Ergo Proxy: Life after God

…and so it winds to a close. Though this series has ended up in a completely different place from where it began, the ending is quite satisfying. Looking back over it, this was far more ambitious than the initial episodes seemed to suggest.

Massive spoilers to follow.

It appears that the old hipster in the City Lights Bookstore was actually another Proxy, and that he was attempting to goad Vincent into remembering the truth about his identity. The following episode finds the cast being forced to participate in a game show against their will. If he wins, Vincent gets all manner of wonderful prizes. If he loses, he dies, as well as Rei and Pino.

The gameshow setup is actually a diversion for a massive amount of exposition, and quite a clever one at that. We learn that the earth has been largely uninhabitable due to ecological collapse, that the survivors (“Creators”) fled aboard starships in project Boomerang, and that 300 Proxies were left to shepherd the fledgling new human race until the Creators could return.

This helps explain the usage of “proxy.” The beings called Proxies were carrying out the plans of the Creators on a world where they could not survive. It appears that each of the Proxies created a dome city of his own. According to Daedelus, the new humans cannot reproduce, so the Proxies invented the artificial womb system.

It’s a bit of an odd turn seeing the role of Proxies turned from menace to shepherds, but things rapidly appear to come together.

(Incidentally, Vincent won the gameshow.)

Moscow looms closer, and Vincent and Rei appear to be developing a bond of sorts. Rei seems to be softening a bit after Iggy’s death, and not having him in her life as a constant confidant and servant appears to have forced her to open up to other human beings.

Back home, Raul and Daedelus catch the broadcast of the gameshow (I guess it was sent through a hacked satellite), and Raul goes off the deep end. Vincent represents everything he lost (Pino, his trust in the system of Romdeau, his own conception of self), and Raul lashes out. He goes off the grid, countermands orders and launches “Rapture,” an ICBM that levels Moscow.

Kristeva is appointed in his place, and she tracks him down, but too late. He’s dragged before the Four and it’s revealed that perhaps this was all expected. He’s reinstated, and he greenlights Daedelus to start experimenting on the Monad proxy again.

Vincent and crew arrive in the ruins of Moscow, only to find that someone else has been there first and erased the evidence Vincent needs. It is revealed that “Vincent” was actually an alter-ego created by Ergo Proxy so he could forget. His lack of memories was deliberate. He left an Autoreiv in Moscow with his memories, but when he and Rei arrive, it has already been destroyed by another Proxy.

They decide to return to Romdeau, and on the way back, they find an unprotected settlement of Morlocks, who may be the remnants of the original human race.

At this point, it would appear that most of the Proxies have gone insane, whether from inborn instability or from years of waiting and loneliness. Pino gets her own episode, in which she’s thrust into a city called the “Land of Smiles,” run by a Proxy who thinks he’s Walt Disney.

She meets the Proxy, and he explains that, like many others, he tried to create a utopia for his flock, but he has failed. He begs Pino to dissuade Vincent from coming, as he will only bring doom upon the city, flawed as it may be.

Like the previous five or six episodes, this would appear to be a sidestep, but look closer, and there’s a great deal of information to be gleaned, and credit’s due to the writers for presenting it in such a loopy and entertaining way.

The show finally winds itself back to Romdeau, and we find it nearly ruined. The Cogito virus has infected almost all of the Autoreivs, and citizens are dying from an unknown plague caused by Daedelus’ experiments. Things are falling apart, and there’s a clone of Rei running around.

Let’s step back for a second. At this point, it’s revealed that the black Proxy from the beginning of things was Monad, the proxy of Moscow, and the lover of Vincent/Ergo, who was the creator of Romdeau. Ergo Proxy saw Romdeau as a failure, and he went to Moscow, leaving Regent Donev in charge. Donev saw this as the abandonment of God, and invaded Moscow, taking Monad. In his anguish, Ergo Proxy buried his memories and re-entered Romdeau as a sleeper.

The face of Vincent is his true face; the mask is what he wears to turn away from the truth. He kills Donev, and Proxy One shows up. One tells Vincent that the Creators are returning, and that with them, the Proxies will be destroyed. With the sun returning, the Earth will be inhabitable again, and there will be no need for Proxies or artificial humans (it’s worth noting that the immortal Amrita cells are killed by sunlight). The Pulse of Awakening would cease, and the Creators would wipe the slate clean.

Proxy One has a long Evangelion-type dialogue with Vincent, and he explains that Vincent (as Ergo Proxy) was created as a secondary Proxy to One. Confused yet? What Proxy One did not expect was that Vincent would go out into the world and experience life as a human, and that this would change him.

Clone Rei shows up, with wings and all. Earlier, it appeared that Daedelus had constructed her as a version of Rei that would love him, and though this was true to some extent, it goes deeper. Original Rei is a clone of Monad. Yep. This explains why Monad attacked her in the first episode. Rei was meant to be with Vincent on some level the whole time, and she mentions that she feels a connection with him, even when he manifests as Proxy.

The white Clone asks Vincent to join her, and he refuses, saying that his place is now in this world with the Rei he knows, no matter what happens. He gives his Proxy amulet to her, and she flies up into the light of the rising sun, disintegrating (Get it? Daedelus). Meanwhile, original Rei is hurt and struggling to find her way out of the collapsing city.

Pino goes looking for Raul, but he dies before the two meet.

This is getting long, so to wrap up, most of Romdeau dies. Vincent, Pino and Rei escape aboard the ship with Kristeva, whose last order from Raul was to look after Pino. Notice that Kristeva appears to be infected at the end.

In the last scene, the ships of the Creators are returning to Earth. Vincent is the last of the Proxies, able to survive because he has embraced his identity as a human. It looks as if he and the survivors will have a fight on their hands if there’s a second season of this show.

All in all, Ergo Proxy wound up quite nicely. It’s a deep show, and well-produced. It takes quite a few strange turns, and even knowing its secrets, I’m sure I’ll watch it through again soon to pick up on the things I’ve missed.

At first, it seemed that this show took the same tack as many other anime of running a slow middle, then dumping a ton of information at the end. However, almost all of the revelations in the last three episodes are hinted at in one way or another in earlier sections. Notice that Hude had predicted that Vincent would lead the people against their oppressors back in episode 4, and that appears to be his destiny in the end of the series.

Will there be another season? There’s been no word, but the show was well-received in Japan, and if American sales do well, it may very well happen.