See how they run.
We come back with Rouge imprisoned by human forces, being allowed to slowly starve of Nectar while the authorities, including her removed-from-power brother and Naomi with the grand new title of “Divine Facilitator”, debate what will be done.
Before a final decision can be made and before Rouge expires, she’s rescued (though it’s unclear how much this is a rescue versus a kidnapping) by a member of the Immortal Nine who seems… I would say particularly psychotic but the murder clown exists so really she’s only middle of the road psychotic. Specifically, she wants to free Neans and punish humanity as a whole for the presumption, and is particularly enthused about what Rouge could mean for the effort. She fights off Naomi’s goons, but ends up running in with the cop from before, who is going after the case still despite orders taking him off.
The cop takes them home, mostly because it seems that the silver Immortal Nine is also, thanks to multiple personality, both of the twins we met previously, who are rather reasonable and nice. They try to challenge Rouge on her belief in her moral superiority and why she’s been hunting and killing the Nine, but don’t get very far and ultimately leave Rouge with the cop.
Meanwhile, it seems that both Naomi and Rouge’s brother are scheming ways to correct the current course, while we get other tidbits and hints like the blue Rouge lookalike from the trippy episode existing on earth, Giallon still being alive, the ongoing terraforming of Venus and how it’s both a suspicious project and Nean hotbed, and so on.
Despite the brief summary, which is seeming to be quite the thing with this show, there was a good deal of meat to this episode. We moved both just about every line and character forward, as well as establishing a good deal more about the world in which we inhabit, like the fact that (with Visitor ultratech or otherwise) humanity can make planet-towing black holes if needed.
There’s a lot unanswered about the Visitors (Is Naomi one? Her station of privilege and level of knowledge suggest it’s possible), Usurpers, and Neans, as well as just the main gist of what’s going on, but I think the biggest question right now is, where do we go from here? This episode was dedicated to asking that, tacitly the next bit will answer.
Because, when you think about it, the main thread so far was the manhunt to clear out the Immortal Nine. But with the brother out of power, Rouge wanted, and Naomi taking up her seemingly literal mantle of authority, that seems to be off to at least some degree. The basic “list of people to kill” quest no longer exists, and with it has vanished Rouge’s reason for doing much of anything and the majority of what we thought we knew about Naomi, Alethea, and the status of humanity. Technically, from here, Rouge could go to ground and the powerful organizations shift their balancing act around to a new homeostasis, but that wouldn’t be interesting. The characters need to do things, and what they do and why they do it will be critical.