Ergo Proxy - 17: Never-Ending Battle/Terra Incognita

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Never-Ending Battle

Yet another episode that used to be one that I thought was mostly bland and now it is one of my favorites. There is a great deal of setup for the further episodes, a great deal of character development within all the characters, and a great deal of puzzling scenes that I've finally unraveled, and a great deal of allusions and consideration of the series's stronger themes.

I'm not going to spare much comment on the short-term plot that unfolds within the episode as you have already seen that, but I will note that I am pleased at how Raul drops his ID card at the very beginning. His haggard expression and bitter commentary made me believe that it was him doing it suicidal-ly and symbolically, and not at all because he was craftily leaving a trail which would be my first guess. Of course, later, it becomes obvious that that is exactly what he was doing. I'm happy to be fooled.

From the last episode, Re-L has indeed transformed. She is still the same person, with all of her cruelty and biting remarks, but she has become more. She now has another side to her. Her compassion shows when she compliments Pino and again when she says that she believes that she should do all she can to reunite with Pino merely because Pino has shown herself to be devoted. She would never have made such remarks before, or held such values before.

Vincent too, seems to have grown a bit. He treats his lost memory directly and without crippling fears. In fact, he resolutely puts forth an ultimatum. "If I can't be me anymore, I'd rather it end. You understand? I'll need you to kill me." I am somewhat of the same mind as Vincent.

It's no coincidence that this statement is made (commenting on Pino).
"The actions of Cogito infected autoreivs are governed by their emotions; their souls."
and then it cuts to Raul Creed. You think it is Pino for a second, seeing the robotic-like eyescan.
Raul Creed. Cogito. Emotions. Souls. Pino.
These are all one and the same story.
If you doubt this is intentional, I will humbly point you to the end of the episode, where Raul Creed and Pino play the piano.
"I can no longer resist the feelings that drive me to destroy. It was always him. He stole the light from this great civilization. He stole the destruction my despair hungered for. He stole everything from me. Pino."
Cut to Re-L, Vincent, Pino:
"You really like to play." "Yeah, I love it."
(mother of god. Just typing that out and realizing.... realizing the comparison. It rends my soul.)
Raul Creed gained his soul through despair. Pino gained hers through love. They both gained their souls through their attachment to one another. Once again, it is love that makes them whole. Without one another they would just be a madman and an infantile girl.

I have searched long and hard, and seen that a few others have done as I have, but for the life of me, I cannot find what piece of piano music Pino plays. I must therefore conclude that it is original, and intended to reference Mozart.

Update!

Thanks to "Thought Criminal" I think that Pino is playing a simplified version of Mozart's 1st movement of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Here is a piano version duet that shows some of the resemblance. And to add on to that, ThoughtCriminal noted that this plays in Alien, and the aliens here in Ergo Proxy bear resemblance in a few ways.

It is somewhat cute that Pino still makes the same mistake she made back in episode 6. "with Quinn she says, "You're like my Papa!" And Quinn says, "Hey, you mean I'm like your Mama, right?" And Pino responds cheerfully, "Oh, I don't know."" This time she calls the pregnant creature "daddy" and Vincent says "oh, not again!"

I do not want to say what conclusions you should come to, but I will list the facts.
The alien looking creatures are quadrupedal and bipedal.
They have a piano.
They do not recognize the language of Re-L and Vincent.
They are not proxies.
They have cave paintings of birth.
They can become pregnant.
They are dying of toxicity within their home.
The outside air is poisonous to them.

Most interesting, of course, is that they reproduce naturally. Re-L draws the connection between the cave paintings and the mother, but she can only think, "it can't be..." at the implications. Again, Re-L has only know and imagined reproduction through a dome city running a WombSys. In fact, all the civilizations so far have been produced by WombSys or been proxies. No wonder the idea is rather impossible for her to accept.

I am not sure at the way the air mixture is. "Strange, the poison should be thinning the farther out we go" suggests that it doesn't. My best guess is that it only changes at the mouth of the cave, where the dead creatures are, and that the toxic air is being artificially generated to keep them alive by the glowing blue machinery. I don't know why it is toxic, other than maybe that is the only compromise they can arrive at. Perhaps it has become a part of their biology, while still weakening them. I cannot say.

Back in Romdeau, the WombSys has fallen silent. The effects of the lost proxy are being felt, and all the accusations against the Administrative Bureau appears to have been well earned. Without shock Daedalus observes, "[He said] the usual. He said to ignore it and we'll deal with it later."
"I told you before, this sort of power would have significant implications."
The proxy is responsible for the WombSys's production. And the significant implications are not just potential ultimate power within the city if you control it, but also the very life of the city and the doom it faces without such power to sustain it. It isn't a crazy rant of Raul to be bent on revenge against the Proxy. The Proxy really did destroy the entirety of Romdeau. It really did steal "the light from this great civilization."

Humans have projected escape routes too. Raul is one step ahead of them however, as he looked at his own before delivering his speech.
In his last moment Raul Creed retraces the place he lost it all. The mall where his wife died. He even takes the heart shaped balloon Pino had on that fatal day.

Terra Incognita translates to "parts unknown" or "unmapped territory." It is also a reference to a short story in which the narrator hallucinates and slowly dies.

