The Big O Showtime: Winter Night Phantom

Really great stand-alone episode this time, focusing on a character we know but don't know much about.

Dastun has a recurring dream (or memory?) of a woman getting shot on a pier by a policeman and then dying in his arms. It's actually interfering with his current case, a series of bombings on retired city officials. Not helped by him seeing the woman from his dream at all the crime scenes.

It's nice to see some focus on Dastun. He's been mostly at the edges of the series so far, and we've only gotten an idea of his character so giving him some attention feels warranted by now. And he really shines here, trying to put his personal issue aside to focus on his job. Also having to deal with Paradigm's obstructive bureaucracy getting in the way. He's a man of integrity, who feels the weight of every life he could have saved. Roger barely appears this episode, mostly giving voice-over about Dastun and exposition, but it helps the episode. The voice-over lets us in on Dastun's character and we can see why he and Roger are friends, and why he's Roger's conduit with the police. Good character stuff.

The atmosphere of this episode is also very good. The whole show has a very film noir/Batman TAS look to it, but this episode pushes it the hardest. It feels the most like a classic noir movie, in its use of music, locale and camera angles. Dastun's dream in particular, which actually is from an old movie he saw as a kid, is a very evocative little sequence that just begs for elaboration. I do question the giant toy robot that shows up for the obligatory mecha fight. That broke the mood and felt out of place. Not the giant robot itself, but it's toy look. That felt incongruous to me.


Okay, crazy speculation time. We finally get a bit more of Rosewater, the guy who runs Paradigm Group, and he has some kind of plan. We don't hear what the plan is, but it apparently depends on the populace's ignorance of certain things. This is probably why they were after Schwarzwald back in Episode 4. Also Angel is Rosewater's secretary and she seems to be in on his plan. Given we've seen her mostly as a Memory hunter, I'm guessing Memories are going to play a part in his plan. Is Rosewater going to reveal something that happened during the event? Or make sure it's buried deeper?

A little more world-building this time too. We find out the founders of Paradigm City were a tad autocratic, squashing any resistance to their government. One of those founders was a Rosewater as well, so there might be something there. And from what we overhear, apparently everything outside of Paradigm City was destroyed and other nations don't exist anymore. Except Rosewater says they do. Hmm... Anyway, I bet the Event 40 years ago had something to do with that. That would play into my theory that Paradigm City was built as shelter for whatever the Event was and may also explain the founder's authoritarianism. There's only three episodes left in the first season so hopefully we get some answers soon. Of course with this show answers will only mean more questions.