Ergo Proxy - 2: Confession of a Fellow Citizen/Confession

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Confession of a Fellow Citizen
Section 1
Suddenly it seems like Re-L isn't a paranoid after all. It really is a conspiracy.
The monsters in her room have been erased from history. Only Re-L and a few officials know, and there is no way she can convince anyone else. Iggy had his memory replaced, everyone is convinced Re-L is lying or hallucinated.
And really, if you were the only one in the entire world to know something happened, how could you tell that you hadn't hallucinated it? How can you be sure you are sane? The insane are sure they are sane. The paranoids are sure there really is something out to get them. If you can't trust yourself, then who can you trust? And if you can trust yourself, then what about these other people who trust themselves? They are clearly insane, but to them, it is us who are insane.
And if that isn't enough already, what difference would it make whether you were right in reality, if you are the only one against the entire world to believe it and there is no way to verify?
Aside: This could be considered a conflict between virtue ethics and consequentialism - whether the results are the definition of truth and morality or if the intentions are. If you didn't know I am a strong believer in intentions trumping actual manifestations.

This is directly joked about by Re-L's sarcastic comment - "Physically I'm fine, mentally it all depends on their report."

Re-L actually displays fear and dependence to Daedalus, and Daedalus responds kindly though he is following orders to falsify medical records. Despite her condition, Re-L is so strongly driven by her nature to figure things out that she snoops through her trusted doctor's files and discovers information on the proxy. I'll transcribe the information she found that was only displayed for a few seconds:

Results of specimen analysis:
Citizen Heath and Welfare Bureau, Proxy Research Team

Abstract
Result of test specimen reacted to Amrita cells (from expiremental culture)
Conclusion: specimen confirmed as proxy.

Amrita ("sweet water") appears in ancient Hindu myth and grants eternal youth and immortality.
Amrita cells divide infinitely, (No Hayflick limit) and thus live indefinitely.
The membrane surrounding Amrita cells is intensely activated when it nears ***[cut off]
*** this may be the result of a magnetic field radiated by the proxy.
*** an antibiotic reaction to an unknown body.
*** the reaction allows us to identify a proxy.

Soooooo. Basically, that monster has some pretty sweet biology. It is extremely strong and now apparently ageless. No wonder it was being kept a secret and Daedalus was put in charge of it.

Raul discovers that there were two Proxies. Let me be clear about this scene: He hides it from Kristeva. Additionally he loses track of time, and his next appointment was not on his mind. This is not characteristic of Raul.

Ah. Um. Yes. The scene in the mall. It is surprisingly simple. It is fast. It is motionless with the human ragdolls and almost comical attack of the proxy. And yet it is also weirdly focused and extremely emotional with the brutal murder of a woman and a child on the escalator. Do you recognize them?

This scene is actually a reference to a famous cinematic sequence called "the Odessa Steps" from "The Battleship Potemkin." The scene is also in "The Untouchables." This video shows some of them but also included a few that are not homages in my opinion. Anyway, it shows the scenes.

When the proxy is attacking the citizens of Romdeau stand still. No one cries out. People just sort of watch as the carnage takes places. There is no way that any of them have experienced anything like this before. So they don't react. After it is almost over, people begin to manage to connect two and two. They begin to run in confusion. They begin to cry out in loss and terror.

At the very end of the episode:
Raul observes the video of the immigrant being chased by the proxy.
And Re-L discovers Vincent's necklace.
Those facts lead to the events in the next episode.


Side note: The pendant has something written upon, I think in Latin, but I can't make out the letters. All that I can see is "Mi amice .... caro .... Cum (Cain?)....Tum renique...ergo tu..." I think it is not a famous phrase, and it might not even from any historic Latin text. Unfortunately I don't speak Latin, so I'm more or less stumped unless someone can help me figure out what is written on the necklace. It seems to be three sentences - mi amice and caro makes me think it might be a love poem of sorts.
Many thanks to André for his help with the HD image and a great number of other things!




Please, please do not click spoilers until you have completed the series.

[VIEW SPOILERS]

Confession
Section 2
The irony of the Regent's Entourages saying "Re-L, I cannot understand if you won't tell me anything." is pretty pungent. Re-L is the one who can't get answers except by doing her own work. They are the ones withholding information, not Re-L. She is outright admitting her prying and intelligence work, not even trying to hide that she is caught and disobeying orders. She barely gets away with it, almost being stripped of her power again. She is given one last chance as long as she no longer acts independently. Needless to say, she doesn't exactly agree or follow these regulations.

