Psycho Pass 3 Part 4 Episodes 7-8

It is a time of desperation.  With Kei and Mao captured during an undercover assignment, it’s up to Arata and Chief Mika to get the evidence they need to raid Heaven’s Leap and rescue their comrades.  Things are even more desperate for Kei when his wife falls into the hands of the enemy.  With so much at stake, what sacrifice will Kei have to make and will it mean turning against his best friend and partner, Arata?  Or is the will of Bifrost too powerful for anyone to oppose?  Whatever the outcome, one member of Unit 01 will not make it through this case alive.

You have got to be kidding me.  Did…did we just lose Yayoi?  That would be a heartwrenching note to leave things and probably the biggest one considering the heap of unanswered questions and dangling plot threads left after these last two episodes.  Also, just to clarify, that isn’t a complaint.  No way, this was a far better ending to a far better season of Psycho Pass that makes me hope that Psycho Pass 4 gets here pronto.

All of the setup from last week paid off in spades.  Episode 7 was all about wrapping up the Sybil and Religion Arc and it did so in grand fashion.  Both generations of Unit 01 reunited again for the takedown: with Gino and Soga rescuing Kei and Mika leading the Raid from the outside, risking a lot for her subordinates, something I would never have imagined her capable of in Season Two.  We got some good action along the way.  While it was cool to see Gino and Soga go two on one with an old lady assassin, the biggest moment was Kei’s wife, Maika, putting her old combat training to good use and killing Torri.  She just snatched that gun and lit him up, it was definitely a “HOLY S***” moment for sure.  Naturally, the downside was that Maika got arrested as a latent criminal, which drove a wedge between our favorite leading duo since Kei blames Arata for not keeping Maika safe in the first place.

Actually, Arata wasn’t involved in the raid himself at all.  I will say that I’m glad (now) Governor Komiya wasn’t just a one off character for the Govenors Arc (ok these arcs don’t have official names so im just making them up as I go along, ok?).  She and Arata had great chemistry and it carried over here as they bickered about whether she needed protecting from another suicide bomb attempt.  Later on we’d see her buying a gift for Arata which might hint there’s a possible romance brewing between the two, which is awesome.  But Arata did his job and talked down Torri’s pawn from carrying out his attempt to kill Komiya just before he himself died of a terminal illness.  Watching Arata add negotiator to his resume of skills was stunning, if only for the revelation that he is “criminally asymptomatic” just like Makashima…aka Sybil cant read him.  I was just as shocked as Sho when the Dominator read Arata’s Psycho Pass as straight “0”. 

Well with Heaven’s Leap taken care of, there was just one episode left to tie everything together.  In my mind I just knew this wasn’t going to get a neat little bow tied on it like the first two seasons.  Even with the extended episode runtimes, there was too much ground to cover with Bifrost and the shared tragic pasts of Arata and Kei, who spent the bulk of the episode on uneven terms.  We did get a glimpse into the even deeper treachery of Bifrost as its “leader” (I use quotes because I don’t think there is a true head of the group but if there was Shirogane would be it), tried to off his other two gambling competetors and succeeded at one.  The other, up and coming “Congressman” Homura, managed the impossible: he managed to turn Kei into one of Bifrosts latest Inspectors by getting Maika out of prison.  Man did this not sit well with me.  I mean Kei being pushed for the love of his wife…I get it, he loves her.  And it adds more wrinkles to his strained position as Bureau Inspector and Arata’s best fried.  But still, it was hard to watch Kei give into the devils commands and have to lie point blank to Kogami about it…even if did Kogami warn him this lie wouldn’t last.   

Most of the season finale was spent with Yayoi conducting an extensive series of interviews with the new Unit 01.  Each member was asked what  they defined as “justice”.  As much as I wanted Bifrost dealt with, I didn’t mind cutting back to this.  It’s rare we just get a sitdown with everyone like this.  Plus any reason to see more Yayoi is welcome, especially considering her possible fate in the last moments of the episode (damn you Kei…even if he wasn’t directly responsible).  No doubt, Yayoi was using these interviews for some larger project that might be connected to the incarcerated Akane…and we still don’t know the full circumstances for said incarceration.  But it’s clear Akane is still being kept in the loop by Sho and Mika.  And, even though it was criminally brief, it was so damn good to see Akane and Kogami together again, even if they were separated by a door.

Was there anything I didn’t like about the finale?  Well we did get confirmation that Mao was indeed a “fox”, one of the people Bifrost manipulates into committing crimes without her realizing it.  But I still feel like she was the most underdeveloped of the Enforcers this season.  I do totally buy her commitment to her team, especially Kei.  But If Irie and Temma could both get half an episode dedicated to their backstories, Mao should have gotten the same treatment.  The other thing is the cliffhanger overall.  I love that things are left on a pretty shaken note and there’s still a lot of unanswered questions.  Some of these I assume will be cleared up in the announced sequel movie: Psycho Pass 3: First Inspector…and judging from the title could involve Unit 01 going after Bifrost directly.  But, much like Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory, I hope we don’t have to wait a long time in between seasons for that follow up (there was a five year gap between Psycho Pass 2 and 3).

And what are my final thoughts on Psycho Pass 3?  It was a HUGE improvement over Psycho Pass 2.  Better cast, better mysteries, better world building…yeah it’s just in a single word “better”.  Arata and Kei were the beating heart of this season and their bromance proved that Psycho Pass didn’t need Kogami or Akane to really work if necessary.  Bifrost was a fascinating new adversary that thankfully wasn’t another attempt to carbon copy Makashima.  The new Unit 01 turned out great, even if one of their members was sorely underdeveloped.  And it was always a blast to see the old team interact with this next generation (especially seeing Yayoi and Kogami in particular).  Surprsingly, the 45min episode lengths didn’t bother me.  Granted, the first two episodes didn’t have the best start in this regard, kind of mashing together two unrelated cases kind of clumsily.  But after those episodes, things were ironed and smoothed out, allowing for better pacing and more compact stories told over a couple of better organized episodes.  All in all, this was the follow up to the first season that Psycho Pass 2 should have been.  It pushed the world building, tackled more morally questionable topics and examined real world conditions in a unique way in a futuristic setting.  Sure we may not have all the backstory as to Akane’s incarceration (though Kogami coming back to the fold might and the beginning of Mika’s likeability can probably be found in the Sinners of the System trilogy…need to track that down somehow), but that’s a small price to pay for an otherwise stellar new outing for the world of Psycho Pass. 

I award Psycho Pass 3 an 8.5/10