There’s no doubt that Zoie Palmer’s portrayal of Android has made her a fan favorite character. She pulls off the mechanical movements and intonations of an artificial person perfectly, but it’s more than that. Android has her quirks and Palmer effortlessly delivers the Pinocchio-esque “I want to be a real boy girl” reactions so convincingly I would swear she’s actually a mechanoid. From rattling off multiple accents to having a near addiction to hot chocolate, she’s probably the quirkiest crew member of a ship filled with quirkmeisters.

Android’s story has been one of slow, but purposeful evolution from sophisticated appliance to a true member of the crew. She’s even developed human-like faults (see hot chocolate addiction). With the upgrade chip, she’s gone undercover and kicked all the ass, and even given Three some much deserved sass. (I swear I wasn’t going for a Dr. Seuss rhyme! It just happened. Seriously.) And from everything we hear, her progression will go into overdrive in season 3.

As proof of her continued evolution, Joe Mallozzi tweeted this picture out the other day. But keep reading because the image I’m writing about is further down and it’s one you won’t see anywhere else. At least not until season 3 begins broadcasting.

As you can see, Android is looking very … domestic. She’s got a kind of June Cleaver/Carol Brady in space thing going on here. Adorned in an apron and wearing oven mitts, this is unusual behavior for her, but not beyond anything we’ve seen in season 2.

The image you’re about to see has Android doing something that is generally considered unremarkable for a human being. However, it is something I find quite remarkable, if not downright impossible, for an android.

(Click on the image for a larger version)

She’s crying! And she’s not just going through the motions of simulated crying, either. She’s actually shedding tears. This brings up some questions about how this is possible.

If she was manufactured to be the emotionless avatar and controller of the Raza, why would she be given the ability to produce tears? The upgrade chip makes her indistinguishable from a flesh-and-blood human, but no amount of computer code is going to make actual tears. That is something that has to be built in as a hardware feature. So is this an image of her after getting some kind of physical upgrades? I really don’t think it is because she’s staring at her hand as if she’s surprised her body is producing tears. I’m guessing this is another hint about her mysterious origins; the hows and whys of her unusual behavior.

As always, I’ll admit my ability to accurately speculate based on small hints is pretty bad. I’m hoping to hear from you and what you think is going on here. Please hit me up in the comments and on Twitter, where I practically live. I know I’ve said it many times before, but you really need to be reading Joseph Mallozzi’s blog regularly. As in daily. You can find useful links to accomplish all of this and more at the end of this post.

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Dark Matter season 3 premieres Friday, June 9 at 8/7c on Syfy & Space



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