Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am delighted to be returning to The Big O, in the wake of a season premiere that was more boldly surreal than anything the show’s first season threw at us. With the revelation of his origins having shaken his faith in his own identity, Roger Smith walked the streets of a city that was alien to him, and saw his own life story refracted through theater and fiction. After a season of repeatedly dipping its toe in the water, The Big O at last took a plunge into the waters of existentialism.

The Big O has dabbled in surrealism and art-horror before. After all, these genres make for comfortable bedfellows with Big O’s central noir and giant robot influences. Noir has a tendency to embrace ambiguity of all kinds – moral ambiguity, of course, but also a more existential sort of uncertainty, a sense that this world is more vast and inexplicable than our capacity to contain it. Noir heroes know they cannot tame this world – they struggle against it, but the genre’s best moments are often acts of surrender, the “forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown” or “stuff that dreams are made of” moments. In these moments, the distance between noir and conventional crime dramas becomes clear – crime dramas are a fantasy of order and control, whereas noir understands this world is too strange and terrible to ever be pinned down.

Unsurprisingly, this sense of existential unease fuses naturally with The Big O’s psychological inquiry, presenting a world where the boundaries between reality and fantasy, or mystery and horror, are frequently blurred. Whether investigating his client’s requests or his own past, Roger is beginning to discover secrets that are perhaps better left undisturbed. The question is shifting from “can Roger discover the secret of Paradigm” to “should Roger discover the secret of Paradigm, and will his own sense of self survive the process?”

Let’s find out.

Episode 15

We return to that familiar opening motif, the broken clocktower. At this point, the only number still standing is the 12, seemingly implying that we are running out of time

“Negotiation with the Dead”

Dorothy now claims that waking him up with her piano playing is “a tradition.” Bless her

This cut with Roger waving his hand around really emphasizes the elegant simplicity of this show’s character art. The separation of his fingers is conveyed with as few fluid curves as necessary

“Listen, Dorothy. I have a rule about letting people into this mansion!” “I know you do.” He has lost all authority at this point, and it’s delightful to see

Lots of low-angle shots so far, gazing up at the skyscrapers or the Big O

His new client is Kelly Fitzgerald, an older woman with an intimidating entourage

She wants him to negotiate with the assassin who was killing senators last season. Her own husband is also a senator

Another shot hammering in the idea that we’re running out of time, with Kelly and Roger separated by an hourglass in the foreground

“Why can’t the old men who tried to save the city forty years ago have some peace?” “I’d say because they’re trying to hide something.” Interesting – so the current senate may have been directly involved with or responsible for the wave of amnesia

Roger states that Dastun killed the assassin, but Kelly responds that her husband was killed after that

Apparently, the assassin was actually killing surrogates of the senators, younger people who were somehow receiving memories from before their birth

The camera spins overhead as Roger speaks with the senator, with the sun motif in the center and the half-shaded room presenting a sense of full day cycles passing by. This episode is absolutely overflowing with a visual sense of urgency, of time slipping away

We keep panning back to Dorothy’s piercing stare. She clearly doesn’t truth this senator

I appreciate that Dorothy’s getting more fully integrated into Roger’s investigations. Likely because of RD’s potential involvement in this case, but I hope it’s a sign of them becoming more equal partners

Roger’s annoyed “do as you please” shrug is excellent

This overhead shot maintains a sense of nervous energy through the intrusive ceiling fan. This episode has featured a fair amount of exposition, but the storyboards are working hard to make sure we never actually feel safe

Roger’s contact states that only Wainwright could have made a robot of Dorothy or RD’s complexity. This episode is also serving as a quiet sort of recap of the first season, catching audiences up on all the lingering dramatic threads

The pair head out to Wainwright’s intimidating estate. Some nice new backgrounds for this quasi-suburban area

This visit essentially serves as Dorothy’s counterpoint to the previous episode, as past versions of “Dorothy Wainwright” as a concept are considered and discarded

“Feeling nostalgic?” “I am thankful that Wainwright designed me not to have such emotions”

We pass a sculpted wooden bird in a cage, an easy metaphor for Dorothy herself

The rapid camera cuts enhance our sense of disorientation as the pair arrive at the top floor. The camera jumps from right-facing to left-facing in mere moments, an inherently jarring shift that undercuts our sense of perspective – normally something to be avoided in cinematography, but here used explicitly to make this floor seem strange and unreal

As the door opens, Roger spills into the room, and is briefly captured in Dorothy’s light like an actor on a stage. We’re engaging in a fascinating visual battle of wills here, as each of our heroes reflect on their fractured identities, with their thoughts captured through the staging and props presented in the background

The next room genuinely startles Dorothy, as it seems to be the laboratory where both she and Red Dorothy were created

Dorothy gets stuck on a giant magnet again. C’mon guys, at this point you should know to check for giant magnets before you enter a hostile environment

I like how this half-finished robot’s flexibility is employed for body horror purposes. As it leaps past Roger, its head pivots a full one-eighty degrees, always maintaining an eerie level of focus on its target

He is saved by Angel, who at last freely admits that she’s not actually from Paradigm. With so much of the mystery between them cleared up, Roger and Angel are happy to flirt it up, until Dorothy interrupts them

As a megadeus rises from the waters, Roger and Dorothy discover that Rosco never lost his memories

Love the otherworldly design of this new megadeus. Its grand arches and golden hues make it seem almost like some kind of angelic messenger – it reminds me of the terrific robot designs from Rahxephon

“It seems like the negotiator you found for me did just fine.” I’m frankly not sure what Rosco actually wanted from this whole process. It doesn’t seem like he’s really gained anything

Angel offers the cryptic “who do you think wanted to preserve Wainwright’s memory more than anyone else?” Between this and her lack of surprise at the invasion of the last two episodes, it seems Rosewater has big plans for the megadeuses

I like this moment of Dastun being briefly elated at the Big O’s arrival, then furious at the acknowledgment of his own helplessness

Dorothy asks Rosco the key questions. “Why did you wait until now to reveal your memories? Why did you want us to know?” She also says that she’s “the same as you,” a line that immediately perks Angel’s attention

The fight animation and choreography are excellent. Megadeus are normally slow, lumbering machines, so it’s exciting to see the Big O grapple with one that’s designed more for agility than power

Ah, Rosco is a robot as well. So that’s why Dorothy kept staring at him

The episode tethers its two battles together through the dynamics of Wainwright’s robots – both the half-finished Dorothy from before and this megadeus are inhuman acrobats, and both are defeated by a hail of gunfire

“Whether they’re human or robot, everyone wants to protect their memories”

Roger quips about whether robots can feel that desire, to which Rosco responds with the pointed “is that a fantasy robots shouldn’t indulge in, Roger Smith?” Roger’s distaste for robots is likely in part borne from his understanding that he himself is somewhat like a robot, and that scares him

Unfortunately, the mysterious Allen Gabriel steals the data disc before they can claim it

And Done

This show is certainly not wasting any time! After a first season defined by episodic adventures that offered only vague hints of a larger conspiracy, we’re now diving directly into the mysteries of Wainwright, Rosewater, and Paradigm itself. This episode tied together nearly all of The Big O’s central mysteries, and saw our main crew of Roger, Dorothy, Angel, and Dastun working in greater synergy than ever before.

This was essentially the narrative-centered counterpoint to last episode’s character-centered journey, but fortunately, the episode also provided plenty of tasty visual motifs and beautiful compositions. The persistence of that ticking clock added a tremendous sense of urgency to the proceedings, visually amplifying the sense that Paradigm’s destiny will soon be decided. Can Roger uncover the truth in time, and will uncovering the truth even lead to a happier future?

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