Ergo Proxy - 4: Signs of Future, Hades of Future/Futu-Risk

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Signs of Future Hades of Future


998 days of service are required before Vincent can become a fellow citizen. That is almost three years of work. Vincent Law had the escape path of infected autoreivs because he was hunting and killing them for his work, as Re-L should have known, and yet she is surprised for some reason. In any case, Re-L uses it to find the route Vincent tried to escape by, and stumbles upon the body of the proxy in the abandoned areas.

The cereal spells "misfit" this time.

The scenes of Vincent killing the infected autoreivs, then being framed for killing Dorothy and hunted like an infected autoreiv himself, again highlights the thin line between human and autoreiv. As well as the morality of believing different thought to be wrong.
He pleads that he was framed, that he didn't do it, that he didn't kill Dorothy. He didn't, but he did kill quite a lot of other autoreivs. They were infected, but following orders didn't make it right.

Joe Bousquet's poem is read in it's entirety. He was a French poet who was paralyzed and bed ridden. He became involved with surrealists and was admired by the philosopher Deleuze who is another person whose name is used for a character in Ergo Proxy. Deleuze in the show is one of Daedalus's autoreivs, along with Guattari, another French philosopher's name. They wrote Capitalism and Schizophrenia, which is about the relationship of desire and reality, particularly capitalism. It has sections with Marxist explanations and Freudian psychology, but the most relevant parts are where it mentions that desire is the cause for production and reality, and that societies sometimes desire self-oppression.

Vincent has completely rejected Romdeau now, despite his desperation to be accepted before, he now calls it a lie. Indeed, he has changed nearly completely. He isn't like Pino, just copying and following the adults, rather he broods and seems to disagree, or at least not completely agree with the people around him.

And Hoody points out that lies are truths until they are realized. The difference between belief and knowledge is not always clear. And as Pino chimes in, "lies make us happy." People sometimes prefer to remain ignorant because they won't have to deal with the truth. People sometimes believe in God purely because it would make their world a better place instead of because it being true or not. People sometimes create lies to hide behind and blame to distract themselves. In this way, lies make us happy all the time. I happen to think that the truth always, ultimately, makes us happier, but that may be my own personality or my own lie.

Pino is still very robotic although she has much improved since last we saw. She imitates lots of things. Laughing when Hoody does, and coughing when he does too.

Re-L finds out that Daedalus modified his autoreivs so they do not report to the Administrative Bureau and so is free to ask for his help to analyze the proxy she found. Daedalus looks concerned, but doesn't let on that he already knows about the proxy and did research on it. Their relationship is still very close. He risks his reputation "only because you asked me to" although I think he has ulterior motives. Re-L trusts him enough to tell him everything, and Daedalus is genuinely concerned for Re-L's safety. He tries to stop her from getting more involved, and she doesn't try to force him to tell her more, but she disregard's his advice. For his part, he also doesn't try to force her, but still holds back his personal knowledge.

Quinn is the most whole person we have met thus far. She is determined to create a life for herself, live independently of the dome, and find her own purpose in life. She thinks the reactionary "freedom" champions are lunatics for clinging on to their false triumphs. She just wants to deal with what she has, and work towards a future by repairing the Rabbit and traveling with Timothy to make their own world, leaving the dome and it's troubles behind.

Routine patrols normally follow a fixed route, and they kill the citizens of the commune. If they spot one, they will start to root out the rest, but other than that, the dome lets them live.
Except. This one goes after Pino, but does not fire upon her.

Raul finds out Vincent survived.

[VIEW SPOILERS]

Futu-Risk

The reason Vincent Laws room would be empty is because he himself is empty. He doesn't have a personality because he has a fake one - trying to be the perfect citizen to escape who he really is, a god. He can't even explain why he wanted to be a citizen other than to be accepted. To be a part of Romdeau. His schizophrenia is apparent too from his setting out two sets of utensils, two cups, and everything perfectly aligned.

The Centzon Totochtin is seen in his dream while he is underwater, foreshadowing the ship. It is mentioned again when Quinn retrieves the autoreive central processing unit as a "transmission device for the Rabbit"

There is a scene with blue sky replaced with darkened sky, and then Vincent running toward a light. This too is related to Proxy One in the first episode. Interestingly he leaps back into his role as Vincent symbolizing what actually took place.

At the end of the dream he stands and looks up into the sky where the clouds clear and blue light streams through the part, and then he wakes up to life again. This may be foreshadowing that he can survive the Proxy's weakness to sunlight.

Vincent survives the virus because he is a Proxy.

The toy soldier Hoody stole is featured prominently.

"Those things are demons borne from the angry earth." - This is rather accurate, as humans created them to create the Dome projects to let the earth recover.

But the Amrita are nearly indestructible! More evidence of immortality of the proxies.

The irony is that Quinn too falls victim to the reactionary desires, although she is not passive aggressive about it like the others.

The patrol probably was attracted to Pino because Raul told it to. Thus Raul captures video of Vincent unintentionally. He proceeds to ask Kristeva not to tell the Regent, trying to take matters into his own hands. He tells her that he needs to capture Vincent in order to learn more about the proxy, and she catches on to his emotion. His subsequent joke, "maybe I have been infected with the Cogito virus" confirms it. He is giving in to his emotions, acting on his own intentions, and abandoning his single-minded intention to play his role and serve the dome. He is becoming his own agent.


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Vincent has been outside the Dome before, either in his fake persona which we see glimpses of, or else as Ergo Proxy, but living inside it for so long he has the perspective of one of the citizens I guess. Outside is supposed to be unavoidable death. The air is poisoned with disease, the dome is the only way to live. The dome itself is huge, housing an entire city with suburbs and everything to support it. It is deep too, with layer upon layer of city. It may be the music, but I am swept away by the imagery of the sheer size and majesty of it. As well as the sheer disbelief of Vincent for the possibility of being outside.

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The idea that these outcasts have attained "true freedom!" rings hollow for everyone. It may be true, but the idea of true freedom is dubious anyway. Is it anarchy? Is is communism? Is it peace or is it war?

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