Lazarus – Episode 12

Episode Synopsis:

Axel and Christine talk about the future in the hospital where Axel is recovering.  Doug, captured by INSCOM, waits for his chance to break out, and gets it when Eleina and Popcorn Wizard perform a hack-assisted rescue.  Eleina has mysteriously overcome her Hapna-induced fever.  The NSA makes moves to discover the identity of Soryu, and its director meets with the U.S. President to obtain an Executive Order to have the NSA raid the INSCOM headquarters to rescue Hersche.  The co-conspirators at INSCOM turn on each other, and Captain Hayes is killed shortly before the NSA raid begins.  Leland hangs out with the cat.  The NSA discovers that Soryu and HQ (Soryu’s agent) are the same person suffering from a multiple personality disorder.  With Popcorn Wizard’s help, Dr. Skinner’s location is found, and the team begin to converge on the location.

Episode Review:

As you can probably tell from the synopsis, a lot happened this episode!  I found it to be overwhelming.  Instead of the sort of tense thriller atmosphere it was likely going for, I found myself repeatedly saying “who?”, “where are we?”, and “what a coincidence!”.  Probably not the reaction you’d hope for from the penultimate episode, as the minutes are ticking by to the Hapnapocalypse.  Let’s take a look at the causes of my disorientation.

First, “who?”.  As Su pointed out last episode, we really don’t have time for Soryu’s backstory at this point, but the NSA for some reason is pulling out all the stops to figure it out.  This led to the first moment, as this guy showed up:

Maybe the hacker pervert from the rooftop helicopter scene didn’t make that much impact, but when he walked in, I really had to rely on context clues to recall why Leland was so surprised. 

The revelation that Soryu and his agent are the same person was next.  I had barely even remembered that there had been an agent for Soryu back when he met with the INSCOM guys, so this was a “who?” followed swiftly by a “…so what?”  How is this helping us solve where Dr. Skinner is?

Lastly, the director of the NSA goes to meet the president.  They’re talking like they’re old friends, but I had to repeatedly ask myself “am I supposed to know this person?”  I think (?) the answer is no, so it wasn’t a particularly impactful scene.

Next up, “where are we?”.  The team is at this point so spread out that I really have no idea where any of them are in relation to each other.  Doug is in some hospital with the NSA (possibly in Pakistan?), Axel and Christine are at a different hospital (in the US I think?), the director is in Washington DC, and Hersche is in INSCOM HQ, which is… somewhere, I’m sure.  This left me confused when Christine gets this request:

As in, you want Christine, who is holding a smartphone with a built-in screen, to leave the hospital so she can drive to Lazarus’ base (located who knows where relative to the hospital) so she can look at a picture on a screen there?  Why??  There are 24 hours left before the world ends and we’re going to waste some of that just so Christine can help ID the assassin, a thing that, again, has no bearing on where Dr. Skinner is?

As for “what a coincidence!”, you’ve probably caught some of it already from Su mentioning that Eleina collapses right in front of Popcorn Wizard last episode, but it continues here.  The INSCOM betrayal happens mere minutes before the NSA raid!  Doug is able to commandeer a hypercube that is finished but not in operation yet so he can get from Pakistan to the US just in time for the finale!

Popcorn Wizard was given instructions by Skinner to divulge his location to anyone that found her!  NSA lady has heard of the ultra-secret assassin program Soryu was trained in! 

Dr. Skinner is in the homeless encampment right next to Lazarus HQ!  Wow, what a crazy series of coincidences!

The whole thing really gives the sense of being rushed, with simply too many pieces to set in place before the final episode to make the storytelling feel good.  To the show’s credit, nothing feels completely incoherent, just too much too fast.  I suppose it’s too much at this point to hope for a solid ending, given that we’ll be trying to tie up three separate plotlines (Hersche’s rescue/INSCOM brought to justice, Soryu’s story, and the hunt for Dr. Skinner) all at the same time, but we’ll see.

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