Ergo Proxy - Episode 22:Bind/Bilbul

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Bind
Raul manages to shoot Ergo Proxy once, but the next ones don't hit his mark. He backs into the elevator aiming at Ergo Proxy, though his gun has no more shells. Ergo Proxy survives only because he ripped his own arm off, preventing the spread of the proxy-killing substance.

Pino is drawing the pictures that she leaves in her home Raul to find. She ends up leaving because her papa isn't coming home and there are people hunting for infected autoreivs she has to avoid.

I'm not sure, but I believe that Ergo Proxy strangled Re-L as well. It is unclear, but she is clutching her throat and grimacing when the show resumes. Her voice isn't ragged, but that might have been oversight. I used to think she fainted, but I'm not really sure anymore.

Kristeva continues to perform her duty, but Re-L recognizes that it is also out of love and choice, not just programming.

The citizens are no longer in denial, but the city is no more honest than it used to be. It is my opinion that this is only a phase of progress on the way to a truly functioning society for these people, but that isn't necessarily right. If it isn't right, I am just as conflicted as Re-L over what is better and more real. The hatred and killing is just another form of denial, but what's more, what if the citizens really can't reform them ways to think for themselves. What if the only way they can survive and maintain themselves is within the twisted system or Romdeau. If that is the case, maybe they deserve to die to make way for a society that can succeed.

"I'm Real Mayer, of course." "No, I'm Re-L Mayer. I don't know what you are."
After Ophelia I don't blame Re-L for being rather rude here...

"You helped Vincent remember Monad. That's me, I'm Monad."
But she's Real Mayer.

"And how the hell do you know who Vincent is." "I need... Vincent."
Real seems to be supernatural in a number of ways. She grew up in the span of months, she knows things she couldn't have known, and she feels things she couldn't have reason to felt. Somehow she seems to be a reincarnation of Monad. Or creepily, she may be Monad brought back from the dead. Daedalus clearly didn't intend it, but she has Monad's memories and maybe soul. Daedalus only meant for her to be Re-L, though perhaps a 'better' version.

"Please, there's no need for him to suffer any longer. I can free him from his burden as the Creator." "Creator?" "Romdeau. He created Romdeau." I don't blame you if you don't believe her. It is out of nowhere and Real is a total unknown for the most part. But after the collective confirms it, and Vincent having a vision and saying he remembers doing it...I think you'll just have to accept that this is the reality of Romdeau.

Daedalus.... also is showing emotion. He used to be so calm and collected, almost unnervingly so. Even recently he would quietly intone, "You're hurting me." But suddenly he yells, "Vincent Vincent Vincent! I don't care!" Re-L is stunned. I don't think she has ever seen him act this way, and she hadn't realized he would do such a thing in reaction to her anguished pleas for guidance. I don't know if you either have realized. Daedalus always seems so placid and content to do what he can, and he seemed to care for Re-L as an ally with a common goal and common proclivity. But, it seems, there is a lot more he didn't make apparent. (at least, to my undiscerning nature...) Daedalus loves Re-L. He wants her to love him, but he's never tried to push her, just hoped she would some day admire him the way he cherishes her. It's mixed up and hidden behind his duties to her and his fascination with research and his snarky attitude. I'm not sure he ever realized it, and I'm not sure if it is just expressing itself now because he isn't that aware of what he is doing anymore. But it's there and it's real.

Re-L certainly never realized.




Re-L can finally get the answers she has been fighting for since the beginning. The Proxies are gods that created the domes. Vincent created Romdeau, but he left it. None of this is figurative. This is literally the reality of this world. The (already aged) Regent was appointed by Vincent, so it was probably within the last 50 years. Within that time Romdeau attacked Mosk. "To ignite the dying embers of our lost glory. A measured act of vengeance." Romdeau was dying without it's proxy and they were angry at their own god for abandoning them. "But Monad stole our light and sealed us in this place with our eyes forever closed. Our vision would no longer be capable of shining on the earth." Monad stole Ergo Proxy, and thus doomed them to a slow death. The collective isn't completely alive, and the city's consciousness isn't either, but they still can fade away and cease to be.

"The irony of the creator's silent return to the city is not lost on us."
I'm not really sure what irony. Maybe it is that the creations gave up on their god, but their god did not completely give up on them. Maybe it is that they were searching for their god, but didn't notice when he had returned to them. Or maybe it is because they rejected his Vincent persona.

