Devs (1.3) Episode Recap - What You See Is Not Actually What You See

This week’s episode of Devs progressed two concurrent storylines and turned what we thought we knew on its head in the midst of a single episode. This third episode felt largely driven by Lily’s grieving process, even when scenes did not feature her. For the first half of the episode, she is quiet, reserved, and at times motionless just as the episode reflects. We also learn more about her friend Jen. Their time together dates back further than their work on the encryption team at Amaya. That detail is essential to this episode. What starts as the audience feeling as though they are in the dark after Anton is killed last episode gets completely flipped on its head as a heist begins. Lily and Jen use their friendship and Lily’s grief to portray her as unstable to the point of a mental breakdown. She goes out on a ledge threatening to jump (again, Sonoya Mizuno (Lily) is magnificent this episode in her switches between catatonic mourning to unhinged conspiracy theorist to stoic detective.) All the while, Jen is downloading the security footage from Kenton’s computer as he goes to talk Lily off the ledge. Until Jen makes the move for Kenton’s computer, the heist is barely apparent. Jen and Lily pull it all flawlessly but more than that, it is a shot of adrenaline in the middle of an episode that felt slower and more brooding than its two predecessors.

Devs starts to slow the progression of the story a bit in the beginning, leaving the audience wondering if we are going to start diving deeper into ancillary parts of this world. This feels all the truer as we spend time with the Senator and Forest. This is another scene written with dueling personalities at the forefront and a whole lot of subtext to unpack that will certainly leave a lasting impression in future episodes. The Senator is confident and self-assured, while Forest is just as hardheaded but far more reserved about it. That interplay feels essential as the Senator teases future meetings and work with Forest.

None of this has been to talk about our experience in Devs (at Amaya) yet again this episode. It is short but telling. The episode opens with static projections of multiple martyrs over an industrial score. Images of the crucifixion of Jesus and the execution of Joan or Arc become clearer as the static fades and machines churn out sounds. Then we start with a lesson in ethics, a warning from and to the Devs team, and one of the biggest questions in the third episode. What did Stewart mean when he alluded to Katie breaking the rules? That question lingers, not to be answered in episode three.

However, the biggest question we are left with is, what is Lily’s next move? She now knows the security footage of Sergei’s death was doctored. She knows Amaya killed him. There is nothing to indicate that Devs would become a revenge story, at least not in the traditional sense. By all accounts, the show has revealed that we are going to go further into that wormhole and it is going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets better. We are probably alright with Lily leading us though, right?

This third episode may not have been as thrilling as the first two, but that a show this steeped in high level scientific concepts like quantum computing can work a heist – however small the stakes – over on its audience demonstrates that one thing Devs is not is complacent. Over the course of its handful of episodes, it is determined to take us on a ride, play with knowing and unknowing (of both its characters and its audience), and ultimately drop us into a world that is not totally unlike ours to make sense of who we are and where we are headed.