Everything that happened in this episode was dumb, but if I was living in a fascist society that only let me talk about one dumb thing per episode, it would easily be Five’s decision to let Nine live. The main problem is that her decision came out of nowhere. I don’t want to reiterate what I’ve said in my previous posts, but she’s so evil that in this episode, Clarence suspends her of duty, despite her obvious competence. So, right before she dies, the writer decided to make her seem nice. There wasn’t any foreshadowing or anything. Just a complete 180 for the character.
It also doesn’t make sense regardless of any foreshadowing. She was living because she wanted to beat Nine in a game, and despite the fact that this was her sole reason for living, she doesn’t kill him? She just creates a situation where it’s obvious she could have won if she wanted to? Wait, she was living just to beat him at a game?
Ah, I get it. The message is that the children aren’t actually evil. That’s nice and all, but… that’s not how you argue for that position. There are, without a doubt, children who do bad things. I’m sure some of these bad children also do good things, just like how some adult serial killers occasionally do nice things. The point is, you can’t argue that the children just plain aren’t bad. You have to argue that the system is making them do bad things, and had they been raised in a better environment, they would do good things.
Oh, and what were Twelve and Lisa doing at the beginning of this episode? Were they just sitting at the beach, waiting for the plot to happen? Sounds like a productive use of time.
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