The Big O Showtime: The Third Big

I get the feeling that aren't going to be anymore breaks until the series is over because we end on another sort of cliffhanger. Not as intense as last time, but things are still up in the air.

Speaking of last time, the episode picks up right where we left off. With Dorothy about to be killed by Alan Gabriel and Roger stuck in a frozen Big O. Alex Rosewater is watching the latter unfold and makes an interesting comment about Roger being another rotten tomato. Tomato being the euphemism for Rosewater the Elder's Memory-implanted kids. So if there were other rotten tomatos, does that mean the Rosewaters tried to get somebody else to pilot a megadeus and it didn't work? Not further commented upon here, but it's an interesting note.

While you're down there, could you tie my shoe?

As for the other plot, Alan Gabriel is broadcasting his attempt at robocide over one of Roger's watches. Big O shows this to Roger and tells him (how is not explained) to leave him and go save Dorothy. So Big O puts himself in defense mode against the Union's megadeus and Roger heads off, Dastun in tow. Before they get there though, Dorothy is momentarily saved by Angel, who accuses Alan Gabriel of killing Dorothy out of his own sadism than to serve the Union. He just throws her own compromised loyalty in her face. And that's when Roger and Dastun arrive and kick Alan Gabriel's ass. You know for a guy built up as this psycho-killer, he's subdued pretty easily. But before Dastun can actually arrest or kill the bastard, another round of French National Choir causes him to depart.

This is where Dastun's sort of resentment toward Roger and Big O boils over. It's nothing big, he doesn't yell at Roger or anything, he just sort of gives up and acknowledges his own uselessness. Roger tries to cheer him up, saying he and the cops are there to help the people, but that somethings have to be left to him and Big O. Things just too big for the cops to handle. Huh, and I thought we lost the Batman angle somewhere. Because that could easily be applied to Batman and Commissioner Gordon. I really like this scene because it feels natural to the characters and an organic resolution to this thread. Dastun is a smart guy and a damn good cop, but he feels constrained. He wants to do so much more about the problems in Paradigm, but he can't. It's too big for him to handle.

Being kicked! My only weakness!

So this moment where he acknowledges his own limitations is him growing as a character. It also plays into the recurring idea of accepting who you are now and doing what you can now, like we saw with Rosewater the Elder last episode and Roger in the season premiere. This is clear in a later scene Dastun has with Angel. He saw her frozen and unsure what to do about Alan Gabriel before and so talks to her during the choir. Dastun lays almost what I just said to her, saying that holding on to who we are now and doing what we can to help the people around us keeps us sane. He recognized in her the indecision and impotence he felt, and by giving Angel her gun back is helping her reach the same place he has.

But while all that good character development is going on, the Union's megadeus is still wrecking up the dome and Big O's still taking his power nap. Vera the Angry French Lady even explains what their beef with Rosewater the Younger is. Apparently by stealing the remains of their megadeuses, he violated some treaty he had with them. So now they're going to burn Paradigm City to the ground and take all the Memories he promised them. I understand why the Union wants the Memories, what we've outside of Paradigm has been a wasteland so they probably think the Memories can help them rebuild, but I still don't get what Rosewater's plan is. What's his end goal in all this? I thought he wanted to rip the veil off what happened 40 years ago, but that doesn't jive with what we see. He even screams at Vera that he won't let her destroy the city his father built. Which is when he launches the third Big.

Big O: "Calm down bro, you're acting crazy.
It's too early to destroy all the humans"

Yep, there's a third Big. Big Fau. And Rosewater is it's pilot. Using Big Fau he easily trounces the Union's megadeus, which prompts him to go a bit nutty and declare himself the "true Dominus of Megadeus". Whatever that means. It's actually revealing to Rosewater's character as well because as soon as he gets into Big Fau he loses his cool and calculating demeanor and starts acting like a kid with the world's greatest toy. Too bad Big Fau has ideas of its own, locking Rosewater's controls and going on a rampage. That isn't surprising, we knew the Bigs have degrees of sapience and can move on their own, but Rosewater's reaction is. He starts whining and throwing a tantrum, calling back to Vera's earlier characterization of him as a "spoiled brat". He even tries to pull a "No I'm not going to share my toys" later when Roger shows up in Big O.

Big Fau's rampage is ended by Big O giving him a cooldown hug, but Rosewater is apparently still stuck in the cockpit. And that's where we have the cliffhanger. Dorothy's been saved, Dastun and Angel have reaffirmed their purpose and the Union's been stymied for now. But I'm very curious about Rosewater. He's always seemed like this aloof mastermind, with everything going according to his plan. Was he always this childish underneath? Or does this shift come out of left field? He's our central antagonist and I thought we knew what his deal was for the most part. But with this show just when we think we know what's going on, it pulls the rug out and says "Nope!"