digging he once again finds himself near Martha, who is having difficulty with her grave, and he offers to help her. She tells him he’s too young to be there, and he tells her he’s 25, which makes her feel a little better, and she suggests they be ‘death buddies’ to perform all the rituals together and make sure neither of them chicken out. Martha tells him she’s there because of Kurt, after their incident at the bar she realised she has all this love inside and she just has to give it to the right person.

Samson and Hickock baptise the parishioners, and Samson tells them to truly be free they must leave behind everything that holds them to Earth, including their money. Hickock approaches the parishioners one by one to get their fingerprints so they can access their savings, Samson telling them their money will be put to God’s work. Travis says he wants to leave his money to his children, and Samson says that would be a noble gesture but that he doesn’t know where they are because they don’t want to be found, unable to forgive Travis for what he did to their mother.

Samson gets the group to participate in an exercise where they pretend they are meeting their soulmate, and Kurt and Martha pair together. Martha begins to tear up when Kurt, pretending to be her soulmate, tells her how special she is to the world. They are interrupted by Travis, who is yelling at his partner and the futility of the exercise. Travis storms out, and Martha leaves as well. Later Kurt returns to his room, finding Travis has hung himself.

It seems like an odd choice for his character, someone that obviously had a will to reconnect with his children, and the episode would have benefited from his questioning of the Righteous Transition’s motives in contrast to Kurt and Martha’s blind devotion.

That night Kurt visits Travis’s grave, and Martha is also there. Kurt reveals that he was relieved when he found out that Heather was dead because if she was alive that he might have actually had to have done something. Martha says he’s brave, but he asks her if what they are doing is actually brave. They kiss and make love.

The pair wake in the grave in the morning and Martha thanks him for the perfect last night. Kurt asks what if he and her became a couple, and Martha tells him it would never work and to stop it.

Martha tries to talk to Kurt but they are gathering with the other parishioners for the final ritual. The vials are handed out and everyone drinks. As they return to the church Martha takes hold of Kurt’s hand and they flee, but the pair start to vomit from what they have consumed. They try to stop the van leaving, but it swerves to avoid them and picks up Samson, Hickock and Laurelann. As the pair fall to the ground choking, they hold each other’s hands as ‘death buddies’. Heather appears to Kurt and slaps him awake, and he carries a vomiting Martha to a nearby road where he waves down a truck. They arrive at a hospital and Kurt drags Martha to the entrance, ‘life buddies’ she tells him as the paramedics arrive.

A happy ending for a rather macabre, and ultimately rushed, episode. There were a lot of heavy themes throughout that would have benefited from more exploration, particularly in regards to character development. Unfortunately a one-hour drama only has so much time, but hopefully Soulmates can revisit these ideas again – and continue to question its world of ‘perfect soulmates’ it has created.

What did you think of the episode? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Soulmates Recap: 1.05 ‘Break On Through’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

This week’s episode of Soulmates ponders: what happens on the way to get to your soulmate?

Jonah (Misfits’ Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) meets Mateo (It’s Bill Skarsgard) at a bar in Mexico, and they spend the night together. The following morning, Mateo returns to his hotel only to find his fanny pack containing his passport and money are missing.

He finds Jonah back at the bar, flirting with another man, and confronts him. Jonah tells him he’ll get him his passport, but that he has given it to a girl, Khaleesi. On their way to retrieve the passport, Mateo asks Jonah if all he does is steal from unsuspecting men, and reveals he desperately needs his passport back so he can go to Colombia to meet his soulmate, Miguel, the next day. They arrive at a fortune teller’s, where Khaleesi works, and she tells Mateo that his passport will be $3000 dollars. Mateo asks how she’d like it if he took her things, so he takes some fireworks, and smashes a crystal ball. She pulls the fire alarm alerting nearby police and Mateo and Jonah flee.

While it’s refreshing to see Skarsgard in more of a fun role, the absurdity of Mateo’s situation, and the characters’ rather calm reaction to his serious dilemma is off-putting. He’s in a foreign country where he doesn’t speak the language, and his passport has been stolen, yet he’s perfectly happy to endure a fortune reading while bickering with Jonah.

