Is that really plot?
Answers in a hospital
More in another
Episode 8 is something of an exposition episode. It turns out shambling Nagi isn’t malicious as he only draws his weapons to take out an Other that appeared behind Yuito, because that cliché hasn’t been done yet. We hear that he’s brainwashed and afraid of himself, while Yuito wants to properly rehabilitate him. An alarm sounds, Others pour in, and Nagi begs for Yuito to go until the teleporter forces matters, leaving Nagi to fight the swarm and… oddly enough, not actually die – he’s taken back by the government scientists.
On the outside, Yuito & co. are addressed by their commander, who is an insider who tried to keep this awful stuff from happening and failed. He points out how dangerous their discovery of a state secret is, but says he’ll put in a good word to shelter them, which should hold this time. One-time life-saver used, don’t annoy the powers that be again, at least not without a plan.
On Kasane’s side, her team jumps in to infiltrating the facility where Karen’s faction supposedly holds Naomi. They hack their way through the security system, clash with some oddly mechanical-looking Others (the Others we normally see have elements of manufactured products, but usually not bear metal, and certainly not in place of their flower motif) and enter a hallway of giant-sized rooms and doors. There, Kasane is able to sense Naomi’s presence and even manages to get connection, speaking to her weak voice. They enter Naomi’s room, but of course she’s still a giant monster, inert and intelligent for the moment. Naomi warns Kasane to go, but she drags out the tearful reunion too long and Naomi starts to go feral as the drug she was given to render her mind human wears down. Karen appears, gives Naomi another dose, and extracts his wayward team from the room.
He then refuses to give many straight answers about the process and what it will take to turn Naomi human again, but those he does give are decent: the red ampules we’d been seeing throughout the show are the serum that makes humans-turned-other get their intellects back for a time, and in order to bring them back to human form, Kasane’s power will be needed. Why or how it’s needed isn’t explained, nor is why Karen can’t do it with his power of copying powers, but that’s neither here nor there. One of Kasane’s allies asks a pointed question: what, exactly, is the drug made of? We don’t hear the response, but it’s clearly supposed to be frightful so frankly there are only a couple of things it could really be.
We then end back with Yuito, being cleared from his little commando mission, and also being delivered what should be his perscription from the hospital visit before. He opens said prescription, though, and finds a set of the red ampules. Seeing as he’d gotten the ampules as a clue as well, he’s quite shocked by the delivery.
On the whole, this episode was… significantly better. The action hasn’t really recovered, but it is tolerable, and we at least got motion on two lines this time and not a whole lot of waste. Things are looking up for next week, but this show is going to have to do even better if it wants to really redeem itself rather than just pulling out of the worst nose dive.