Back to the Present
Well, our time in the flashback was mercifully truncated.. This episode we see a little fallout from the death of the cop in the previous episode, most notably his luddite mother and a dude who seems to be taking care of her. Then we jump to the present where the team is still looking into, if not exactly E, then the AI behind E. This is interrupted when the St. Petersburg Police want to talk to Harold
Thus, we actually get the modern mystery. Not only was the Nightmare apparently never caught, but now the cops are getting phone calls from Harold’s dead former master, asking them to find his killer. Spooky. At the same time, a killing of a robot (is that a killing? The show’s been kind of inconsistent on the social status) in the Nightmare’s style is done, though Harold is pretty sure it’s a copycat.
Thus, Harold and Echika do a little digging into this topic while pursuing the AI investigation, discovering that a digital replica of the dead guy was made and delivered fairly recently to that guy who was taking care of his mother, making him a prime suspect. Normally I’d say that it must be a red herring (at least for the Nightmare) because of how early we’re being told this, but Your Forma has taught me to lower my expectations. At least it’s slightly less transparent than the last arc. I’ll go ahead and shot-call
Along the way we also get that Bigga, who is now joined up with the department, may have the hots for Harold. I have no idea how relevant this is meant to be, but we got multiple scenes for it, so presumably it’s worth mentioning.
So, before I rip into the construction a bit I will say that this was a stronger episode and the pacing of it suggests that this could even be outright a stronger arc.
But… some of this still feels a little sloppy, like transitioning to the present by way of no transition. Or that we’re told that the Nightmare was a robot-hating Luddite who never left any evidence and yet he didn’t harm Harold (physically) despite Harold being a witness to an outright murder.
But really, the biggest problem at this point is that Your Forma has lost my trust. You have to be able to give most shows your trust as they take you through twists and turns, expecting that this is going to come out well. When you can’t, issues that wouldn’t have bothered you otherwise begin to. I think that’s how I’m feeling with regards to the limited cast, the random Bigga side material, the discontinuity around the Nightmare case, and so on. If I still trusted the show this could be solid atmosphere, a cute development, or a compelling mystery, but I no longer believe it will pan out like that.
So who knows, maybe Your Forma will surprise me. But at this stage, I’m going in to the last two episodes cynical.