The Arrival
In the first episode of “The Baby,” a woman running through the forest is chased by several police officers. She falls to her death at the cliff-edge, and the baby she was carrying falls with her. The baby starts crawling toward the edge, but as an officer offers to grab it, he only grabs its little sock. The baby falls with the woman, and the episode ends with them both dead. ..
Natasha is our protagonist and she’s not exactly happy about Tasha having a baby. She looks at her baby with disdain, seeing it as a massive burden on one’s life and wants them to go back to being carefree best friends, drinking and smoking. ..
This conversation takes a turn for the worse when Rita announces that she’s pregnant. When Mags leaves off the back of Tasha’s rudeness, Rita does too when Tasha throws up an abortion “joke” to her. It’s a bad night all round.
There’s clearly a lot going on with Tasha so she decides to leave for a while to get some perspective. Her destination is a little beachside cabin, with a sofa-bed for, well, a bed. Anyway, while Tasha is outside having a smoke, the moments from the opening comes into context, including a particularly effective jump scare as this yellow jacketed woman falls to her doom.
As Tasha drives away, she sees a boulder fall from the sky and land on top of her car. The baby is safe, but Tasha is worried about what will happen next. She takes the baby to the police station, where they do their best to help her.
The woman is on her way to work when she comes across a petrol station with a problem. The baby seems to be causing the attendant to die, as we cut back inside and see the man lying on the floor, blood oozing from his head after a fallen shelf.
Lydia Wilcox is finally identified as the woman who jumped off the cliff. Tasha gives her statement, including the incredulous story about all the dead bodies.
The officer is in a difficult position. She believes she’s not telling the detectives something, and as a result, is being held for the night and the baby is being kept with Tasha. However, when Tasha starts breastfeeding, it momentarily turns into a demon. Tasha wakes up to find herself still in the police cell.
Tasha is cleared of her charges though and allowed to go, where she heads home and looks set to get her life back underway. That is, until someone leaves the baby outside her door again.
The Episode Review
The Baby is a strange, dark comedy-drama about a baby who starts out incredibly weird but quickly becomes compellingly mysterious. There are echoes of AppleTV’s Servant here, as the baby’s strange behavior and enigmatic nature is contrasted with the more normal world around them. However, the lightness of the story feels a little less pronounced than in other episodes.
It’s also worth noting that there are also similarities to The X-Files too, and in particular the episode “Chinga” where a doll ends up going on a rampage. There’s some nice parallels between the two and it makes for a really intriguing watch.
Tasha is a less likable character, but her placement in the story is intentional given the goal of making her more likable as a result. I imagine we’ll see her slowly grow closer to this baby, perhaps even come to understand exactly what’s going on and who the woman in the yellow jacket really is.
Either way, this is an enticing start and certainly sets things up nicely for the future. ..
