If you’re following the American release schedule, this contains major spoilers.
Told ya so. Rei-L catches up with Vincent and finds out he’s Ergo Proxy. She wonders if she should kill him, and he blurts out that he loves her. In an abrupt and awkward moment, they kiss. Then things get weird. Which, for this series, is quite relative. Perhaps we should backtrack a bit.
The middle arc of Ergo Proxy veers into quite a bit of abstraction, and it’s quite eclectic. At first, this series seemed like a riff on Blade Runner, but now that it’s ventured into the world outside Romdeau, things have changed.
Rei-L is presumed dead after falling at the hands of the Cogito-infected doctors, but it turns out that she survived, and Daedelus has sent her to an odd town that resembles a 1950’s suburb populated only by simple servant robots. She has a dream/vision, and with Iggy in tow, she sets off after Vincent.
Back in Romdeau, Raul confronts Daedelus and an odd cat-and-mouse dialogue takes place. Raul’s caught in the middle, being snubbed by the Regent on one side and manipulated by the doctor on the other. He gets some introspective time, and it appears that the theme of the show has changed.
Raul questions his own mission and what he knows, and the question focuses on the idea of self-will. Is everyone simply a “proxy,” acting on the whims of an unknown higher authority?
Vincent appears to be suffering issues of self-image as well. He ends up in a city at war, and in their final battle, they are attacked by another Proxy. Vincent sees Ergo show up and kill it, but he passes out in the rubble. He and Pino are taken in by the drunken king of an empty city who informs Vincent that he is indeed a Proxy.
Another episode finds him wandering into a bookstore in the middle of nowhere called City Lights. He meets an odd philosopher/librarian type who discusses Rousseau’s theory on the origin of language and its relation to sentience.
At this point, the focus has largely shifted away from Rei-L. The main issue is Vincent’s self-realization and how he copes.
Rei tracks Vincent down, and he reveals his nature to her. Rei isn’t sure whether to kill Vincent or not. She’s been given the means by Daedelus, but circumstances intevene. The threat is still there, but it’s unclear if Rei plans on carrying it out. He claims to be in love with her, but she shows no sign of reciprocating.
At this point, Rei and Iggy are almost too far from Romdeau to return, but Rei wants to follow Vincent back to Mosque (“Moscow?”), so she sends Iggy back without her. He protests, and she orders him directly.
Thing is, Iggy’s infected with Cogito, and he realizes he’s nothing without his master. He sees Vincent as the man who would take Rei away from him, and Iggy returns, resolving to kill Vincent.
Sure, it’s an immature and schoolboyish thing, but that’s Iggy. Programmed for loyalty, then bestowed with emotions: this is a realistic reaction. Iggy confronts Rei, and his bitterness at being rejected comes out. He calls her spoiled, irresponsible, immature and reckless. He points out that she’d likely be dead without him, and he’s not wrong. At this point, Rei simply isn’t a very likeable character.
Things hit the fan, the group is attacked, and Iggy dies protecting Rei anyway. The death scene is a bit protracted, but it’s nice to note that there’s no happy last-minute reconciliation. As Rei holds Iggy, he alternately expresses affection and resentment.
At this point, she decides to accompany Vincent and Pino. They end up in another deserted city where they’re confronted by dopplegangers of themselves (perhaps other Proxies). It’s an oddly directed episode full of false starts and flashbacks, but it works. Each symbolically kills the other, and it seems Pino’s the only one who understands what’s going on.
It’s worth mentioning that, in the midst of all the navel-gazing and rampant surrealism, Pino’s often the bright spot holding things in focus. I usually detest child characters with a rancor reserved for telemarketers and people who pass wind in elevators, but she’s grown on me.
Pino’s an infected Autoreiv that was designed as a companion unit for childless families. After her surrogate family is killed, she falls in with Vincent. Sometimes she acts as the choragos or simply an observer, at others, she’s a subtle catalyst for minor events. Like Iggy, she’s a machine that’s developed emotion and self-will, but unlike Iggy, she’s had time to come to terms with it.
She’s still naive, and in the Blake sense of things, completely innocent. She begins to comprehend death but isn’t sure of the implications. She forms attachments to people based on odd and sometimes arbitrary reasons. It’s a nice change that while she brightens things up, she’s not there as comic relief. She’s a microcosm of several of the themes running through the second arc, and she’s quite charming in her own right.
Oh yeah, and there’s an episode where Vincent’s the contestant on a game show.
It’s anybody’s guess where this is going. Many people have been put off by the odd twists, and it’s true that there are some real pacing issues, but so far, Dai Sato has done well by setting up expectations and toppling them. It’s a credit to his writing that the show can veer from sci-fi to road movie to art cinema without losing its footing, and it’s come a long way from the first episodes.