Hello all, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to last season’s 86, which had a bit of a rocky start script-wise, but then proceeded to impress me with an all-around excellent second episode. I’m still not sold on the larger strokes of this show’s worldbuilding, but it’s more than made up for that with the character moments so far, which have convincingly illustrated the human bonds between the 86, as well as Lena’s distinct perspective. 

Lena is absurdly naïve about the nature of her own country, and basically everyone around her knows it. But at the same time, her optimism, good intentions, and high competency as an operator still seem destined to win over Undertaker’s crew, even if they know too much to echo her feelings. My biggest concern now is what will happen when Lena’s optimism slams into the brick wall of her government’s perspective. The 86 have been intentionally dehumanized in order to provide a steady source of disposable soldiers – by walking around saying shit like “we all look up at the same stars,” Lena is deliberately undercutting her country’s propaganda efforts. In 1984, the response to such a threat to the class system was “reprogram the irritant” – I doubt 86 is going that route, but it also seems hard to believe they’ll just let her do what she wants. Whether her reckoning comes through learning the truth about her nation or being outright sanctioned by it, I’m eager to see where her story goes. Let’s get to it!

Episode 3

Oh god, this one’s called “I Don’t Want to Die”

We open inside the cockpit, with the HUD conveying a bleak “Signal Lost,” accompanied by Lena’s apologies. Though she sympathizes with the 86, it doesn’t feel like their deaths parse as full human deaths for her yet. The show overall has done a terrific job of conveying both the brutality of their lives, as well as how accustomed they are to that brutality, largely through Undertaker’s familiar post-death rituals

June 13th. We’ve jumped ahead three weeks

As always, the show presents an extreme contrast between combat and everyday life, as the 86 attempt to drown out the darkness of their lives with the camaraderie of their time off

Oh god, they’re planning to peep on the girls. Well, this is still a light novel adaptation

The red-haired girl apparently has a crush on Shin (Undertaker’s real name)

“An Eastern lady should be dignified and reserved, so…” So is this country actually Japan? The architecture seemed more European, and they made a big stink about how the silver-haired people are the superior race, so I figured it was more a generic fantasy world. Grounding this conflict in the real world would actually give it a bit more bite, but I feel like the author is more comfortable conveying prejudice as an abstract thing than actually diving into its real-world roots, based on the worldbuilding so far. “Nine years ago, a portion of our country unilaterally decided another portion was no longer human” is about as abstract as it gets

Red-hair is Kurena

I do like this beat of every girl immediately switching from playtime to guns drawn as Kaiya is pushed out into view

Dubious concept aside, this sequence is also offering plenty of character-rich interplay between the team. None of them feel like single tropes – they have a variety of internal dynamics

This show’s transitions are so damn good. Whether it’s for selling the jokes with their perfect comedic timing, or this brutal transition from Kurena laughing to her storming out of the room, the choices of when to cut add so much to this show’s impact

Kurena is angry that Shin spends so much time talking to Lena, when their own time together will inevitably be so brief

“Why even bother being nice to a white pig?” A natural insult for their overseers – the oppressors refer to the 86 as “pigs,” so the 86 refer to them as “white pigs,” emphasizing how they’re ultimately no different

Oh damn. So “Kirschblute,” the lost operator from the cold open, is the brown-haired girl who we’ve been hanging out with all episode. An excellent trick there, undercutting the benign normalcy of this episode’s shenanigans with the knowledge that she’ll soon be dead

The 86 discuss meteor shows with Lena, underlining the same point as the food in the first episode: Lena’s world contains only artificial things, none of the beauty of the natural world

“Kirschblute, do you hate us?” God, Lena is just so earnest

“I was one of the rarer races among the 86.” Having experienced discrimination from the 86 as well, Kirschblute can’t see this conflict in black and white terms

All this bonding makes her imminent death feel that much more tragic. Brutal use of dramatic irony