Jonah tells Mateo he can get the $3000 they need to get the passport back, and the pair steal some bikes and head to an underground club. On their way, Jonah tells Mateo that he didn’t seduce and sleep with him to rob him, rather only saw the opportunity afterwards. At the club, Jonah pawns Mateo’s watch for $200 and tells Mateo to win the rest back on cockroach racing. The pair keep winning, drinking, partying, and they share a kiss. They get up to $1000 before they lose it all, and have to leave when the police that chased them from the fortune tellers arrive.

At this point, Mateo and Jonah’s relationship is deepening, but as with Mateo’s easy-going nature to the whole ordeal, it seems ridiculous that he would start to become attracted to the person that has stolen all of his money and his passport, which has resulted in them being pursued by the authorities.

Without any other options Jonah suggests stealing Mateo’s passport back. He takes Mateo to a ‘less-legit version of the US embassy’. Jonah enters alone and tells Mateo to keep watch, but Mateo heads inside after him, stumbling into large stashes of cocaine and guns. The pair find Mateo’s passport, but Jonah asks Mateo if he really thinks heading to Colombia will change him, and that from what he’s seen, Mateo is a mess. As Mateo tries to leave, the police arrive, and Jonah reveals that they have been chasing him because they are corrupt and he owes them a lot of money. While they hide, Jonah continues to question Mateo’s motivations, asking him why he slept with him if he was so sure he was heading to his soulmate, with Jonah revealing he wants Mateo to stay with him.

Their argument causes them to be caught and taken hostage at gunpoint, but Mateo is then let go. One of the women who has captured them has also taken her test, and is nervously awaiting her match to do the same. The women do not not let Jonah go though, and he tells Mateo to leave him and have a happy life. Mateo returns to the bikes outside and gets the fireworks, before returning inside to set them alight, scaring the women and saving Jonah. Jonah is shot as they escape, and the warehouse explodes with fireworks. Back at Jonah’s apartment, Mateo pulls the bullet out of his leg and the pair make love.

Mateo leaves in a taxi to go to the airport, and Jonah chases after it to give Mateo a Spanish dictionary so he can talk to Miguel. Mateo starts doubting his decision, saying that Miguel has a really boring job and Jonah tells him, ‘sometimes choosing love is choosing to let it go.’

At the bar, Jonah flirts with another unsuspecting man, but Mateo interrupts him saying that getting off the plane is the only real choice he’s ever made.

While the episode logically explains Mateo’s growing feelings for Jonah in the end, it still revels in the absurdity of the situations the pair find themselves in, becoming increasingly more ridiculous as it goes on. It’s interesting to note that while the episode still has a happy ending, Mateo does not end up with Miguel, which is the first time in the series we have come across someone who has taken the test, but not ended up with their soulmate.

What did you think of the episode? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Soulmates Recap: 1.04 ‘Layover’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Libby (Lais Costa) returns home to her husband Adam (Shamier Anderson) after both of them have spent the night with other other people. As they prepare for bed they tell each other about their respective dates, until Libby gets too detailed about what her and her date did in bed for Adam’s liking.

At work the next day Libby’s coworker tells Libby that her husband would never let her sleep with another person, and Libby explains she doesn’t want to grow old and resent Adam, plus it keeps them exciting to each other. They also have rules in place to prevent them from falling for other people. They only meet their dates through an app, and only meet up with them once. ‘Honestly, I think we’ve cracked monogamy,’ Libby tells her co-worker.

It’s interesting that dating apps, even ones purely designed for hookups, still exist within the world of Soulmates. Soul Connex pairs you with your soulmate, so what are other dating apps for? Perhaps people use them to explore before they consider themselves ready to settle down, or like Libby and Adam, to keep their sex lives interesting. The discussion of monogamy, however, suggests that perhaps Soul Connex isn’t so perfect after all. The concept only works if two people are willing to only be with each other for the rest of their lives, or alternatively, both agree that sexual relationships can occur outside their relationship. But if a couple’s opinions differ on this, well, does that mean they’re true soulmates? Or is Soul Connex just as useful as any other standard app?

