Moving past the action-packed conclusion of the Gubernatorial elections case, Psycho-Pass 3 goes for a dialogue-heavy episode in preparation of whatever its decides to do for the last three episodes.
There was a lot of new ideas and faces being introduced here and I had a little trouble keeping names and beliefs from jumbling altogether. Nevertheless, the main idea that Azusawa, under the guidance of Bifrost, contacts the three cult leaders for the next phase of the plan. Shinogi provides the medical drone, Auma supplies the explosives and Aschenbach brainwashes the bomber through his drug companies before sending him off for an attack. Predicatively, all of them run circles around the inspectors by stonewalling with their clear hue and hinting that one day, it will be them holding the Dominators. That’s a really cool unexplored idea within Psycho-Pass that through politics and religion, it might come to replace the society of science and rationality of the Sibyl System. It’s clear that they intend to progress society through a series of betting games like the bombings, the Ma-Karina AI, mortgage bubble, and the immigration issue. It’s obvious that they were connected to Akane and the Unit One Inspectors’ cases before S3 and Sibyl would obviously be interested in co-opting such a group as they are always on the hunt for for criminally asymptomatic people to join their ranks, especially after the events of S2 when a significant number of brains were eliminated. The only remaining question is what is the ultimate goal of Bifrost since they are a prominent focus of the series.
From the get-go, the foxes within the MWPSB is obviously Mao. She is the one who picked up and hid a foxes business card and that ominous scene in the enforcer’s apartment isn’t fooling the audience. The other two new enforcers already had their backstories shown to us and Hinakawa is as harmless as a puppy when it comes to being a nefarious organization’s fox. She has every opportunity to show her true colors in the upcoming case with her being part of the infiltration team. Along with all the foreshadowing of Mao, there is an overwhelming amount of death and red flags from all the lines of keeping Yayoi safe as well as praying for a successful surgery for Kei’s wife. Psycho-Pass doesn’t give free passes to its characters and it’s not going to start now when the stakes are beginning to reach their peak. It does give some hilarious moments with the Sibyl avatar being thrown around and burned by Mika and playing matchmaker with the Unit One’s members for the case.
The choice of Dejima as a significant place in Psycho-Pass isn’t lost on me as it is representative of the Sibyl System ending its isolation policy and refers to Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. 2nd GIG and its own plot with refugees trying to establish a nation for itself. Dejima is an island and for most of the Edo period, it was the single place of direct trade and exchange between Japan and the outside world. On a side note, Kojima Death Stranding’s game engine is named after this place after Dutch-based Guerrilla Games handed over their code without any strings attached. In the second movie of the Sinner of the System Trilogy, it was the place where the climax took place in an underground submarine base abandoned by the Americans. Don’t know if a submarine is going to come into play in the final three episodes but the pieces are all there for the writers to pick up. With Babylon taking an ill-advised six week break just after one of the more shocking episodes of the season, Psycho-Pass 3 has you covered for that juicy sweet police procedural drama along energy weapons, competing dystopian organizations, an entire franchise worth of lore and likable characters.
