Gettin' My Eps In: Lazarus S1E9

Things are picking up, but there's not much time left to make them really count.

Lazarus
Season 1, Episode 9: “Death on Two Legs”
Written by Dai Sato
Directed by Sayaka Morikawa
Streaming on Max

I feel like I’m constantly being confounded by the pacing of this series. That might come from watching on a week-to-week basis, trying to guess where it’s headed, and focusing on what does and doesn’t seem to be working. Maybe it will all fit together better as a 13-episode whole, but when you’re presented with a series of episodes, it makes sense to approach them episodically, which leaves me wondering about the odd prioritization of different aspects.

The last episode dropped what was apparently supposed to be a big revelation: the Lazarus team is being funded by the NSA, even if it operates independently without much in the way of direct oversight by the U.S. government. That leads to the main conflict of this episode: a government committee! Exactly the sort of thing we want to spend time on when we’re dealing with a world-ending threat.

That may be kind of harsh, especially since it does seem to fit in to some of the themes that have been developing over the course of the series. When faced with impending doom on the horizon, most of the world has either chosen to ignore the threat or has engaged in arguments over petty grievances rather than trying to do anything about it. This may be a commentary on the real-world failure of governments to take action to address climate change, which is a laudable message. However, by focusing on how government oversight might get in the way of the Lazarus team’s mission, this particular instance seems reminiscent of the types of plots that you would get in 80s movies in which cops complain about bureaucrats stopping them from actually fighting crime.

The committee (an odd group of multi-national representatives who are meeting in the Pentagon for some reason) spends some time rehashing what has happened throughout the series, complaining that the team has been involved in some high-profile incidents (including the battle last episode that may have inflamed tensions between the U.S. and Russia) without making much progress in their search for Dr. Skinner. They bring in Leland as a witness, revealing that he was a mole on the team, but he argues for the necessity of their actions, so it’s less of a betrayal than it may seem. But all of this mostly gets sidestepped when Skinner releases a new video to the world, reminding everyone that there are only 10 days left to find him. So all of these proceedings have mostly been pointless, since the committee decides that their only choice is to let the Lazarus team keep searching for Skinner.

The real reason for all of this seems to be to have a couple of government figures decide that they need to hunt down and take out Axel, because they don’t like that he escaped from prison, I guess? This will likely lead to some action and excitement next episode, which means that this episode is all setup for that conflict. However, the other half of the episode does provide some interest, building up to what is likely to be an epic showdown. Again, I’m not sure about the reasons for the pacing, with at least two episodes late in the season being used to focus on elements that are mostly unrelated to the Skinner plot. But if you want to ignore that plot for a little while (which goes against what the episode seems to be saying), you can just focus on action and atmosphere, which is where the series is often at its best.

In terms of atmosphere, the opening of the episode is pretty striking. We see a man eating a steak alone at a steakhouse, and when questioned about it by a waiter, he says that the meal has exactly the right amount of protein needed for him to maintain peak physical condition. Then he walks down one of the main streets of the city in what would be referred to as a single shot in a medium other than animation, completely ignoring what is happening around him. This turns out to be a scene in which a gunman is running around and killing people on the street before being taken out by the police, which is one of the series’ few acknowledgments that society is breaking down as the death of humanity approaches. But the guy we’re following is paying no attention to this whatsoever, even stepping over bodies nonchalantly as he proceeds on his way. It’s a pretty cool moment that plays out silently, with only some calm background music adding to the strange feel of the scene.

Later, we learn that this guy is named Soryu, and he’s an assassin that the aforementioned officials are planning to hire to take out Axel, although their reasons for doing so are unclear (more government bureaucracy getting in the way of the good guys doing their jobs, I guess). His price is $30 million, which one of the officials is reluctant to pay without the certainty that he can do what they’re asking, so he offers to provide a demonstration of his skills. And that’s where we get the main action sequence of the episode.

This comes when a squadron of heavily-armed soldiers storms a building to take the guy out, but to demonstrate how badass he is, he single-handedly murders all of them. It’s a pretty cool sequence, with him using those action-movie knives that have loops on the ends of their handles, as well as razor-sharp monofilament wire that he deploys to tie up soldiers, swing them around like puppets so they can shoot each other, slice off their arms or heads, and leave them hanging in the air. It’s presented as dynamically as much of the rest of the action in this series, making this guy seem like a force of nature who simply cannot be stopped.

While this provides us with a pretty great action sequence in this episode, it also builds anticipation for what is to come. We’ve seen Axel pull off some incredible acrobatic feats, but this makes it seem like he may have met his match. If the battle between the two of them (which may also involve other members of the Lazarus team) lives up to the expectations set here, it should be pretty epic. While it may be yet another distraction that gets in the way of the team’s ultimate goal, it seems like that’s just the nature of this series. I’m sure the overarching plot will be in the back of my mind, but if the action is cool enough, I’ll probably be able to forget about it and revel in the excitement. Here’s hoping it lives up to what’s being promised.