Plot 101: Introducing some more of our main story. Honestly, one thing I’m enjoying about 86 is how it’s been building up the world. In the first episode, we got hints and questions. Here we get answers, but also more hints to hook into for the future.
For
instance, in the first episode we were given the hint that there was
a finite amount of time left in the war – a two-year timer, after
which hostilities would be expected to cease. It seemed a little
odd, but not enough to comment on because there could have been a lot
of reasons for a timer like that. This week, we get the reason: the
enemy attacking is suspected to be, basically, an AI rebellion that
wiped out its home nation before attacking . However, the units will
shut down when their system clocks reach a certain point, and since
all their clocks appear to be synchronized, the point where the
rampaging machines shut down has been predicted.
Personally,
given everything else the government lies about, I’m inclined to
maintain a healthy level of suspicion about that fact, but given how
far out the ‘end’ timer is, we might not need to address that for the
moment. The same scene also gives us the proper meaning of the title
and some more full history of how our Dystopia came to be the way it
is. The Republic, our main nation, created a system with eighty five
administrative districts to be defended in response to the machine
attack, but stripped anyone without the correct ethnicity (Silver
hair and eyes) of human rights, exiled them to the non-existent
“eighty sixth district” outside the wall that the 86 (as those
people came to be known as) had to build, and forced them to fight on
the front lines. I’m not entirely sure how this tyranny was
achieved, but suffice to say it was. And, since it’s only as old as
the war, it’s fairly recent – at least, in action. For something
like that to form it’s likely that the prejudice existed before the
persecution.
One of
the tantalizing hints going forward is actually how that prejudice
manifests. Some officer candidates refer to the 86 as people who
‘failed to evolve’, and given that silver hair and eyes are not
currently found in the canon of earthly demographics, that might
suggest that the dominant culture was the subject of some sort of
deliberate genetic modification. Exactly what, other than a
particular coloration, that modification might entail is of course
currently unknown.
We
also learn that, while she didn’t engage in the fighting, the Major
has been to the battlefield at least once. Further, she can speak
fairly freely against state dogma in part because her uncle shields
her from any real punishment… though my sense of plot has me
worried that she’s going to overestimate at some point just how much
protection she has.
On the
other side, we do get a nice full combat scene this week. The action
shown off this week is… good. There’s a flow to it and some good
tactics, and while it’s not always crystal-clear since the show goes
more for a gritty look and feel, it’s not all jittery dark blur
either, you can actually get a sense of the play, counterplay, and
events. The Major does her best to advise Undertaker and the rest of
her squad, but Undertaker is a few steps ahead. Still, it’s not as
though she does a bad job, and after the battle she seems to have
what passes for the respect of the squad – they still don’t like
her or anything like that, but they don’t seem to despise her or wish
her, personally and emphatically, any particular ill the way they did
their last handler and presumably the rest of the previous five.
In
more small notes, one of our ‘face’ characters, aside from
Undertaker, among the 86 has silver hair and eyes like the main
culture. I’m not sure if she’s got internal issues with the biotech
I’ve speculated, fell prey to some kind of one-drop rule, or is a
political ‘prisoner’ (which would bode ill for the Major), but it
seems worth bringing up as something I’m expecting to be followed up
on.
The
last note that’s sure to get a followup on comes right at the end of
the episode, when the major is once again talking with her squad.
She learns that most of them are four years in and Undertaker himself
five years, which tells her that Undertaker is almost ‘done’ with his
service, soon to be released and granted citizen rights. She goes
on, asking him about what he’d like to do with his life once he’s
free, but it’s clear enough to the audience and, from their
reactions, to the 86 that no one should expect that promise to
actually pay off, and despite her honesty about the humanity of the
86, our Major is still potentially woefully naive regarding the sins
of her own government.
All in
all, 86 seems to be taking something of a slow burn pacing, taking
time to establish atmosphere rather than throwing us from exceptional
scenario to exceptional scenario, which I actually quite appreciate
in something that is technically a War show. Normally we’d just be
concerned with the thickest fighting and the baddest enemies, but
here in 86 we’re more interested in the lives of our characters,
which should serve to make it more impactful when those lives are in
jeopardy or even lost.
As a
final side note for the week, it seems like it’s going to be a steady
thing for 86 to roll the credits for an episode at about the 2/3
mark, rather than the end. So, if you’re watching for yourself, be
aware of that. It’s an odd choice I don’t think I’ve seen done
before to not just have a stinger scene, but a hefty chunk of the
episode’s meat after the point where most people think they’re done.