Lena is off with Henrietta, shuffling through the stacks to find maps for her soldiers. Henrietta’s attitude is about what you’d expect from a generic citizen: she doesn’t actively detest the 86, but she’s not interested in their lives, and finds Lena’s enthusiasm a little aggravating

“We’re all humans. We have a relationship of trust.” Oh Lena. Her heart is more or less in the right place, but she has a wildly misguided understanding of her own government, the 86, her relationship with the 86, and basically every other element of this scenario. “Relationship of trust” my ass

Her nightly conversations have shifted from just a check-in with Undertaker to a more general group call, which is good – it enhances their belief in her, and also undercuts the idea that she’s pulling Undertaker away from them

Even their cat is an orphan, taken in when its family was destroyed by an enemy shell

We replay the conversation that we just finished on the 86’s side, this time from Lena’s perspective. It’s an interesting choice – I presume it’s intended to underline the pure-white constancy of Lena’s world, where these conversations are basically the only thing that offers any sort of color to her sanitized daily life. Where the previous sequence continuously shifted across the various activities of the 86, this sequence just keeps cutting from and to the same shot of Lena’s room, emphasizing how nothing changes

We at last get Kirschblute’s question: “why do you care so much about us?”

“A long time ago, I was saved on the battlefield by a Processor. He said to me, ‘We are members of the Republic. We were born here and grew up here. It is a citizen’s duty to protect his country. I am proud to do it. That’s why we fight.’” A key piece of context here. Lena doesn’t just happen to be more empathetic than her peers – she underwent an experience that forced her to acknowledge the humanity of the 86s

“Handler One… you’re a virgin, aren’t you?” Awkwardly phrased, but metaphorically very true. She still believes in ideals that likely wouldn’t survive the harsh testing of lived experience

“I’m going to warn you. You aren’t cut out for that job, and you shouldn’t get involved with us.” Yeah, this work is likely to destroy her. She cares too much to perform this role

Her new map is immediately put to good use in their next battle, on the 15th

Ooh, I love this. We don’t actually get to see this battle – instead, it’s conveyed from Lena’s perspective, as just a series of violent noises as she scans her units’ vitals. The visual theater acts as a brutal counterpoint to her efforts all episode long – in spite of trying her best to connect with the 86 and share their struggle, she’s ultimately still safe behind this panel, hearing the violence from a comfortable distance

Ahh, god. Lena neglects to recognize the wetlands on her new map, and thus Kirschblute ends up trapped and killed. Lena had the information necessary to save her, but didn’t recognize it or relay it in time

“I’m sorry? From your perspective, the deaths of a few 86 are something you can forget by the time you go home for dinner. Understand that we don’t have time to deal with your hypocrisy now.” Yeah, here’s the reckoning. The squad were willing to humor Lena’s self-regard to an extent, but with one of their comrades dead, her “can’t everyone get along” and “I’m one of the good ones” perspectives are impossible to tolerate. However she feels about it, she is one of the oppressors

“You’ve never called us ‘Eighty-Six.’ But all that means is you’ve left it unsaid.”

And Done

Hell yeah! That was easily the show’s best episode yet, offering the long-awaited hammer fall on Lena’s simplistic, idealistic, and frankly insulting perspective. Lena has consistently regarded herself as a genuine ally to the 86, someone who has risen above the discrimination and cruelty of her class – but ultimately, her perspective is still based in an unfathomable degree of privilege, as she still benefits from all the wealth of her position, and is never actually at risk. With Kirschblute’s death already announced in the cold open, this whole episode proceeded as a grim, inescapable walk towards tragedy, inflating Lena’s ego only to obliterate it with that awful punchline. Just being nice to her soldiers doesn’t change the fact that they are ultimately disposable slaves; if Lena wants to genuinely earn their trust, she’ll have to do more than simply acknowledge they’re people. All that, along with the show’s consistently excellent direction and outright brilliant editing, made for a terrific episode on the whole. Bring on the next one!

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