At home Libby gets a notification on her phone from Soul Connex saying that she has a match. Adam is upset, and Libby admits to taking the test while they were on a break years ago – when she told she might not want children. Adam tells her that they’ve worked on that and whatever she decides he is fine with. Adam asks who her match is, taking the phone off her.

It turns out her match is Miranda (Georgina Campbell), and Libby and Adam have her over for a very weird drink. Apparently she’s not gay or bi, having only kissed a couple of girls in college. Adam says it’s cool she came, and she tells them she’s on vacation and is a substitute teacher so she has a lot of spare time. Coincidentally, Adam is a teacher as well. Libby suggests that her and Miranda go get a drink – alone.

So another big philosophical question: does your sexuality determine your soulmate? I assumed that Soul Connex’s test to find one’s match involved answering questions about your sexuality. Even if it does, in the case of Libby and Miranda it, at the very least, ignored Miranda’s sexuality. Does that mean two straight people can be soulmates? And assumedly not have a sexual component to their relationship?

At a bar Miranda tells Libby that the longest she’s been in a relationship is a year, and that when she walked in on him shopping for wedding rings she panicked and suggested they do the test to prove that they were soulmates. She basically did the test so she didn’t have to break up with him. Libby asks Miranda if she was annoyed at finding out she was her match. Miranda says the idea of having one person for everything gives her the chills, but when she found out that it was Libby thought it made sense. She always thought of her soulmate as a best friend, not a partner.

Libby arrives home and tells Adam it’s like she’s known Miranda for years and that she was so easy to talk to. Adam asks if he should be worried and she says no, because they’ll be like best friends. Adam tells her that she’s not allowed to sleep with her. Libby says not that she would, but that they do that all the time, and Adam tells her it’s different because it would mean something. She tells Adam he has nothing to worry about and should get to know Miranda better.

Sometime later, Libby wakes up and finds Adam and Miranda spending time together, Adam showing Miranda his and Libby’s wedding photos. Libby tells Adam it felt disrespectful to her and Miranda’s relationship to show her them. Adam tells her he has been incredibly respectful, having agreed to the app and now meeting her soulmate. She kisses him and leaves.

Miranda leaves after having stayed with Libby and Adam, the couple sad to see her go. Later she calls them to tell them that she has a new boyfriend, a parent of one of the students she teaches. Libby is quietly jealous, which puts her in a bad mood at work, and later suggests to Adam that they should have a foursome with another couple.

A distraught Miranda rings Libby saying that she was just using her new boyfriend as a distraction because she wants to be with her all the time. When Miranda arrives Adam is still at work, and she passionately kisses LIbby and they make love. Adam arrives home, catching them in the aftermath, having brought the couple Libby saw on the app with him. Adam asks Libby if she loves her, and she says she loves him too, but he says she can’t have them both, and gives her an ultimatum: him or her.

Up until this point in the episode Libby had been presented as quite selfish in comparison to Adam, him being right in saying he is the more giving and understanding in the relationship. But giving Libby the ultimatum shifts that dynamic, and now he seems a little unreasonable. His relationship with Libby was already quite different to the average one, why not consider a throuple? Perhaps enough was enough and he finally wanted Libby to know his worth.

Three months on, Libby and Miranda are living together and are very much in love. Libby has convinced Miranda to present her art in an abstract exhibition, but after the show Libby becomes jealous at the attention Miranda is receiving from female admirers. Her thoughts drift back to Adam, she considers messaging him, and gets her co-worker to drive her past his school, and she calls her a ‘psychopath’.

Libby returns home one day and Miranda has those female admirers, who are now her friends, over. They leave when hearing Libby is unwell, and Libby and Miranda argue. Miranda asks Libby if it’s not enough that she moved there and changed her career for her, and that she’s not Adam. She doesn’t know how to be in a relationship, and she thought having taken the test might change that, but it hasn’t.

Having driven Libby to Adam’s school once again, Libby’s coworker convinces her to go see him. Libby apologies to him, saying that she was wrong to choose Miranda and that she should have tried to make it work with both of them. Adam says he felt like fighting for her, but knew he’d already lost. Libby tells him that he’s her home, her heart, but he has taken the test. His match is English and flying over next week. ‘Isn’t there a way to make it work?’ she asks.

