The Big O Showtime: Hydra

Hey new opening credits sequence! It's good, running down our main cast with clips of past episodes. And keeping the theme song thankfully. It's a little weird the new opening is being revealed this late in the run though. We only have four episodes left. Wouldn't it have made more sense to premiere it at the beginning of the season?

Today's episode begins sometime after the events of the last. Rosewater has been freed from Big Fau and is having the military police round up the members of the Union. Alan Gabriel is still his valet, apparently being a double agent for Rosewater in the Union. At any rate, Rosewater has invited Roger to lunch to show off his...toy of Big Fau. You know Rosewater, you proved how childish you really are last episode. You don't need to play with an actual toy of your giant robot to drive it home. But besides pulling a Cartman on Roger about having a better robot, Rosewater also gives some helpful exposition.

It's got three different missile launchers and a kung-fu grip
Suck it, Kyle!

According to him, he was using the Union to find all the pieces of Big Fau and promised them Memories in return. Because like I guessed, the world outside Paradigm sucks and they want them to rebuild. Rosewater was just lying to them though, never intending to give them Memories, so that's why they're pissed. It's also why he's having the police round them up. That's actually affecting Dastun. The few times we see him this episode, we can tell he's not happy about going all 1984 and dragging people into custody. But he really seems worried about what's going to happen to Angel. After their nice scene last episode where he saw much of himself in her, Dastun is straining against his new purpose. Breaking up this spy ring is already going against his wanting to protect people, but going after Angel would mean going after someone who's stuck in the same way he was because of their past. Which goes against the "be who you are now" attitude he just adopted.

Speaking of Angel, she's wandering the streets of Paradigm. She goes to Roger's place to find only Dorothy there. Angel apologizes to Dorothy for almost letting her get killed by Alan Gabriel and gives her a message for Roger. This scene is kind of unintentionally funny because Angel is pouring out her soul to Dorothy and all she does is respond with her usual flat monotone and emotionless face. Unintentional comedy aside, this just reinforces Angel's position. She's turned her back on the Union, betraying their cause so she can't go to them. Rosewater replaced her with Alan Gabriel and was only using her to begin with, so she can't go to him either. The only person she cares about and can help (and can help her) is Roger, and he's not there. The stoic android she almost let die is. No wonder she heads back out into the rain.

Two more things of note happen with Rosewater. Talking to Roger, he keeps referring to Paradigm as a stage, Dastun made a similar comment to Angel, and that this is the only stage for the two of them. This language of stages, puppets and actors keeps coming up. At first I had the "Paradigm City is an unconscious performance piece" theory, but something later this episode makes me not so sure anymore. To confuse things more, Rosewater also calls Paradigm a refuge for civilization. The last place civilization exists. That sounds like it would fit better with my first theory that Paradigm is a planned society built to survive the Event. Could it be some combination of both? Uh, I need more evidence.

Super Saiyan, but without the yelling.
And it only takes one episode.

The second thing of note is that Alan Gabriel sneaks up behind Rosewater, looking like he's about to kill him. But Rosewater dissuades him, thanking him for his service and promising him a gift. Whose side is this Gabriel guy on? First, he's loyal to Rosewater. Next, he's working for the Union. Then he was a double agent for Rosewater. Now, he's a triple agent? Make up your mind dude! And what's this gift Rosewater's got for him? He's still got Big Duo hanging around and it's not like Schwarzwald is going to show up to use it again. If nothing else, Alan Gabriel makes a good wild card for the moment.

Big Fau is still powered down after Big O's cooldown hug, so Rosewater is using the city's own electricity to turn his megadeus back on. But Vera the Angry French Lady is still angry, what with her megadeus destroyed and her spy ring being arrested, so she tries to prevent this by blowing up the hydro-electric plant. A hydro-electric plant containing a three-headed electric eel monster, like the one from way back in Episode 3.

Whoa-ee-oh! We-oh-oh! Whoa-ee-oh! We-oh-oh!

This leads into the giant fight for the episode, but Big O has more trouble with this Titan than the last one. It grows its heads back and it shocks him with three electric blasts. And like with Beck, this actually shakes a Memory loose for Roger. He flashes back to that Big megadeus attack and burning city we've seen a few times before and has a vision of himself as a soldier piloting Big O. This causes him to activate a Super Mode for Big O, seemingly out of reflex, which destroys the Titan. This what made me question the performance piece theory. Rosewater the Elder called that burning city a fiction, which Roger's New York experience I thought confirmed it as. But if it was fake, why would Roger have Memories of it? We know Rosewater the Elder implanted him with Memories, but could he have been implanted with fake Memories? Until we find out, I leave you with Ninja Dorothy.

Android. Maid. Pianist. Ninja.
Give her a gun and she could be a 60s Bond Girl.