Psycho-Pass 21: "Blood-Stained Reward"
In contrast to Episode 20, this one’s all about racing to stop Makishima’s Evil Plot. That’s why there’s a bunch of negotiation between Tsunemori and Kogami in the middle of it, while Makishima sits there reading a book.
…wait.
(You can tell we’re really near the end this time because Makishima has worked his way all the way up to the Bible. Even if it’s a verse about seeds.)
Kogami is practicing his pouncing lessons
while Tsunemori is preparing her submissions to the “Nihilist Memes” Facebook page.
Kogami didn’t bring any authorized eyeballs, so he’ll have to find another way in. He calls Tsunemori who is so unfazed and nonchalant about this I’m expecting her to go star in a film noir after the show is over. After all, she is a detective.
Tsunemori gets a chance to practice her Slytherin again with Kogami but is quickly outmatched. Their only option is to revolutionize the world shut off the power to the facility, which will let Kogami in as well. Since they don’t know how long Makishima’s been here already, they don’t have time to think of anything else.
Still, before they go in, Tsunemori brings up her sub-plot. “If you find Kogami and he’s over 300, don’t shoot him. I have a Secret Weapon.”
In the car (yesterday?), Tsunemori had pointed out that this will increase their chances of success with Makishima, and so Sibyl reluctantly agrees, as long as she’s discreet. The secret’s safe for now, but…
Masaoka’s saying this out of care, and Tsunemori isn’t really managing to disguise herself very well, even though she attempts to put on a smile. The last time we saw a Tsunemori like this was just before she went through the memory extractor—fatalistically focused and determined.
“Why are you doing everything that Satoshi did?”
But Tsunemori offers them the perfect excuse in a calm voice: check her Psycho-Pass. Which is lower than ever.
Dammit Tsunemori I had this theory way back in Episode 2, don’t acknowledge it now.
Still, they’re ready to go. Kunizuka cuts the power…
…and Makishima pauses, then calmly closes his book. He’s foreseen this possibility, and is ready.
Everyone’s willing to let Tsunemori be the leader at this point, and so she splits them into two groups: her and Kunizuka to lock down the emergency power, and Ginoza and Masaoka to flush Makishima out of the main lab. This is not a great plan, and she realizes that later, but honestly I can’t think of anything better, even after the fact. Game theory says the cost of guessing wrong is really bad here.
What follows is the most we hear out of Kunizuka all show, which automatically makes it interesting to me. She continues where Masaoka left off, pointing out how fatigued and depressed Tsunemori seems even as she takes the lead. But she also admits that Tsunemori’s earned her respect, a change from her first appearance as the naïve little recruit.
Tsunemori’s comment, more to herself than to Kunizuka, is that if she holds on to hope, she can “be a detective until the end”. In contrast to Kogami, of course.
Tsunemori and Kunizuka seem to have made it in time—no Makishima in sight. But…nothing ever goes wrong for Makishima. So what could he be planning instead?
Oh, right. Makishima doesn’t run from danger. He is the danger. Here he is, looking more Advent Child than ever.
(Points to Masaoka for deflecting the darts with his prosthetic arm. That’s pretty badass.)
Masaoka actually holds his own against Makishima, which is pretty impressive. However, when it looks like he’s about to get the upper hand…
I figured this out a few seconds before Masaoka did. Ginoza makes the professional call, and of course Masaoka doesn’t listen. I don’t think I would have either.
EDIT: I forgot to make a Japanese note here: the word Makishima uses is つまらない, which I’ve more usually heard translated as “boring”. In this case the word that’s most coming to mind is the derogatory “lame”, although that’s a word I’m trying to eliminate from my own vocabulary. Regardless, it’s not just that Makishima would do something “stupid”; it could also be that it’s “predictable” or “trivial” and probably a bit of “uncool”.
At this point Kogami catches up and starts recklessly chasing after Makishima. The backgrounds are tinted various colors, and it feels like the subway tunnel chases from Episodes 10 and 11.
Before he catches up to Makishima, he starts calling out “you’re nothing special”, based on his analysis in Episode 19. But of course Makishima has thought through this too. He may not be sure of his place in this society, but Kogami telling him he’s just lonely isn’t going to do anything; he’s too self-aware for that.
Kogami manages to catch up and shoot Makishima, but it turns out to be a mirror. If I were reaching for symbolism here there would be a few things I could say about that, but I think we’ve had plenty for one show—and speaking of “plenty”, that’s where the episode ends. The final showdown will happen next time.
The most interesting thing to happen this episode is that Makishima stays. He doesn’t try to run, as Tsunemori knows he won’t. He doesn’t go for the most obvious road to save his plan either, which could be because he knew the M2NE1 would get there first. Instead, he hangs out in the lab storage area, where he’s set traps, just to get the chance to take on more Inspectors/Enforcers (and Kogami).
What this says to me is that he doesn’t really care whether his plan succeeds or fails. Yes, he would like to see what Japan is like when the system breaks down, but not so much that he’ll actually bother to escape. It’s all just part of the same game, and fighting Ginoza, Masaoka, and Kogami down in the basement is the next challenge.
That is, he’s just doing this because he’s bored. (I suppose you could call it ennui instead of boredom, but the effect is the same.)
Way back in Episode 9 I mentioned that Makishima didn’t seem very engaged, and then later his eyes lit up at the thought of Kogami. I think that ultimately Makishima is “interested” in individuals, and that chaos on a grand scale is a little too abstract to really hold his interest. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to know what would happen, but that it’s not more important than, say, getting to meet / talk philosophy with / fight Kogami again.
There’s only one thing left that might surprise him, and that’s actually being paralyzed by a Dominator. We’ll see if that comes to pass…in the final episode.
…next time.