Adam’s match arrives, and he greets her. With Libby, and Miranda too. They explain their situation to her. How Libby is Adam’s wife, and Miranda is Libby’s soulmate, and that ‘it’s kind of crazy to expect one person to be your everything’. They tell her they understand if she doesn’t understand, and she tells them that they should start with a coffee.

For a moment it seemed Soulmates was going to admit that Soul Connex wasn’t perfect, that perhaps jumping head first into serious relationships after knowing each other for such little time doesn’t always work in this world, but they didn’t. At this point in the series it seems unlikely that it ever will. While a throuple would have made sense as the ending of the episode, to add in Adam’s soulmate last minute seems like an unnecessary extra. We don’t actually know if this relationship worked out, but the episode ended so positively (especially compared with the previous two), regardless of its outcome. Libby still gets her best friend and her soulmate, whether or not she deserves them is another story.

What did you think of the episode? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Soulmates 1.03 Recap: ‘Little Adventures’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Soulmates’ first episode introduced us to a world where the soul-particle has been discovered, and the company Soul Connex uses this science to develop a test that finds people their true love.

The second episode follows David Maddox (Billions’ David Costabile), a college art professor at Middleton, who is confronted by a woman, Alison Jones (Sonya Cassidy), one day after class. She informs him that she is his match, and has the paperwork from Soul Connex to verify it. David is perplexed – he made his profile private and therefore she shouldn’t have his details – and she reveals she obtained the information illegally but she just had to know who her match was. Having taken the test herself two years prior everyday she had woken up wondering why her match would take the test if he never wanted to meet her. The answer is that David is married, and Alison is too. She says she loves her husband, but that she woke up one day and everything felt different. David apologies, declining her, and she understands but gives him her number telling him she’s in town for a couple of days for work and that they should meet for coffee. Perhaps they are meant to be friends.

Last episode I pondered whether Soulmates’ concept held enough longevity to be an anthology series. The introduction of two characters who are happily married, yet begin to question their relationships after the introduction of Soul Connex, is unfortunately the exactly the same plot as the premiere episode.

David attends a birthday party for his father-in-law, Walter (Henry Goodman), with his wife, Sarah (Karima McAdams). Walter is also David’s boss at the university, and during a drink with David Walter tells him that he’s retiring at the end of the semester and that he’s recommending him for tenure – not because he thinks he deserves it – but only because he’s married to his daughter. Later David tells Sarah the news, but is saddened by the situation because Walter thinks David is only with Sarah, who is an art dealer, for her money.

Alison shows up at one of David’s classes, and later they go out for coffee. He tells her he loves his wife and that he was a very different person when he took the test. Alison tells him she hoped seeing him would make her feelings dissipate, but they have made them even worse. David agrees with her that perhaps they are meant to be friends, and that they should exchange numbers and contact each other in a month. She agrees and kisses him goodbye, before leaving, embarrassed.

Alison messages David asking him if she feels their connection, he responds that he does, and she calls him and they agree to meet the next day. They meet for a picnic by a lake, and David tediously reiterates that he loves his wife. He tells Alison he was single when he took the test, afraid that he was reaching 40 without having ever truly loved someone, but then he met Sarah, fell in love, and blocked the test. Alison tells him the only person she ever loved went away to college and fell in love with her professor. They both agree it feels like they know each other, before sharing another kiss. David calls Sarah and tells her his seminar will run late, as he and Alison go to a hotel and make love.

What’s interesting about Soulmates is that within the series’ world moral implications are significantly distorted from our own. Where audiences would generally detest against characters cheating, we are now more forgiving because we are told these people – regardless of the fact that they are already married – are perfect matches and should be together. The characters, of course, still feel that guilt, but so far have succumbed to the pull of the test despite it.

