Ergo Proxy – 10 – Raoul vs Daedalus, yay!

Ergo Proxy returns, and it returns with another great episode. No Vincent and Pino this time, but the story focuses mostly on two side-characters: Raoul and Daedalus, along with a little bit of Real. (Yes, my way of spelling these names keeps changing. I like Ril and Dedars more than Real and Deadalus, but it seems that we’re dealing with a couple of official names here).

Even though the episode wasn’t as action-packed as the previous one, I still loved it. Especially Deadalus was great. The episode starts with Raoul and Kristeva (his autorave) checking up on him. Ever since that accident from episode seven, Real has been viewed as dead and he’s been labeled as the murderer. He’s been stripped from all his authority and just remains in his apartment doing nothing. Raoul also mentions that he’s finally gotten over Tasha’s death. It’s here where my memory left me a bit. Tasha either is one of the people who was killed while Monad Proxy chased Vincent in the second episode, or she is a yet to be introduced character who now is dead.

Raoul mentions the fact that Daedalus has lost his Raison d’Être, or reason to live. A term which will be showing up more in this episode and probably make a few more comebacks during the rest of the entire anime. Daedalus threw away both Real and Proxy, which were the only things he lived for. Then we get to see the scene we’ve been suspecting ever since Real got killed: Real being alive. It couldn’t have been avoided. I mean, she’s the main characters. Main characters only die at the last episode. Anyway, I’m glad that the creators realize this and just show the scene immediately.

Raoul then pays a visit to the city-council. It seems that Monad Proxy was some kind of important energy source for Romdeau. Now that she’s gone (I’m calling Monad a she because of one of my theories about something that happened later in the episode, look below), the city might face danger. Not only that, but Raoul is also blamed on this by the council. Something that doesn’t make him very happy, as he later punches his reflection in a mirror to pieces (the mirror, I mean). He also brings up a famous quote from Descartes, which fits the scene perfectly (“I think, therefore I am”, though he lets out the last word).

Later, when he leaves the council’s tower in an elevator along with Kristeva, The two of them talk a bit, Kristeva mentions Raoul’s wound as a result of his fight with the mirror, and suddenly, the power falls out, locking the two of them up inside the elevator. Later, when he’s leading a team to discover the meaning behind this power outage, he discovers something interesting. The power outage took 2 minutes and 17 seconds, which is indeed Daedalus’ trademark. Raoul’s been talking about this before, though I never knew what it was. But apparently, they were referring to Daedalus. Before the long power outage, there also a large number of small outages. Most of them took just a few seconds. It seems that Daedalus had been using these outages as testings, and he clearly used the last one as something to get attention. In any case, Raoul decides to go and pay Daedalus a visit.

Daedalus, starts by pulling up an act, but then again Raoul does as well. Raoul wants Daedalus to check up on the wound he got, while Daedalus keeps telling him that he doesn’t examine anymore. Though Daedalus does reveal something interesting: his life indeed was devoted to taking care of Real. This has been suggested before, though it has never been directly comfirmed like this. Though why was Real so important?

In any case, Raoul and Daedalus find themselves a spot to talk, at which they won’t be overheard, and their conversation turns less cryptic by the minute. Still, it remains cryptic. The thing Raoul was after (Daedalus’ research) is gone, hidden somewhere. Raoul then reveals that he knows that Daedalus used Monad in order to hide the existance of Ergo by forcing all of the council’s attention on the former. He also reveals that he knows that Real is alive somewhere. Daedalus wanted to use Real in order to lure out Ergo, but at the last minute, he got his doubts, as this would obviously mean Real not surviving it. Because of this, he seemed to have sent Raoul the cryptical message. I don’t understand the reasoning behind this, though I think that Raoul thinks that Daedalus planned to ask him to team up with him.

Still, Daedalus denies. He doesn’t want to partner up with the one who tried to kill him. Then, Raoul reveals another interesting fact. It wasn’t him who sent the autoraves to kill Real, it was the Council. The major is even wiling to kill his own granddaughter who indeed committed a crime, in order to keep up the law of Romdeau. Then things really get interesting when Raoul reveals that he knows that the power outage had another purpose. Daedalus replies that he was trying to resurrect Monad (after all, by causing a power outage, you can use a tremendous amount of energy). Raoul then offers to let Daedalus work for him again, in order to resurrect Monad. Daedalus hasn’t got much of a choice, so he agrees.

When everything is settled, Raoul really is in a good mood. He’s apparently hiding what he’s doing from the council. He also tries to burn some fear into Daedalus by intimidating him. At first sight this works. But then, when Raoul left, Daedalus has a very interesting monologue. He talks to the dead body of Monad as if it was Real. Raoul also has no idea what his real goals are, and Daedalus really gets exited. This is where I got an interesting theory. Real, of course, couldn’t be Monad Proxy. But what if the two are linked somehow? What if she originally was Monad Proxy, but the two split apart at some certain time and space. Remember Senekis? We also saw a weirdly behaving woman, locked up inside that fort. Then the infected autoraves from Kazkiz came, and freed her. Then this woman died at about the same time as Senekis. What if the two of them were linked in the same way that Real and Monad are? In any case, Real is someone special. Otherwise, Daedalus wouldn’t have devoted his life to her and Monad.

Real, meanwhile, has an interesting experience. It doesn’t really contribute to the plot, but it introduces some very interesting phylosophical questions. She ends up in a town, abandoned by people, but with robots seemingly left behing, doing their ordinary work as if there actually were some people around. For what purpose do these machines work? I mean, there aren’t any people left, so it would seem that they are obsolete. She also has a dream about a younger version of herself, who tries to warn her, I guess. Ergo Proxy indeed is cruel. And yes, Real is indeed chasing something extremely dangerous. But still, she believes that Vincent holds the truth. The episode ends with the strangest cliffhanger ever. Something you indeed did not see coming, let alone understand. Real and Iggy leave the humanless city. The robots perform their work as usual, until one of them break from its routine and walks off.