This episode was the exciting climax of the season as all the pieces of the current case snap together but leaves a few loose ends for the final episode to hopefully close out.
Alongside with Foreign Affairs revealing themselves within Heaven’s Leap, the show finally introduced the last two remaining characters from opening credits and these two people look like they’ve been through some serious shit for their entire lives. From what I understand, these two oldtimers armed with automatic weapons and thermal sniper rifles are from the same organization that Kogami killed the leader in the third Sinners of the System movie. As cool as the assault variant of the Dominators are, nothing beats a quick burst from a rifle in speed. We saw elements of a low-tech fight in the movie where foreign rebels managed to infiltrate into Japan. If there are future sequels, having these two fight the PSB and FAO is going to be a recurring riot.
This is one of the few times that I’ve seen in anime where incest isn’t a fetishizing bait for a show like Eromanga Sensei or a tag for hentai. Instead, it’s the exact reason that Torri decided to bomb his uncle/father, having his hue clouded from birth and his untimely demise at the hands of Kei’s wife. The one thing that erks me about Torri is that he didn’t get away while he had the chance and had plenty of warnings especially from the First Inspector. Perhaps he was too stubborn in his own pride and too confident in his own plan to walk away. In addition, taking Maiko as a hostage was a dumb idea to begin as she would only slow him down and her value as a hostage is questionable at best when the entire MWPSB is conducting a massive raid with tear gas drone and Unit Two. Of course, this sets up one of the best scenes in the episode where Makio just snaps all those death flags that had been building up in the last while and just pumps a couple of bullets into the chest of Torri. The price for that is her is being institutionalized for the time being and causing a falling out between Kei and Arata. This could have some serious consequences down the line if the relationship between the three are strained further.
Akane and the Chief having that important conversation about Arata being criminally asymptomatic had all sorts of undertones to it as both sides understands why it is necessary for her to be under house arrest. The Sybil System is always on the hunt for more brains but Artara is more useful in being a hunting dog for the PSB and rooting out Bitfrost rather than being co-opted into an underground hivemind. With a single episode left, I don’t believe that they will be even remotely attempting to close the chapter of Bifrost and the congressman that play within its system. There is simply too much to cover, explain and resolve within a finale episode. Seeing Bifrost uses its disintegrating ray Kyoko is odd parallel between the two competing systems as they both judge the people within their domain. If they do decide to end everything, it would be one of the most rushed conclusion ever. In particular, we don’t see much of the First Inspector, Koichi Azusawa, taking a direct hand in committing crimes and his most interesting aspect is the way he operates through a mixture of reverse psychology, enabling others to take action for themselves or outsourcing to mercenaries to do the fighting.