The next morning David wakes up in the hotel room to find Alison gone, and she doesn’t answer her phone when he calls. During his class a slide showing his naked body is projected to his students, which he jokingly brushes off. Alison calls him back and asks to meet him at the same hotel, and that she’ll leave a key at reception for him. Something definitely seems off, but David is in love, and Alison is his soulmate. He arrives at the hotel and waits, falling asleep. He is woken by Hannah, one of his students, caressing his face. Startled, he asks her what she is doing there and she asks if he is joking. She says they’ve been messaging each other and that they’ve exchanged pictures, which he knows nothing about. Distraught, Hannah flees, and David receives a message from Alison, ‘No one is going to believe you this time x.’

Suddenly, ‘The Lovers’ turns from what was becoming a predictable new-age love story, into something much more sinister.

David arrives home to find Alison and Sarah drinking together. Sarah explains that Alison had car troubles out the front of their house and that she helped her. When they have a moment alone David tells Alison whatever sick game she is playing stops now, before Sarah’s return interrupts them.

That night David activates his Soul Connex profile only to discover that he has no match. He calls the company and tells them that their system has been hacked as Alison has acquired his personal information.

David tries to speak to Hannah at her dormitory, but is refused entry by her roommate. As he leaves Alison calls him telling him that it won’t just be his words against Hannah’s, as she has pictures of David’s genitals on her phone. She says she wants David to be alone and wonder why someone would do this to him. She demands David tell Sarah about them, how he convinced himself it was love just to sleep with her, and then she will delete all the messages and pictures.

Walter summons David to his office and informs him that an email regarding sexual assault allegations David faced during his time teaching at Berkeley had been sent to the faculty that morning. David assures him that they were purely that, allegations, and that the student was mentally ill. He tried to help the student, Chloe, but she became obsessed with him. Walter is angry that his integrity may be threatened by having endorsed David for tenure, he reveals that the school board is meeting to reassess his application.

Later, Walter leaves David a message stating the board is still undecided about how best to proceed with his application, considering what Chloe did after the allegations. Researching online David finds out that Chloe committed suicide, and finding photos of her funeral, sees Alison among the mourners. Everything then clicks for David – ‘Alison’ is Chloe’s sister, and she is trying to exact revenge on him for Chloe’s suicide.

David tracks ‘Alison’, who he now knows is Jodie, down and confronts her at her motel. He forcefully makes her unlock her phone, and he deletes all of the messages and pictures, He asks her what she was going to do with them and she says she would have convinced Hannah to press charges against him and released the pictures to the school board members. David reveals that he loved Chloe, and Jodie says that’s what killed her. The pair arrive at a stalemate, David can’t report Jodie to the police because then his affair would be discovered, and he threatens that if he is the villain she thinks he is he will go after her family.

Eleven months later during David’s class, video of the night David confronted Jodie starts playing during his presentation. He is unable to turn it off, and he sees Jodie fleeing from the back of the auditorium. He tells his students to leave, before a distressed Sarah calls him, having also seen the video.

At its beginning ‘The Lovers’ seemed to be following Soulmates’ first episode in being a romantic drama, but evolved into a psychological thriller as the episode progressed. The revelation that David, someone who you felt sympathy for throughout the episode, was actually the villain of the story ultimately causes ambivalence in the episode’s final moments. Despite this, it’s intriguing how little Soulmates’ core concept – Soul Connex – ends up featuring in the grand scheme of this week’s episode. It indicates that perhaps Soulmates’ writers can do some interesting things in this world.

What did you think of the episode? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Soulmates Recap: 1.02 ‘The Lovers’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Soulmates is a contemporary science-fiction anthology series that takes place in a world where the soul-particle has been discovered, leading to the rise of the company Soul Connex. As the dating-app-esque advertisement that opens the series states, Soul Connex uses science to conduct a test matching people with their soulmates, with 15 million people having found their perfect match so far.

The first episode follows, Nikki (Succession’s Sarah Snook), who is happily married to her husband of fifteen years, Franklin (Kingsley Ben-Adir), with whom she shares two young daughters, Sammy and Ella. One morning Nikki’s friend and neighbour, Jennifer (Dolly Wells), interrupts her busy morning routine to inform Nikki that she is going to take the test, and would like Nikki to accompany her for support. Nikki is taken aback and suggests she is having a mid-life crisis – she has a husband, Steve, and children of her own – but Jennifer tells her that they married too young and that things have changed with the arrival of the test. ‘I look around me and I see people living their best lives like they’ve found the answer to some secret,’ she tells Nikki, ‘I hate them, and I want to be one of them.’

