The Big O Showtime: Leviathan

Schwarzwald plays a big part this episode and he's one of the few recurring characters I haven't really looked at beyond his plot function. And he's only become more interesting now that we've seen some of the same things that drove him crazy. Initially he seemed pretty flat, the cliched "Gone mad from the revelation" person who now is wreaking havoc while spouting pseudo-psychological babble. But now that we've been looking into some of that mysterious past, his ramblings now actually have some weight. Schwarzwald's piloting a Big before also sets him up as a foil to Roger. We can see this not only visually, Roger wears sharp, clean suits with a flawless face whereas Schwarzwald wears dirty, torn clothes and covers his face with bandages, but also in attitude. The season opener re-affirmed Roger's feeling that it doesn't matter what the actual truth is or who he used to be before the Event. He's Roger Smith now and now is all that matters. Schwarzwald on the other hand is searching for that truth and what happened before the event. And that truth broke him. Who he is now doesn't matter, because now is a lie. He rejects who he's supposed to be now because to do so would be rejecting the truth. Michael Seebach is a lie, Schwarzwald is the truth.

This isn't as easy as Peter O' Toole made it look. 

Now to the actual episode. It begins with Schwarzwald wandering through a desert, buildings buried in the sand. In voiceover he gives another wackadoo monologue, but this one actually makes sense. It's about humanity's tendency to turn its back on things that scare it, to not accept fear, and how this stunts our growth. He says that without searching for the truth, without accepting fear, humanity can never leave the platonic cave. Or something to that effect. This is intercut with a montage of leaflets raining down on Paradigm, leaflets with his monologue printed on the back. On the front is a weird religious scene. With this title's episode, I think it's meant to be an illustration from the Book of Revelation.

Paradigm Group drags Roger in (with a nice Cowboy Bebop joke) telling him to take care of Schwarzwald permanently. Problem is, he disappeared after his rampage in Big Duo. Roger and Dastun mutually grouse to about it, with Dastun subtly hinting at his resentment to Roger. Hmmm...

Finding nothing at Schwarzwald's old apartment, Roger heads down beneath the city where they first met in Episode 4. He finds two interesting things. One, a typewriter with a single sheet of paper. On it, it says "There is but one truth. If you avert your eyes from it, you will always remain nothing more than a puppet".  This could be more proof that my "Paradigm is an unknowing performance piece" theory is true. I've been using the term actor, but puppet connotes the same thing. Someone who is controlled by another for the sake of performance. But puppet also has a much more negative connotation, of being controlled against your will. And given how violently some people have reacted to Memory reveals, I'm starting to think not everybody willing wanted to participate in this performance. It would also explain how so many of these people could do mad science if they were actors. They're not, they're scientists unwittingly made actors.

Hey, it's Jack Torrance's second novel

Two, Roger finds a factory where the three foreign megadeuses are being used to repair Big Duo. That's when Rosewater and Alan Gabriel show up. They give some vague villain talk, but Rosewater says something strange. He says that he's naturally able to pilot a Big megadeus and from the way he says it Roger shouldn't be. Rosewater also calls Roger a "Dominus" again, which I guess means someone who can pilot a megadeus but shouldn't. It's still terribly mysterious.

While all that's going on, a robot dragon storms out of the desert where we saw Schwarzwald. It was hinted that this is what he was looking for out there. This ties into the Dorothy subplot for the episode. Instro, remember him from Episode 6?, takes her to a church where he's been playing organ. Apparently Schwarzwald's leaflets have gotten people paranoid about impending doom so they've been flocking to churches. Just like last episode, we see again that the people outside of the domes worried about some coming disaster and looking to religion. I wonder if this means Paradigm's script is coming to an end and everybody can feel it on an unconscious level. But really the important thing here is Dorothy's reaction to the robot dragon. Back in Episode 4, when Schwarzwald first appeared, she had a weird freak-out around the megadeus prototype he dug up. She has a similar freak-out here with the dragon, randomly spouting gibberish against her will. She watches the thing approach and wonders how much control they both have over the lives. Dorothy's strange connection to Megadeuses has appeared a few times, usually when she has to pilot Big O alone which she does again here. I'm assuming this has to do with both their technologies being before the Event, but there's still not enough info to know for sure.

It's the Safety Dance!

At any rate, Schwarzwald's dragon is defeated and Roger is content to say case closed when Angel shows up to drop a bombshell. Schwarzwald's leaflets were printed up before his attack in Big Duo and he's been dead for a long time. His body was found out at the edge of the desert months ago. End Episode.

Oooohhh. If Schwarzwald's been dead this whole time, who spread the leaflets? Does this mean he managed to convince someone about his ideas? Has someone taken over his mantle? This episode ends before we can many hints, but if it's true than there may be a new wrench thrown into the plot.