I believe this scene is depicted this way because we are being shown it through Raul's eyes. Raul. Raul shows up on the scene with Kristeva upon pure coincidence. Also upon pure coincidence his family is there. His wife, his new child, and his autoreiv child called Pino. He is a dutiful man through and through. For his work, for his family, he works hard to always perform his best. And he watches the scene unfold.

A strange immigrant.


The immigrant and the Proxy.




The immigrant runs.
The proxy murders.



His family.


Pino is first to the top.
She sees the destruction. She turns back to try and save them. Then the immigrant runs past, and she turns back.




Then the Proxy is there.




His wife is thrown back to break her neck on the stairs. The carriage is lost to fall down the steps and slaughters the child.

Pino.
Pino is taken away.

She becomes infected and is now as good as a walking corpse.


And the immigrant flees, leading the proxy onward.

Raul is not weak. He is a proud man who will always strive to do his best. He commands the situation, and his emotions will not cripple him. They won't even be allowed to diminish his performance. So he takes control, jumps into action, and gives orders with conviction.
The matter is taken care of.
He does a good job.





Status report.
42 deaths. 41 deaths before. 4 more deaths recently. 87 deaths. Adults and children. 48 injured.
The specimen?
Escaped.
No reaction. No heart rate elevation. What are the facts, what is next.
It is my job to maintain stability. This is a problem I need to solve. My child is dead. This is a paradise that needs to be returned to smooth operation. I feel nothing.

Pino is at home and the autoreiv extermination unit is sent to kill her.



I could not make head nor tail of the scene between Re-L and Daedalus for the longest time. It didn't help that I had this weird conviction that he was evil, but I just couldn't understand Re-L's action. For her to show such fear and weakness was so out of character that I was sure she was faking it to get into Daedalus's databanks. While that is not out of the question, between her trust of him and his attention and devotion to her, I now think her actions are real. I think what actually is going on is she looks up to him like a sort of uncle. He raised her after all, from infant to child to young adult as a sort of doctor, mentor, compaion. Daedalus's concern is very real too, he loves her for being his triumphant experiment, his work, his childhood friend, and his raison detre. They are both honest and need each other, but this relationship is very, very messed up by our standards. So she acts more like a child around him, sometimes petulant, but like some sort of daughter-patient nonetheless. That is very very weird, but explains why their relationship is so... unorthodox for the both of them.

Monad turning around to follow Re-L may be true, or else she may be following Vincent as she does in this episode. I don't really understand Monad, nor why she isn't dead yet, so I'll refrain from speculating. In any case, she dies now. The whole opening-eye thing is supposed to be Vincent giving up his life as a citizen and realizing his other personality. I don't know why Monad chases him either. It is supposed to love, and she does move to hug him. She probably wants a little peace to die at his hand. She has already given so much, she probably is willing to give her life as well so that he can be the one to live on. It is sort of tragic to realize that she is with the wrong Ergo Proxy and he does not want to remember nor is he necessarily capable at this time.

My understanding is that Vincent gives Pino cogito in that moment he passes her. That's the reason she falls to her knees and assumes the same praying position as the other autoreiv.

/////////////My Reactions
If Vincent can infect autoreivs with Cogito which is suggested to be a proxy trait, then presumably he infected Pino early on. However she has her kneeling scene later, so she isn't infected yet? I don't know, but it is implied that she is jealous of the child when she looms over it's cradle staring like a stereotypical little Japanese girl evil spirit. Of course it may just be that she is a mindless drone like the rest of the city, and her Turing application setting is just another face to a soulless construct. I'm gonna go with the idea that she is, as of yet, still completely hard-wired (like humans are! but that is an issue of free will that I won't go into.) and it is not emotion, but pure duty that motivates her. Creepy look and all.

[/SPOILERS]
/////////////My Reactions cont'd:
As Kristeva and Raul point out, "people are often unable to tell the difference between reality and illusion." We are wrong all the time. We believe things that are false. We estimate incorrectly, we act on instincts that are incorrect, we even violate our own conscious from time to time. It is both our worst flaw and our greatest strength. Our ability to set aside reality and imagine things so fully that we act as if they were true is a great gift and a great curse. It lets us go insane, it makes us be unreasonable and unrealistic, and it makes us unstable and blind. But it also let's us imagine better worlds, create new things, and strive for impossible goals. It is the very definition of humanity to have this double-edged trait. And it is probably why I fall in and out of love with the human race so easily.

All Episodes: Ergo Proxy Companion Viewing Guide
Previous: Episode 1:Pulse of Awakening/Awakening
Next:Episode 3:Leap into the Void/Mazecity