Lazarus – Episode 11

Episode Synopsis:

Doug and Eleina head to Pakistan to find Popcorn Wizard, who they believe knows the location of Skinner. They are pursued by assailants from INSCOM who hope to silence them before they reach their goal. Elsewhere, Axel learns from Hersch that he took a Hapna prototype in prison along with several others, and was the only one to survive. Before he can fully process that and ask more questions, he’s attacked by the assassin and has to fight for his life.

While all this is happening, Hersch confronts INSCOM about their bioweapon experimentation using Hapna.

Review:

Yeah, this is just a continuation of the problems I was sensing in Episode 10. This episode is a messy amalgamation of “Oh damn, we need to get stuff done NOW!”.

There are some set pieces here that could have made for good storytelling, if we knew we had another half a season to go (remember when 26 episodes was the NORM?!). Things like Eleina experiencing Hapna symptoms, or there being an assassin who might have ties to Axel could have upped the drama in a solid way. Instead, we get more stacked onto this already flimsy card castle, and it’s beginning to topple over.

The strongest part of Episode 11 is the fight sequence between Axel and the assassin. If Watanabe deserves credit for only one thing in this show, it’s that he knows how to direct a fight sequence. The action here is fluid, fast paced, and exciting to look at. There aren’t a lot of cutaways where your brain has to fill in the missing event. This shows that the animation staff worked their rear-ends off to make this sequence flow smoothly when its onscreen. The surrounding environment continues to look excellent as well. CG is well blended and the shots of the city look great. This is key, because the fight sequence mentioned above relies on parkour and movement into new spaces. Regardless of how I’ll feel about the show in the end, the environments and world-building are strong.

The other two plot points are significantly weaker. Doug hangs back to distract some pursuers in order to allow Eleina time to escape into town and find Popcorn Wizard. She walks around for about…10 seconds and happens upon Popcorn Wizard’s van. I know Doug/Eleina were tracking her with GPS, but it feels like a waste of a fascinating destination like Pakistan. Are we going to address the fact that she just passed out from Hapna-fever? Eh…probably not…? The show doesn’t even have the guts to rough Doug up. Isn’t the Lazarus group being tagged as terrorists?! It’s not that I WANT anything bad to happen to Doug, but he just gets a punch to the face and then the Suits take off. This is especially odd when we get the cutaway to Hersch revealing that the pursuers are INSCOM goons who are there to silence Lazarus before they find out about INSCOM’s dirty laundry.

The INSCOM plot is even worse. I think this was discovered offscreen somewhere in Hersch’s research and now we’re shoehorning it in?? Skinner was a really solid morally gray villain. Why do we need this mustache twirling “Evil Corporation wanted to make a bioweapon out of my medicine” bit, like this is some cheap daytime TV drama? I’m really baffled by this storytelling choice, and it reeks of some executive telling Watanabe and Co. to, “Wrap it up boys. You aren’t getting the ratings we need, so we are axing this show here and now!” Add all this to fact that Hersch goes to INSCOM genuinely thinking she’s going to stop the chase in Pakistan is laughably bad writing.

Again, this addition may not have been an issue if we had more time to work with this plot. Having Skinner go bad because he watched his life’s work get sold as a killing mechanism is a strong motivation. It’s also natural that an advancement for humanity that’s meant for healing gets twisted into a mechanism for violence. It’s just all coming to light way too fast and overshadowing the manhunt/mystery aspects of the show, which I really enjoyed.

Summary:

This episode is bloated and while the fight between Axel and the Assassin is cool to watch, it ends with some nonsense about the latter’s backstory. Bro…we do not even remotely have time for you.

We have two team members in Pakistan, Skinner’s timer counting down to single digit days, and now some plot about Evil Corp. making bio-weapons. I am very concerned the rest of the show is going to be a trainwreck….