On their way to Peter’s (Darren Boyd), Nikki’s brother, wedding Franklin comments that it feels like they’ve been going to a wedding every week to which Nikki replies that they have been. During Peter’s wedding speech he tells the guests that he had taken the test six week ago, and that a month later he met his match, now bride, Rose. ‘When did we stop being the normal ones?’ Nikki asks Franklin after returning home from the wedding.

Peter and Rose hold a dinner party to introduce their family and friends to one another. The couple talk about how they felt the pull – a feeling a person gets when their match has taken the test, knowing that someone is out there looking for them. Rose reveals she left her partner to be with Peter. She tells them that knowing about the test made the little things about her partner that never bothered her before become too much. One of the other guests asks Nikki and Franklin if they have ever had ‘the talk’ about doing the test to which they reply they’re happily married with a family. ‘Maybe you’re soulmates anyway?’, the guest responds. Nikki is obviously unsettled, and after returning home teases her brother and his new wife for being smug about their relationship, as she begins to become unconfident in her own.

Nikki accompanies Jennifer to her test and while she waits browses a Soul Connex pamphlet, while watching many happy couples pass her by. Jennifer returns with details of her match, an Argentianian man named Sebastain. Nikki asks her what happens now and Jennifer says Soul Connex send him her details and they go from there.

At a wedding for one of Franklin’s co-workers, who met his partner three weeks ago, Nikki tries to initiate sex with Franklin. He’s upset she would be willing to threaten his professional reputation if they were caught. Arriving home Franklin demands to know what’s wrong with her, she says ‘I’m fine, we’re fine, everything’s fine, yeah our marriage is completely fine’. “It’s always been more than that to me,’ he responds, realising that her recent behaviour is because of the test. She tells him she doesn’t want to take it and apologies to him.

The next morning Nikki runs into the street having heard a domestic dispute between Jennifer and Steve. Nikki manages to get between the quarrelling couple before Steve storms back into his house and she takes Jennifer back to hers. Jennifer tells Nikki that he is threatening to take her children and that he won’t let her back into the house. Nikki offers her a place to stay but Jennifer reveals her match, Seb, is quitting his job and moving from Argentina to be with her. Nikki’s sympathy quickly turns to exasperation, as she tells Jennifer she’s crazy and selfish to think Steve would be okay with her leaving after 18 years of marriage, regardless of whether she loved him or not.

That night Nikki tells Franklin, ‘The world is going crazy, but deep down, we’re okay. You’re all I’ve ever known and that has always been enough for me.’ She suggests a date night, but the couple share a silent meal and car ride home. The next day Nikki goes to Soul Connex to take the test.

Franklin returns home and Nikki tells him that she’s been struggling with everything lately because she thought she wanted or needed more. She tells him she went to the clinic to take the test but all she could think about was how they home-birthed their daughter together, and couldn’t go through with it. She didn’t care what the test would say, she chose him, and is proud of him and the life they have together. Franklin then tells her that he did take the test, he thought he was losing Nikki and had just come back from meeting his match.

Sometime on Nikki and her new partner arrive at Franklin and his partners’ house to pick up Sammy and Ella on the way to a wedding. During a moment to themselves Franklin tells Nikki he misses her, and them as a couple, asking her ‘is this better?’

Ultimately a cautionary tale of ‘the grass is always greener’’ for this couple, spurred on by the arrival of a deterministic artificial intelligence in their world. An enticing world at that, continuously raising thought-provoking questions for audiences. Would you take the test if it existed? If you were married? If you had children? It remains to be seen, however, whether the series’ concept warrants an anthology series. This first episode seems like a good plot for a feature film, but how long can the concept be sustained before turning as stale as the old-school marriages depicted in Soulmates?

What did you think of the episode? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Soulmates Recap: 1.01 ‘Watershed’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.