English Dub Review: The Darwin Incident “Heterosis”

Overview

Lucy visits Eva, the chimpanzee who gave birth to Charlie, at The Kornberg Primate Research Institute. There, she meets Dr. Fowler, who tells her a few secrets about Charlie’s birth. She later joins Charlie’s family for dinner as Hannah celebrates Charlie’s first friend, unaware that the ALA members are lying in wait.



Our Take

Picking up from the previous episode, this installment leans hard into spectacle and tension, delivering a burst of kinetic action that firmly establishes Charlie as an overwhelming presence without losing its sense of intrigue. The episode revels in the “rule of cool,” but what makes it work is how well animated the action is staged. As Charlie doesn’t just overpower obstacles, he navigates his surroundings with precision and intent, suggesting a mind as sharp as his physical ability.

Beyond the action, the episode shines in its character work and thematic undercurrents. Conversations quietly explore fear, anxiety, morality, and perception, often highlighting the gap between how Charlie processes emotions and how the humans around him do. There’s also a persistent sense that Charlie’s very existence places a target on his back, making even moments of calm feel temporary and fragile.

Overall, this episode emerges as the point where The Darwin Incident truly locks into place, delivering a punchy, high-energy thrill ride that pairs confident direction and sharp choreography with an increasingly unsettling sense of consequence. By the end, it’s clear the series is no longer just flexing its premise; it’s interrogating it, framing Charlie not simply as an overwhelming force but as an unresolved question the world is unprepared to answer.