Episode Review – NieR:Automata Ver1.1A Episode 21: Spiraling Out Of Control

September 12, 2024Episode Review,  Mecha Discussion,  ,  
– We have finally become a family…
Tragedy upon tragedy. This episode continues the pain train from the previous ep, with the conflict shifting to the Resistance camp – the final bastion of anti-machine lifeform warfare. This episode also locked us into one of the endings of Nier Automata and after this one – there’s only one route left to take.

The virus of the machine lifeform is so potent it exceeded my expectation. It seems to be able to embed itself into androids and machines alike and just…activate out of nowhere. One of the children that Pascal saved from his village was the infection route for the entire camp. And once the virus got out, it went absolutely berserk and infect everyone like a wave of zombie. It’s also much more tragic than usual because the reason the kid was triggered is because his toy broke. Such a mundane thing to humans and androids but because the machine lifeforms just started mimicking humanity, their fear of losing things are much more primitive and severe, to the point that he “cannibalized” his friends to sate his fear of abandonment.

Pascal took it upon himself to end this tragedy. Since he is also scared. He’s all alone now. His people are dead, his last hope – the children – are all infected and dead. There’s nothing to live for. Even his machine brain couldn’t take surviving by himself. So he let himself get infected and bring all his children with him so they can be together in the “afterlife”. Surely for a machine, such a thing do not exist. But maybe they believed in it, just like some humans do. The scene was very heartbreaking with Pascal’s voice-acting. And they did a good job depicting such a messed-up situation.

And for the Resistance…well it doesn’t end well for them obviously. The virus spread like wildfire and all of them became android zombies. And then we are finally down to the final members of the Resistance: Lily, Jackass, Weapon Trader, Supply Trader, etc… When they discuss staying to see their comrade’s final moments…I realized that’s it for them. They are purging everything that aren’t the original “machine lifeforms”, and the Resistance is one of them.

After A2 reach the camp, the only survivor was Lily (I guess even Jackass couldn’t outrun that). And of course, she was infected just like 2B was. And Lily entrusted everything to A2 – including helping her end this. A2 must be absolutely devastated since she lost literally everyone in this episode. She had to kill 2B – akin to a distant sister to her, she had to kill Lily – who she treat like family, and she saw the only machine lifeforms she could relate to – Pascal and his villagers – all blown to bits. After gaining a family for herself after the Pearl Harbor descent, she lost everything and worked alone since then, but she rediscovered her comrades, her family, and even came to understand some of the machine lifeforms. But as fate has it, she lost everything in a single day. Now with everyone’s will inherited, she will head towards the Tower for a final showdown with the machine lifeforms.

Finally, 9S. Well his journey finally brought him to the final key – which is ironically 2B’s final message to him. What she couldn’t say, she did in a recorded message. The tender tone of her voice is completely different from her usual stern voice while they are out on mission. And this really pierced 9S’ heart, to the point that he faint after cutting down the machine core. Furthermore, her calling her days with 9S as “filled with light” is so symbolic. Since her days with 9S basically made her see through the blindfold, through the veiled war of machine lifeforms and android and humanity, and just…enjoy the moments they are together. This might be the key to wrestle 9S out of his vengeance streak…but not now, as he will also head to the Tower to put an end to the machine lifeform for good.

We all know what’s going to happen. After the dust settled, A2 and 9S will confront each other. And it will either be ending C or D or…maybe something new. Furthermore, there are no “puppet theater” anymore at the end of the episode. So I think this is the point where they locked in and began to go full serious mode.

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