There is an inexplicable scene from Episode 17 of the cave paintings of natural birth, and Re-L makes an inexplicable comment. "That means we're the Creator's anguish." I'm pretty sure this only makes sense after seeing the next episode, and even then I'm not sure why Re-L knows or says it.

Daedalus picks up the yarn trail on the way back to the lab. This is a re-enactment of Daedalus's namesake, whom escaped his labyrinth using the red yarn. I don't think that Real is Daedalus's escape, more the symbolism is the way the characters are (in a limited way) caught in fall towards their individual fates. If that is true... then Raul dashing the ball of yarn from Real's hands may tie right back into his determinism to buck his own fate, perhaps even allowing the others to evade their's. (Or... more likely I just want Raul to be a hero in some (any) fashion.)

Daedalus is acting strangely. He is back to being aloof and cryptic, but he's doing it in a sort of "reeling" way to me. He is affectionate, then sarcastic, then polite, then cruel, then impudent and finally brash. I think this is Daedalus feeling despair. He is sweet because he longs so much for Real(Re-L) and he has some hope again that she will care for him, but he is also on the edge of being suicidal because his entire world is deserting him. Not just Romdeau's endowed raison d'etre, but his love abandoning him, his society breaking down, and his genius becoming useless (it will be without a city to support and use him). I cannot imagine the blow it would be to be finally believing that your love cares for you, only to hear her say she didn't save your life for your sake, but for the sake of the one you don't want her to love. Daedalus, despite being given what would seem to be a perfect life with blessed abilities and personalities, is cursed to never have the thing he has discoverd that he desires most. "When I look into her eyes, I want to see my reflections." He cannot make even his creation love him.

"We cannot know the mind of the creator."
"But if a proxy is omnipotent, why did he abandon his creation? Why did he leave this world in chaos?" "There were limits to his omnipotence." "Left, with the disappointment in himself." "But he was an imperfect god, and so his creations, like him, were also imperfect."

If Ergo Proxy were the creator, then how much of everything was by his intentional design. If he created the city and set up the system, then he could easily have guided it's future including Re-L. Personally, I can't imagine it is so, but that is mostly because I am used to listening to Vincent who is just as 'set up' as the rest since he knows nothing of the predetermined fates allotted. But if one were a god. An imperfect god. Wanting to be destroyed. Wanting to be loved. Wanting to be more perfect and wanting to be able to create perfect creations... None of this seems unlikely to happen. And what about the creation? Should they follow the will of their creator, when it was the reason they were created. Can they even disobey it? I will speak more about it later. "No one ever gets to choose who they are born as. No matter what sort of being they are." It seems that Ergo Proxy really did have a death wish. He says that he "knew it would end with [Re-L's] gun at your head." It's hard for me to believe from the context, but I suppose Ergo really did give up and wish to die, at least at some point. Maybe not the entire time, but reflecting back on who he has been, he still seems to be on the verge of wanting to die. "You can. If you want." Re-L looks confused or surprised, and either she knew all along or she figures it out when Vincent acknowledges her choice.

"He's revealed himself to us so many times."
The other proxy was there instead of Vincent in these scenes:
The "awakening" message.
The second pendant left and the destruction in the memory vault.
"That which is divided must become one."
Standing on a building in Romdeau.
Preventing Re-L from shooting in the last episode/being shot/ripping his own arm off.


I have tried to use Ergo Proxy instead of Vincent when it is not clear or when it was the other proxy.

"Even if this is the truth for Romdeau, it is not the great truth you may find for yourself." "A truth that cannot be communicated, it must be realized. For all creatures, no matter who or what they are, truth must be derived from self." "So each of us has to find our own truth." I thought that this was a very western idea, that our purpose is to find our purpose, so I'm surprised that this is being said so bluntly here. However, I do agree with the idea and it is central to Ergo Proxy's themes, that truths are found and created by what we do and seek to know. Fate and raison d'etre, logic and emotion, free will and questioning, each play a role. I believe the statues are communicating a powerful sentiment Re-L expresses in the next episode, and what Re-L, Raul, Pino, and Vincent have all be struggling with the entire time. Not what purpose to create for themselves, but whether they can create one for themselves, and in effect, escape some other fate.

"As long as evil and shame abide. In silence we will find our joy."
Do not awaken us until the end. To rest in peace.
This is the same quote from the statues that opened the series: (from the first episode guide:
It is my pleasure to sleep and even more to be stone:
As long as shames and dishonor may last,
My sole desire is to see and feel no more.
Speak softly, I beg you, do not awaken me.)
It seems to me that everything was building to this point for the collective. Now they view their time as up and their raison d'etre as over. They give the future over to the still-living.


