Elle tracks down the final name on her list of targets,
those involved in the mass slaughter of her fellow Replicants in the
desert. Her revenge is far from finished
when she learns the true mastermind behind the “Doll Hunt”, setting Elle on a
collision course with the most powerful man in Los Angeles, the head of the
Wallace Corporation himself. Meanwhile,
Detective Alani Davis finds herself being investigated by the LAPD following
the murder of Chief Grant. Will her
inability to capture Black Lotus lead to her dismissal from the LAPD?
Hmmmm.
You know,
given all that goes down at the end of this set, you’d think we were on the
final episodes of Blade Runner: Black Lotus.
Elle’s revenge quest is pretty much wrapped up, including a bonus name
that took Elle to the top of the…I was gonna say Pyramid but that was Tyrell’s
HQ not Wallace’s.
I guess there are a
number of revelations that need to be explained and some mysteries still to be
solved.
Plus not everyones storyline has
been wrapped up either.
Blade Runner can
leave things open ended if it chooses, no matter the tale.
Still, this set had some major things happen
but I’m glad it isn’t The End just yet.
Elle kept pretty busy as you’d expect.
She quickly dealt with the short lived Doctor
M, albeit she was captured first.
Said
capture revealed something interesting about her creation.
It’s well known in Blade Runner lore that
Replicants are given memories, both artificial and occasionally real, as a
cushion so they can better handle emotions.
Elle is no different, with implanted memories for sure…but not all of
them were given by Doctor M or his assistant…so who did?
Wallace Jr. clearly had some kind of a hand
in the creation of Elle’s batch of new Replicants, maybe it was him?
Either way, that’s one major mystery that
could drive Elle in the last set of episodes to come.
Speaking of the future Jared Leto character, Wallace
Jr. had no problem letting Elle in to kill his father.
The guy with a God Complex even noted his
father was “A minor, short sighted Deity”, though that’s certainly the pot
calling the kettle black.
This is where
Wallace Jr.s rise to his 2049 version truly begins as now there’s nothing to
stop him from implementing his steps to revitalizing Replicant production on
Earth for his own ends.
Even at a
younger age, he’s a cold blooded little bastard that’s for sure.
So yeah, in spite of it being deemed an impossible
mission, Elle dawned a sexy all black ninja garb (completing her Battle Angel
Alita evolution) and stormed Wallace Corps main HQ.
It kind of reminded me of the story Deckard
is told in the original movie about Batty’s crew of six Replicants sneaking
into the Tyrell Corporation, leading to the demise of two of them, leaving
Deckard to hunt down the other four.
Sure enough, I wondered just how bad it was going to be for Elle hitting
the place single handidly, especially when Marlowe showed up for a
rematch.
Thankfully, Elle had backup as
J got off his ass and actually did something that didn’t involve him moving
around or speaking at the pace of a Sloth. Surprising no one, we learned
earlier that J is a long retired Blade Runner, allegedly the “Best of the
Best”, but they’ve said that about Deckard too (and I believe that far more,
what did J retire his targets by boring them to death?).
All in all, it was an intense sequence and
Elle definitely took some damage.
It all
led to something that was pretty freaking cool to see that I don’t think I’ve
seen in Blade Runner yet: a hoverbike and man did it look slick.
However, there was a major stumbling block dead in the
middle of this set.
After sitting out an
episode, Davis returned to be interrogated about her investigation into Black
Lotus aka Elle.
Thing is, this whole
episode was about 90% a clip show right in the middle of a 13 episode
series.
I get that for a 26 episode
title like Gundam, but for a limited Blade Runner series, really?
Even Davis’ explanations didn’t offer
anything new.
We knew she’d been looking
into things and had drawn her own conclusions.
Really, the only scenes of note were that Davis had found the Doll Hunt
location, which was in an off limits zone in the Nevada Desert.
And said discovery has led to her being
basically fired from the police force (ok she’s on medical leave but yeah they
cleaned her desk, she’s not gonna be allowed back).
What does this mean for Davis now?
She knows just how high up the conspiracy
must run and she has a deeper understanding of what Elle was trying to tell her
when they encountered one another.
Is
Davis still determined to bring Elle to justice, or is there a chance this
former Cop could team up with the fugitive Replicant?
So what Blade Runner Easter Eggs did I spot this
time?
Couple of things actually.
First off, good old Doctor Elden Tyrell got a
shoutout, with Wallace Sr. thinking he was going to meet the same fate as the
former Replicant creator…not quite but still he met a grizzly end (plus we saw
Elle gouge out Senator Bannister’s eyes before she killed him, far more in line
with what Batty did to Tyrell in the original Movie).
Tyrell wasn’t the only one who got a shout
out.
An Owl, similar to the artificial
one Tyrell had in his office could be seen in that Greenhouse before Elle
fought Marlowe again, that was so cool.
It was kind of disturbing yet pretty to see an actual sunny sky above LA
for once.
It did appear in the original
movie when Deckard and Gaff are heading to the Tyrell Corporation but given how
bleak and dreary LA usually is, it’s a nice change of scenery.
It also gave us the sight of an Atari
billboard, still the leading Video Game developer of the Blade Runner universe
(you can see ads for it in both Movies).
Anything else?
I think I spotted
Davis using a data reader similar to the one K used to run through DNA records
in Blade Runner 2049…think that’s it.
Blade Runner: Black Lotus was super busy this week and
based on Elle’s violent attack on the head of Wallace Corp himself, you’d think
this was the finale.
But it is not.
There are still four episodes left and so far
this show has been…fine.
It certainly
isn’t the massive stand out that Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 are (or
Blackout 2022) but it’s fine.
I’m sure
I’ll have more to say on this when we get to the Series Finale of Blade Runner:
Black Lotus, Next Monday right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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