Gettin' My Eps In: Lazarus S1E3

Even mass murderers have grandmothers.

Lazarus
Season 1, Episode 3: “Long Way From Home”
Written by Takahiro Ozawa
Directed by Youhei Tsuchiya
Streaming on Max

As Lazarus takes shape, it looks like it’s settling into a formula, with each episode seeing the team follow some clues that might lead them to Dr. Skinner, pairing up with each other so that we can get a few scenes in which we learn something about them, and getting involved in an action sequence along the way. That’s fine for a show that’s still establishing itself, but I expect things will take a turn at some point as they get closer to their goal or encounter obstacles that could put them or others in danger.

But for now, we can keep following along as they make connections based on some seemingly insignificant bits of information that contain important details. In this episode, Axel pairs up with Doug to try to connect with one of Doug’s old college professors who may have a connection to Skinner, and Christine and Leland visit Skinner’s home to see if they can find anything. The latter team doesn’t learn much, since the authorities have already gone over the place, although Christine finds an unidentified pill under a rug that could be relevant later.

Doug and Axel’s quest is much more interesting, and while it forces two members of the team who don’t like each other very much to spend some time in close proximity, it also makes them see the value of working together. When Doug learns that his old professor is no longer working and may now be living on the street, Axel points them to a homeless encampment where a guy who he knew during one of his stints in prison is reported to be the leader of the community. By collaborating, the two of them manage to find information that neither would have been able to uncover alone, so maybe their working relationship might improve, even if only slightly. Notably, nobody calls this out; it’s something that viewers have to recognize organically, with the show trusting us to follow along with the character development.

At the homeless camp, Axel asks around for his friend Jerry, but it turns out that she is transgender and is now going by the name Jill, which, in a refreshing development, is something that Axel is happy to see, commenting on how great she looks. However, Jill isn’t sure if she should point them toward the professor they’re looking for, since many members of this community have left their former lives behind and don’t want to be confronted with their past. This gives Doug a chance to step up, explaining how he was kicked out of school because he took a swing at the Dean after he said that a Black person would never win a Nobel Prize, but the professor was the only one who stood up for him, and Doug just wants to thank him. The scene as a whole provides some interesting details about both Axel and Doug, while serving as a way to keep the plot moving forward.

The professor doesn’t have much in the way of helpful information, since he can only recall details about Skinner’s professional life and the way he was so intelligent that trying to compete with him ended up being ruinous. However, he does remember one potentially relevant bit of information: Skinner had mentioned how much he liked the baklava his grandmother Billinda used to make when he was growing up in Istanbul. So we’re off to try to find her and see if she has any information that might be usable.

This lead gets followed up on by Axel and Leland, who take the “hypercube,” which appears to be some sort of elevated maglev bullet train that lets them travel from the U.S. to Turkey in a matter of hours. And here is where we get the episode’s action sequence, as the two of them are beset by thugs as they wander around the poorer parts of the city. It’s a pretty brief scene, but it features some cool moves, including a moment where Axel spins around on the ground like a breakdancer to trip one of the attackers, turning it into a fluid takedown that allows him to spring back to his feet and continue moving. I’m kind of fascinated by the way this show and others in a similar vein (Blue Eye Samurai, for one) manage to depict movements like this, making them seem smooth and natural even though they’re probably physically impossible. Seeing more of that is definitely something to look forward to in future episodes.

Amusingly, Axel and Leland find the person they’re looking for when Leland blurts out to the attackers that they’re looking for Grandmother Billinda’s baklava, and the thugs know exactly who they’re talking about. So they get to have a pleasant conversation with the grandma, who has nothing but nice things to say about her grandson. That’s not surprising, since that’s the purview of grandmas, but it does seem to reinforce the narrative about Skinner that has been building, with people being unable to understand how someone who was so altruistic could turn out to have a side so dark that it could bring about the end of humanity. Perhaps some twists are forthcoming as we learn that others may be either working with Skinner or manipulating him.

It looks like that will have to wait for future episodes though, as the team continues to try to follow up on clues. Axel may have found a camera that Skinner or someone else was using to monitor his grandmother, and the team’s hacker, Eleina, may have also been able to track down a colleague/rival of hers who may be helping Skinner hide by inserting his image into public footage all over the globe. I expect that we’ll get to see the team keep following these breadcrumbs for at least a few more episodes, but some new plot developments are going to have to happen at some point to keep things interesting.

Whenever I write about TV episodes, I try to avoid just relating what happened in the latest installment, since that’s information that anybody could learn from simply watching the show. That’s kind of hard to avoid here though, since the series is still spending time getting to know the characters and developing their relationships. Hopefully future installments will provide more interesting subtext to analyze, or at least they’ll have some cool action that I can geek out over. Whatever happens, I’ll be excited to keep watching, and I’ll do my best to have something interesting to say.