[VIEW SPOILERS]

Bilbul

"Please, there's no need for him to suffer any longer. I can free him from his burden as the Creator."
Monad is already stating her purpose and role. She has no regard for the reason Vincent suffers, all she cares about is stopping the pain, even if it's by is by a cloying nepenthe. His burden, his duty, his blessing or his responsibility. It is unknown what it means to take on the mantle of Creator. (Certainly the series deals almost exclusively with the downsides of what we almost exclusively think of as nothing but of godsend.)

I don't really approve of the psueomagical creation of Monad. Even if we are dealing with god-powers, I don't understand or like that she has the memories and feelings of Monad, as if her DNA contains her personality or something. I can deal with her growing up in a week and even her sprouting wings, but I get hung up over her weird knowledge and sentiments.

I feel bad for not speaking of Daedalus, but I too will deny him this episode. Next time, perhaps, I will tell his full story.
But for now, someone else will speak of him.
(from the same author, of Quinn and Hoody)

I appreciate how and what the collective speaks. They are wise, but they do not know everything. They go ahead an say everything, I believe, however they do say it cryptically. It just seems to be their nature, and I appreciate it.

Re-L thinking of the cave paintings seems to indicate that she has seen through to the reason for the creation of the Proxy Project, or at least that there are Creators of the creator. Her statement that we are the Creator's anguish I take to mean that the domes are the left over haphazard replacements of humanity, but maybe I am missing what it is supposed to allude to. In any case, I don't really grasp what is being indicated in that scene. It seems odd for Re-L to be thinking of those sorts of things, I don't know how she would know or guess at it.

The entrance to Proxy One's throne is absolutely a reference to the first montage of images in the show. There is even a bird that flies over as they approach!

[/SPOILERS]


////////////Reactions:
Sorry, it's a little hard for me to remember what was unclear to me the first time I watched through, and also what I have said in the last 2 years during this guide. I really should go back through, post relevant images, and rewrite/condense repeated content. I'm not sure how unclear it was that it was not Vincent killing Donov. I guess not clear at all since there wasn't any other option until the end of this episode. I am so used to knowing it is not-Vincent that I think of that before I think of it being Ergo and then a surprise that it is not. Also Donov Mayer might not even be a name that is that familiar, maybe "The Regent" or another of his names was the one that was most prevalent and the only familiar one to most watchers.


Re-l's question of "What if the truth is too terrible to ever be unleashed?" is a little esoteric and stated in an awkwardly blunt way, but the central idea behind it afflicts me deeply. I hardly ever contemplate it. I question myself constantly, but in a less piercing way than what I am thinking of now. "What if what I think is real, isn't." "What if what I believe is right, is wrong." "What if what I've been trying to do my entire life isn't just false and flawed, but truly unjust." These statements feel flat and they don't evoke the depth and emotional truth that I've plunge into. Again, rarely, but... once, I ... truly contemplated that question... the thought led me to become hysterical for a few moments. It was ... unlike most anything else I have felt.

It is one thing to ask if we will ever know the truth, but it is vexing to consider if it might be better if we never understand.

This reminds me of a conversation I had where I was considering a rather Utopian world that incorporated civilians carrying guns. If everyone didn't shoot unless provoked by mortal danger, valued life deeply, and was careful to only shoot after consideration, I felt sure that there was nothing inherently wrong with having the sort of power over life and death in the hands of good people. But, in the course of this discussion, I began to be convinced that we are too flawed. Not in that we are bad people, (in the thought experiment it's pre-set that that isn't the case.) but that, even with cation and good intentions we still aren't able or worthy to have the power of even a single lethal weapon ... That conclusion deeply troubled me. It means that we probably shouldn't allow ourselves to wield really any power as individuals, and that is extremely sad to me. I want us to have flaws we can overcome. And I was forced to realize that I don't think or at least am not sure that we can overcome the mistakes we make in snap judgments. I don't know if we can ever be trusted to act correctly when presented with what we think is a pressing threat.

"It's you. Hello me. It's nice to meet you."
Yaaaay. Scriptwriters gotta have fun.

I'm sorry for the quality of this episode guide. Hopefully I'll be able to revamp it, (and others?) but in case I do not.... I apologize.

All Episodes: Ergo Proxy Companion Viewing Guide
Previous: Ergo Proxy - Episode 21:The Place at the End of Time/Shampoo Planet
Next: Ergo Proxy - Episode 23:Proxy/Deus ex Machina