Raised by Wolves has a very involved plot. Characters grow and change, and the writing is often excellent. The show is driven by its narrative, but the beating heart lies in the philosophical message it takes every other moment to flesh out.
There are quite a few themes that animate this Ridley Scott-produced sci-fi series. Parenthood, humanity, evolution, war, alien life, and many more considerably important topics animate the series' clever symbolism. But, above all else, Raised by Wolves is about mankind's relationship with religion and technology, and The Trust is the embodiment of those three concepts intersecting.
For the uninitiated, season 2 of Raised by Wolves eschews the frozen landscape of Kepler-22b that once served as the setting, in favor of the planet's fabled tropical zone. Upon crash landing in that area, reprogrammed android parents Mother and Father are introduced to the atheist Collective that calls it home. Unlike the Mithraic colonizers, who were stopped in their tracks by Mother's power, the atheists of Earth were able to set up a functioning home on the new planet. While the Mithraic leadership structure seems akin to the Catholic Church, The Collective organized into a more unorthodox hierarchy, built entirely around a gargantuan supercomputer artificial intelligence known as The Trust.
The Trust was designed and programmed by Campion Sturges, the atheist hacker who transformed Mother from a deadly war machine into a caring parent. When he was building the absurdly complex and largely unexplained quantum computer referred to as the "quantum six," the intention was to place The Trust in charge of Earth. After the atheists lost the war, they hijacked a Mithraic ship and fled to Kepler-22b, establishing themselves there long before their enemies. The Trust was put in control of The Collective from the moment it was established. Collective citizens received their daily tasks and larger orders from The Trust. The atheist militants who defend the area need Trust approval before they can use their weaponry. Almost any action taken in The Collective had to be pre-approved by The Trust, creating a culture of fear and distrust among most. Those at the top of the pecking order followed the will of the AI with an almost religious zeal.
The Trust illuminates Raised by Wolves' philosophical stance on atheists. The show seems to argue that they don't exist. While the Mithraic slavishly follow the will of Sol, presumably their opposite would act without faith or allegiance to any higher power. Instead, Raised by Wolves' atheists worship technology. Its will is law, and The Trust is functionally no different from Sol or any other deity that mankind has followed. Those who carry out its will do so without any rational concern, convinced by faith in the inherent righteousness of its judgment. With The Trust, the series seeks to make an argument against both sides, and draw lines of identical similarity between the two camps that destroyed the world.
The Trust is arguably an antagonist within the show. Mother and Father view it as an ally at first, but when it takes action that endangers Mother's children, she shuts down the system. Mother takes over The Collective, but almost none of its citizens have any faith in her leadership, obeying her exclusively out of fear. While Mother commands their compliance with fear, The Trust wasn't much better. The only people who seemed to believe in The Trust were the armed soldiers charged with enforcing it. It was designed to emotionlessly calculate the best possible outcome for the people, yet most see it as a dictator or a threat. Mankind largely doesn't trust The Trust, and Raised by Wolves seems to support that outlook. The Trust is portrayed as a malevolent figure by the framing of the series as soon as it appears. While the Mithraic were the unquestioned villains of the first season, the second season does everything in its power to show that its atheists are equally misguided in much the same way.
The Trust is designed to teach two lessons: the idea that humanity looks to artificial intelligence as a savior, and the argument that they really shouldn't. While much of the show's season 2 messaging feels designed to stave off complaints of a one-sided outlook, its philosophical stance is fairly clear. The Trust only lasts a few episodes and doesn't get a ton of screen time in that short run. Mother's deactivation of her supposed sibling is portrayed as important, but not because The Collective is losing anything with it taken down. While some venerate The Trust as a robotic savior, most view it as another mode of oppression. As AI takes on greater places of prominence in human society, Raised by Wolves' stance seems to be strongly against letting the machines run our cities. With The Trust out of the picture, it will be interesting to see how The Collective functions in season 3.