Dhruv Trivedi
Amazon Prime’s sci-fi anthology series ‘Solos’ is a courageous attempt at the minimal yet deep explorations of the human experience. Using futuristic touches, each episode creates a situation that forces the protagonist to confront various aspects of their humanness, like regret, fear of solitude, and jealousy. The outcomes, sometimes heartwarming and sometimes heart-wrenching, are always transformative, giving each episode a weighty emotional dynamic.
Episode 6 features Nera (Nicole Beharie), a woman who finds the solution to her all-encompassing loneliness in motherhood. However, in what is possibly the strangest post-pregnancy experience, she must decide the fate of her son and whether he is the answer to her prayers. Sparse yet deep, the story gives us just enough to empathize with the protagonist while explicitly holding back details. This leaves us wondering about the magnitude of what Nera has gotten herself into. Let’s see if we can throw some light on the crucial details of ‘Solos’ episode 6. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Solos Episode 6 Recap
‘Solos’ episode 6 opens amid a severe winter blizzard. With the radio in the background warning the populace to stay indoors and protect themselves from the storm that’s already claimed 3 lives, we see a very pregnant Nera alone in her home. As she slowly makes her way around the house, she is struck by sharp pains in her abdomen. In between visuals of Nera gasping in pain, we see her house littered with newborn paraphernalia, from mugs with pregnancy messages to photographs of her child’s embryo and many cards congratulating her on her impending motherhood.
In a brief scene when Nera opens the fridge, we see that she is on a medical regimen for IVF. Soon after, as her contractions get more severe, she calls up her doctor. Due to the storm, the phone connection is scratchy, and the doctor’s voice is soon cut off, but not before he mentions that it’s too soon for her to be having the baby and that something is wrong. After trying to call the police to no avail, Nera is forced to give birth by herself.
Soon after giving birth, Nera wraps up her newborn son Jacob and places him in a stroller. A few minutes later, however, the baby disappears from the stroller. Upon entering the kitchen, Nera is shocked to see a young boy of 2 running around. As she stares in disbelief, she gets a call from her doctor, Dr. Burrell, who warns her about her newborn child. However, his voice cuts off again, and all we hear is that Jacob is “incredibly” gifted at something and that she must protect herself.
Solos Episode 6 Ending: What is Wrong With Jacob?
After her call with Dr. Burrell gets cut off again, Nera finds Jacob, now around 6, in the kitchen holding a knife. To calm him down, she makes her son a snack and begins to tell him the story of her childhood. It is then revealed that Nera was abandoned in a dumpster as a baby and was rejected multiple times in her life. With her son distracted by the food and her story, she takes the knife left on the table by Jacob and is about to stab him when she is interrupted by a knock on the door.
It’s the police, finally responding to Nera’s call for help at the beginning of the episode. She hesitatingly responds to their queries, but upon being asked whether she is alone, she responds with a definite “No.” Satisfied, the cops leave, and Nera is left alone with her son, who now looks like he is in his mid-teens. As she finishes telling Jacob her story, she lowers the knife that she intended to kill him with.
So before we get into the question of Nera wanting to kill her son, let’s get to the bottom of why she considered killing him in the first place. There was obviously something very wrong with Jacob that made him age at an incredible pace. However, the only clue we get from Dr. Burrell about what might be wrong is when he tells Nera that there might be a malfunction in the programming. Doubtless, he is referring to Nera’s IVF treatment, but we are not given any further details.
We also hear Nera mention side-effects concerning her anomalous pregnancy. If we were to postulate, it is plausible that futuristic IVF treatments use some form of an accelerant to speed up the child’s formation so that babies can be birthed in less than the natural 9 months. However, this biological accelerant is supposed to stop functioning after childbirth so that the newborn can age at a natural pace.
The side effects that Nera mentions could be related to this accelerant, which continues to affect Jacob even after his birth. Hence, he continues to age at an alarming pace, becoming 15 years of age in less than an hour. However, this would also mean that Jacob would die within a few hours, which then makes us wonder why Nera would bother killing her son if he is going to die in a few hours anyway.
The answer might lie in Dr. Burrell’s incomplete statements over the phone, where he mentions that Jacob is “incredibly” something, though we never find out what. The doctor then stresses to Nera the need for her to protect herself, meaning that her son can be a mortal danger to her. This could refer to any number of ways in which the treatment might have given Jacob attributes that make him dangerous.
However, the attribute that is visible and could make him dangerous is that Jacob seems to somehow know that his mother wishes to attack him. He states as much soon after he is born when his mother asks him to put down the knife. The fact that Jacob could be dangerous out of a need for self-preservation is an interesting, albeit inexplicable, twist in the story that is introduced but left unexplored.
Does Nera Change Her Mind About Killing Jacob?
At the end of the episode, it seems as if Nera has given up the idea of killing her rapidly aging son Jacob. The reasons for her doing so are evident from her story, where she expresses her long-standing need for company. The lonely Nera’s main motive for having a child is to have company. She is possibly reminded of the fact when asked by the police whether she is alone, and she can reply for once that she is not alone but with her son.
Additionally, Nera is reminded of her childhood and past struggles with rejection when she tells Jacob her story. This most likely makes her realize that by killing her son, she would be disposing of him in the same way she was disposed of as a baby. With such compelling reasons, it is most likely that Nera does, as it appears, change her mind about killing Jacob and doesn’t go ahead with it.
However, this doesn’t solve the issue of why she wanted to kill Jacob in the first place. If, as hinted by Dr. Burrell, she wanted to kill Jacob to protect herself, then the danger could very well still remain. If that is the case, then Nera, along with allowing Jacob to live, has also made peace with the fact that her son could very well harm her sometime during his apparently short life.
Read More: Solos Episode 5 Recap and Ending, Explained
