Wow, what a plot twist we were delivered! Well, actually it was more like what a matryoska doll of plot twists. I’m very impressed by the route Babylon is taking and I’m just hoping it’ll be able to maintain this kind of rhythm. Either way, it continue to keeps me on the edge of my seat.
So many reveals this time around, but let’s try to go in order. The first really important thing we find out is that the election is already fixed and they know that the youngest candidate will win, in fact, they decided it that way. Seizaki finds out that Shiniki is a special city that is going to be used as a testing ground for a group of laws in different kinds of sectors in order to have results that will make it easier for these laws to be pushed in other parts of Japan (and maybe the world) afterwards.
Seizaki is obviously frustrated. He’s made to choose whether to continue with his investigation of Inaba and Fumio’s deaths but overlook what he think of as crime or to just leave the investigation altogether. In the end he chooses to continue the investigation and he shares what he knows with the police officer who’s helping him. I must say that when they’re in the bridge and the police officer says that it’s probably a good thing for a law to be passed that will make legal certain drugs faster, I was a bit concerned… would that also mean they would skip regulation and testing just to get it out in the market? The whole thing seems fishy on a lot of levels, but well, later on when they figure out what drug Dr. Inaba had developed, then things on this front cleared up a bit.
As the investigation continues, Seizaki learns more of the Shiniki initiative and he’s more and more disgusted by it all. He meets the new elected mayor after the election and Itsuki seems friendly and normal enough. Later on they he and all his inner circle of advisors go missing just one day before the inaguration of his term. When this happens, Seizaki finds out that the women he’s trying to investigate and interrogate are all just one woman, Magase Ai and she’s also missing. She has the ability to seduce about anyone and to become any woman. Morinaga tells Seizaki that Itsuki brought her in so she would be used as a way to speed up the Shiniki initiative.
During a meeting with the police officer and his reporter friend Seizaki decides that as Itsuki has worked very hard to get to this position, he wouldn’t just lose it, so he’s probably just waiting to make a move. As they theorize about different ways to approach this, they realize it might be possible Ai somehow talked both Dr. Inaba and Fumio into comitting suicide. Then the news come on showing a group of people standing at the top of a tower. On the way to that building Seizaki receives a call from the IT tech letting him know the pill Inaba was developing was just a sleeping pill in order to die. Seizaki is confused and shocked.
Right then Itsuki makes an appearance on TV talking about how Shiniki is a place of change. His speech is grandiose and poised, but his words are a little bit terrifying. He ends up with decreeing that having a right to die is now legal and then the group of people at the top of the tower all jump. It’s a very dramatic moment and definitely memorable. The music in this episode was really great for mood-making as well. Seizaki is surprised that so many people would choose death instead of life, but he feels like he’s finally beginning to understand. He sees Ai in the crowd and understands that this woman is the key.
I’m wondering what’s going to be in store for next episode? I want to know if this decision is also a part of the larger Shiniki initiative or if it’s just Itsuki’s idea. This show feels very relevant right now, with all the political issues going on around the world now, it’s kind of thought-provoking, but it also has the right amount of crazy that will continue to remind me it’s just fiction (hopefully it’ll remain that way…)
The main character names are quite interesting.
As was mentioned in a previous episode, the kanji in Seizaki’s full name have characters meaning righteousness and virtousness.
Magase’s name, 曲世 愛, has the kanji for perverse, world, and love respectively. So I think the story’s setting her up as Seizaki’s twistedly dark counterpart, the agent of chaos against his uprightness. Good vs evil, Sherlock vs Moriarty, etc.