"Protocol must always be maintained." ... "And Chief, please accept my admiration of your conduct as a fellow citizen." That was Raul Creed's entire life. Now he is a fugitive. Why? His only crime was performing his role too well. Because he comes to realize that he has been set up since the beginning. His role was always that of a figurehead. He only served by keeping the people blindfolded and gagged. They are the supposed inheritors of the earth, merely waiting to repopulate. Except, that is not how they are being treated. No moves are being made to colonize or treat the outside illnesses. Instead they are held captive in their safe haven. He knows the truth.
[VIEW SPOILERS]

Terra Incognita
Raul knows the truth that they are not humans, but pseudohumans, dependent on a shepherd proxy rather than a full species that lives and dies by its own nature. They are not the seeds of humanity, but the prisoners held from being the next seeds of humanity. He is most infuriated that the dome knows this, but does nothing to thwart its fate. "Tell me what I've been doing this whole time!" "Romdeau is not your epitaph! The future of our fellow citizens is at stake. We can no longer afford your ignorance."
As the chief of security, Raul had to know the full picture. He had to know what all the other Bureaus were up to. He had to see that Romdeau was making no progress. He had to be a leader and to desire that they improve and survive. He had to see that it was all a cyclic facade from the start. In order to be the perfect chief, he had to struggle against his situation until he broke. In a city built to only maintain itself, any leader must fail. Any leader must have the traits of leadership to see and fix and control the whole picture. To prevent the city from steering towards destruction. But such qualities mean he must also strain to improve and must struggle at his bonds until he either exceeds them and is removed, or breaks and falls from grace.
"It isn't really surprising. No one appointed of Chief of the Security Bureau has ever successfully completed their term. Their position teaches them things they should not know. These ideas foster feeling they should not feel. Then they all stray down this path. We knew it was inevitable from the moment he assumed office. This is what becomes of a true fellow citizen. An irony worth noting."

"You mean, no matter what they do, they're going to die?" "It seems a few don't accept their fate."

It is important to realize that even if Raul were "only" the leader of Romdeau, without any knowledge of Romdeau's raison d'etre, he would still have broken in the same fashion. The role he is supposed to fill is supposed to be predetermined and static. He is not supposed to grow the city, or improve the workings of it, or expand his power, or invent anything. Raul has to posses the traits that allow him to deal with the new situations and problems that arise. He has to be able to create new ideas to deal with new problems. He has to be a dynamic entity, not a script. But that same trait makes him think and try to improve beyond the status quo, which is entirely against the philosophy of Romdeau. A static role that must be filled by a dynamic being. The very traits he needs to perform his job, ensure that he cannot perform his job well perpetually. Eventually he will question and try to reach beyond his role. It is the nature of leaders, thinkers, creators to want to add or improve or expand. He cannot be one without the other. The same is true for the other heads of bureaus, (Re-L's investigation and frustration, Daedalus's pet projects and runaway genius, The Regent's attempt to rule Romdeau as statically as possible eventually is corrupted by his single desire to meet his Creator again) and it becomes obvious that they too were doomed to fail. And so this role of "leader" can never be filled perfectly.

You know what is the same problem? Free will. Necessary to survive, but destroys any role prescribed.

The theme of this episode is something like the transition between the past and the future.

The creatures are most likely humans. They may be pseudohumans that lost or destroyed their proxy, and then developed their current situation to continue life, however a few things repel me from that idea. One is that proxies were mostly decent guardians for most of their existence, and that they are really really hard to kill. Secondly they must have killed their god long enough ago to have forgotten language. Thirdly, there is no remnants of a dome or a WombSys or autoreivs that I can tell. Finally, they reproduce in a mammalian fashion. It seems to me, that they are instead humans that were left behind after the Boomerang project. That they holed themselves up in a sort of bunker and kept a society hoping for rescue. This is what becomes of mankind after eons of evolution, if they themselves had stayed on earth while it recovered. The outside air is poisonous to them rather than virulent.

This then is a vision of the past dying, and the future taking over where they left off.

This is the most prevalent manipulation of Proxy One. Here he continues to play Raul, and presumably has all along. All the visions Raul has been having to provoke him against Vincent were real. Since day one, every time he was mocked by Vincent's image, it was Proxy 1 purposefully driving him to despair. It was Proxy 1 that planted the broadcast so that Raul would see Vincent and Pino and their destination of Mosk. He handed the plan to Raul and then drove him to execute it. How enraged Raul becomes is no fault of his personality, but the eloquent control of his psyche through Proxy 1's powers.

Further instances of foreshadowing: "We won't last long like this, but it isn't the end of the world, at least not yet."
Raul's first ideas of surviving the loss of the Proxy and the WombSys by becoming independent of their powers.
"You're too emotional." "And you're too detached."
Raul and Daedalus try opposite methods of dealing with the changes in their lives. Raul tries to take everything into his own hands and fight, and Daedalus decides to watch the fall of civilization from the side-lines having given up well before the end had begun. Raul's anger and destructive tendencies are made clear, and the first signs of Daedalus's madness set in when he speaks to Re-L's image on his computer as if she were there.

Here is the end of Raul and Deadalus' previous lives, and the opening of their lives in the approaching apocalypse.

////////////Reactions:

My only thoughts on Re-L and Vincent's adventure are about how resigned the creatures are. They are so weak, both in body and in spirit. I can only guess at what a civilization would be like if it knew it were doomed to an unstoppable decay over hundreds of years. How, from birth to death, the atmosphere would be one of utter despair, resignation, gloom, and morbidity. What would it be like, to live your entire life that way? Save for one or two youths that briefly challenge their fate before giving up because there are no resources, nothing to do, and no hope. (Speculation: They may even be dying from slowly suffocating themselves by using up the oxygen. Dying from their very act of living.) What would it be like, to bear children in a society like that, knowing that they too will merely be part of the inevitable slow death?

Walking corpse from a clockwork womb.... what imagery.

All Episodes: Ergo Proxy Companion Viewing Guide
Previous: Episode 16:Dead Calm/Busy Doing Nothing
Next: Episode 18:Sign of the End/Life After God