Ahhh…back to the good stuff. Much more to say on this one.

The episode opens with the aftermath. Ginoza’s crew wonders if it’s really over…but even if it is, they’ve still got one thing left.

I would have just saved this for later except for the snippet of the Division 2 Enforcer sneaking off. You know I’m a sucker for anything that shows that our crew of six seven is not alone.

Kogami and Tsunemori are recovering too—physically and mentally.

This is in response to Tsunemori asking if they can really count this as a victory, given everything that happened and whatever’s going to happen as a result. I found this an interesting parallel to Chief M’s point about the MWWDC: they’re at the back end of the Sibyl system, and people never think about or see all the things that are going right, all the crimes not being committed. It’s also a more realistic response to how Inspectors and Enforcers can have a rising Crime Coefficient than Masaoka’s “two sides of the same coin”—like being a doctor, being a detective is inherently stressful due to its “best-effort recovery” nature.

This whole scene is an interesting discussion from Kogami. (Tsunemori is mostly listening.) He points out that Pax Sibylla¹ relied on some kind of collective blindness about the everyday dangers of civilization—that anybody could pick up a hammer and…

Tsunemori takes a moment to process this, but “it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary [and mental health, and well-being] depends upon his not understanding it!” It is not really surprising.

…and while I’m here, I’ll mention that this lesson applies to us just as much—climate change, all sorts of systemic social privilege, imperialism, etc—which should be obvious given that what I quoted is from the 30s.

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Meanwhile, Chief M has some shocking news for Ginoza.

I missed the significance of the book on her desk the first time around.

Ginoza is angry about this, unsurprisingly, but M fires back with a low blow.

I suspect Kagari wasn’t in her plans, but it actually worked out really well for her. Killing him didn’t just keep him from spreading information, it actually made Ginoza (and Tsunemori) look bad. They’ve now lost any political capital they would have been able to burn in Makishima’s handling.

Of course, that’s a moot point, since there are deeper machinations going on here.

For once, Makishima doesn’t seem to know what’s going on.

It’s okay, I don’t ever remember her name either, Advent Child.

I’ll fast-forward a little. We get a shocking reveal that Chief M is actually the Specimen Killer from Oryo Rikako’s school, and I’m wondering if there’s something in him now having a female body, albeit an android’s. That turns out to have a much more practical explanation, though: he’s just one individual among many who occasionally inhabits this body (and others?). The Sibyl System.

Wait, what?

Oh. CS note: this actually has roots in a specific research effort in Japan from the 80s, Fifth Generation Computer Systems. That’s most likely why it’s PDP specifically and not just general AI.

(Also, I like the StarCraft font they have for “Sibyl Systems” over there.)

Specim-M reveals the working of Sibyl as a network of extraordinary brains, and invites Makishima to join them. Actually, they (neither “she” nor “he” being exactly appropriate here) mostly just take it for granted that Makishima would want to join, which means they’re not paying attention to Makishima’s world-class side-eye.

Like Makishima, I’m a little amazed that a room of individuals can lead to a society functioning even half this well. Specim-M says it’s because they get people with zero empathy in order to make logical decisions without emotions getting in the way, but that doesn’t seem like nearly enough, especially if they get to keep their individuality. Of course, there could be a lot more to it than that: maybe their brains or mental states are altered, maybe the others in the network can apply pressure if one person deviates, etc.

But this still gave me pause as I imagined Makishima entering the network, and suddenly having all of society available for his games. As Kogami has pointed out, the violence is mostly just a means to an end (though it is a tool to explore humanity). But that doesn’t mean Makishima couldn’t decide to do something horrible or invasive with Sibyl—and as a man with charisma it’s certainly possible that he’d be able to take the lead.

Unfortunately for Specim-M, but probably net-fortunately for Tokyo, Makishima’s not interested in any of this. Instead, he drops a reference to

Gulliver’s Travels? You’re slipping, Makishima. I know it’s political and social satire, but it’s also the story about the guy who washes up on a beach of tiny people. (And, incidentally, the origin of the CS term “endian”.)

On the other hand, that results in a new entry in the list of unlikely action movie one-liners.

Specim-M: “You are a genius at sarcasm, Shogo.”

As expected—and like Kogami—Makishima has put together enough clues to figure out he’s on a plane, and subtly set up several makeshift weapons during their conversation. Specim-M’s no brawler, and it’s all over in seconds.

I was surprised to learn that Specimen Killer would actually die from this. I figured that the Sibyl members were controlling the android body remotely, or perhaps that they copied themselves in and out of the body. But I guess they already made this clear with Tunnel Boss: they don’t know to make an artificial brain and brain stem yet. That implies Specimen Killer’s brain is actually present, and that he might therefore actually die.

Makishima says straight-up that he doesn’t want to join Sibyl because he wants to remain a player in the game (of life). This doesn’t quite click for me, since previously it had been hinted that Makishima was still looking for a purpose in life. But I guess he can tell that this isn’t it.

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I’m empathizing with Makishima a lot in this post, so I’ll take a moment to repost this from his introduction in Episode 4:

It did not escape my attention that the book Advent Child Head Villain is reading is Orwell’s 1984. That makes them an anti-Sibyl group, but an anti-Sibyl group that kills YouTube stars isn’t one that’s going to get my sympathy any time soon.

As Kagari crassly pointed out in the previous episode, being anti-Sibyl doesn’t mean being pro-Makishima; and as I’m sure Kogami would say, getting the references doesn’t mean you agree with everything the man says, particularly his conclusions.²

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Actually, what would Kogami say? The post-credits sequence says he’s still quite haunted by Makishima.

But it’s not just memories. Makishima indulges himself by calling to gloat…and gives Kogami a hint about Sibyl.

Ah, so this is it: the real start of turning Kogami.

(…as foreshadowed by the new opening)

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Whew! I feel better after this one, actually having some things to say. Or at least make fun of. Five to go!

This entry was posted on June 04, 2017. Tags: Psycho-Pass, Psycho-Pass watchthrough, xkcd