Vincent is in big trouble as his food reserves run out and as he is ready to give up Pino reminds him he is not alone by calling for him — she has spotted a light moving their way. Just as Vincent gets on deck a helicopter appears and starts blasting away at the ground around them. Apparently they have managed to sail straight into a battlefield between auto-reives and the heli. As Vincent and Pino try to manever between the explosions they run crash into a dune and are apprehended by a man with an assault rifle. They are taken to a military base where they are offered food and a man that appears to be the commander of the base questions Vincent on where he came from. After pointing out where Romdeau is Vincent rushes to the bathroom as the food gets rejected by his famined body.
When Vincent’s done with the unpleasantries Pino asks him if he’s alright and he reflects on how he didn’t notice how close he’s become to her during their voyage. Just as they’re about to return Pino spots another flashing light and rushes the other way. As Vincent gets there he sees nothing even though Pino insists it is there and he tells her to follow him back. As soon as they return they are thrown into a prison cell and accused of murder. Vincent tries to claim their innocence but gets told nothing like this had happened before he got there. He is soon left alone with only his thoughts about how death seem to continously haunt him wherever he goes but before long his neighbour in the next cell greets him with a moan and tried to grab Vince in a welcome strangle. Turns out she is crazier than Jack Nicholson in the shining and all she keeps mumbling about is how the “Master” will come, bringing the light. Vincent gets the impending feeling that something is awakening in him and completely snaps, falling down in a pile on the floor with drool running from his mouth.
Meanwhile the base is under attack from the auto-reives who soon make their way to the prison cells freeing both Vincent and the lady from next door. At the same time the commander is on the top of the base at the helipad desperately trying to fight off the auto-reives but soon decides it is too much and gets ready to leave in the heli. He do not get far though as the real culprit behind the murders makes itself known — another proxy with razor sharp hair. It makes short work of the commander and the pilot sending the helicopter in a plunge down a shaft into the base where at the bottom the lady from the prisons awaits it with open arms. Also waiting is the proxy from Romdeau which proceeds to toss the other proxy around like an old rag, tearing of its sword like bangs before removing its mask and zapping it with some kind of rays that leaps between their eyes. The blue rays soon expand into a huge sphere and in the next scene Vincent is lying in the rubble, unsconcious. An unknown man walks up to the corpse of the proxy, smiling, and picks up a card with the joker. I think Pino put it best: “Dare?”
Lots of Pino awesomeness in this episode! It was slightly spoiled by some crappy character animation yet again. Luckily I’m pretty forgiving but I really hope they do not make this a trend and get their act together. This show, if any, deserves some really nice animation to go with the already great story. It was almost completely forgotten with this sweet eyecloseup though! Speaking of eyes and the animation, what was up with the droopy eyes on everyone? It was almost as if they were all about to fall down dead asleep.
It seems like Pino is able to somehow see the auras of proxies manifested as flashing lights. This has got to be connected to cogito somehow and I can’t help but think that the proxies themselves are not evil but rather are being controlled somehow. Especially in the scene where the Romdeau Proxy removed the mask from the other proxy. That with the light flowing from its eyes felt very much like an “eye opening” scene where the masked proxy was shown the truth. Also alot of things are pointing at the fact that Vincent seems to be the Proxy from Romdeau, and in this episode in particular he almost said it straight out himself.
I like how they have split up the leading cast as two completely different sides of the story. First we have Real on the “inside” of things doing all the figuring outs while Vincent is on the “outside” desperately trying to survive in the harsh world. Ironically Vincent is doing alot better in the surviving part than Real and we have yet to see anything at all about what happened to her. I didn’t watch the preview for the next episode because I didn’t want to spoil even the tiniest bit and I love being kept on the edge of my seat like this!