The Big O Showtime: Stripes

Unfortunately Bill Murray and Harold Ramis do not appear this episode.

Well damn. That was a turning point. We get answers out the wazoo and new twists to keep things interesting. There's a lot to talk about this time so let's get to it.

50% off Memories! Only slightly bruised!

The Episode opens on Roger's recurring nightmare of the burning city with the Big megadeuses attacking it. You know, from the Season 1 finale? This is causing Roger no small amount of stress so he goes out to Rosewater the Elder's tomato farm dome for answers. Now back in the finale, Rosewater the Elder told Roger that dream was just bullshit implanted into certain children's minds, something from a book he wrote. I didn't believe him then, but now I do. The way he explains is that the burning city scene would create a plausible reason behind the Event, something so traumatic that people would want to forget it and not go looking for Memories about it. This is actually something I thought after Roger's New York experience back in the season premiere. That comes back later this episode too.

I had a terrible dream. I was a robot introducing anime
on Cartoon Network.

Roger apparently isn't holding together as well after that incident as I thought as his lack of introspection has now given way to existential panic. Rosewater the Elder tells him to not think about, going back to the idea of only worrying about what's in the here and now and not what happened in the past we've seen several times. That even being the attitude that broke Roger out of his Memory experience back in the premiere. But I guess Rosewater the Younger has rattled Roger too much with his talk of "Dominus of megadeus", so he can't do it. That's when he runs into Angel.

Angel isn't very helpful with his existential crisis, but she does inform us of what Rosewater the Younger's been up to. He's been visiting foreign countries outside of Paradigm for some unknown reason, gathering more megadeuses. This is really fascinating because up until now, it's been assumed that there was no world outside of Paradigm. Or at least nobody living out there, and that it was all destroyed in the Event. Well we assumed wrong because there are people out there. People with megadeuses. Which leads to the subplot of the episode...

All throughout the city a chorus has been heard singing what I think is the French national anthem. As people hear this singing, they leave their homes to follow after the choral leader. Even Angel follows after them, cutting into her budding relationship with Roger. Dorothy follows after this chorus as well, all the way to a wrecked Grand Central Station (New York again hmm?) marked by that same red ballon. This is the Union, foreign spies in Paradigm looking for Memories led by an angry French lady named Vera. And Angel is one of them! And so is Alan Gabriel!

Vera: Salut, je suis votre nouveau mechant recurrent

Okay, whoa. Not only are there people outside Paradigm but they were affected by the Event as well. Very interesting. They also don't like Rosewater the Younger much, but we'll come back to that. Right now, Vera is questioning Angel's loyalty to their cause (whatever that is) and wants Dorothy dead. Because she's seen them! So Alan Gabriel starts shooting her and she... lets him. So Dorothy runs... I mean limps away. Only for Alan Gabriel to shoot her in the leg. Huh.

Ms. Wayneright, last episode you did parkour onto the hood of a moving car to dislodge a bomb from your abdomen with a speeding truck. I expect better of you.

While all that's going on, those three foreign megadeuses Rosewater stole apparently (I guess he was being sarcastic when he called them gifts) form together into one megadeus to go attack the dome where his house is. Vera the angry French lady sounded like she didn't like Rosewater so I'm assuming this is her doing. Anyway, Roger and Big O appear to deal with this when just when he's about to deal the finishing blow, Big O locks up. Then his console flashes a barcode and Roger has a revelation. He was one of Rosewater the Elder's Memory implanted kids. Umm, Roger? We figured that out back in Episode 13. Man, our heroes are slow on the uptake today. But yeah, Big O locks up and Roger has a panic attack while the foreign megadeus is about to kill him. And Alan Gabriel is about to kill Dorothy with his bare robot hand. End Episode.

Drill nipples. That is all.

Goddamn. I know I asked for answers but damn. The existence of the Union was a completely unexpected twist. I mean we knew there was someone else causing trouble in Paradigm besides Rosewater, but everything led us to believe it was something in-house. Foreign spy rings were the last thing we expected. And Angel being a member, hell Alan Gabriel being a member? Even bigger surprise. Again, all the evidence we've been presented said there was nothing outside Paradigm. Even Angel tried to convince Roger she was a native. But at least now we know who our secondary antagonist is. And connecting the red balloon to the Union; they were behind the robot assassinations last episode, the film star murders from Episode 10, and presumably handing out Schwarzwald's leaflets. Whatever the Union's plans are is yet unknown, but I'm betting it's not good.