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At this point Blade Runner: Black Lotus has transitioned away from “competent but generic” into an outright boring show. I would almost prefer the show to be worse if it means it is more exciting to watch. At this stage we have basically, well, zero momentum behind what’s happening.
The cold open of this episode is fine. The replicant trying to escape while Ben Affleck-lookalike Marlowe hunts him down is a short and punchy—if somewhat standard—sequence. I liked the line “you were safer in the cage,” which was the kind of inspired dialogue we have not seen much of thus far. It gave me hope that there will be an uptick in excitement coming soon.
Oh if only.
As previously mentioned, the problem is with this episode is the lack of any tension whatsoever. We spend a long time watching Elle do basic tasks: She eats, asks questions of Joseph about her bodily functions, and learns to shoot a pistol. The problem is that while the bodily autonomy talk has the potential to be interesting, we haven’t seen her do any of this stuff before, and the narrative hasn’t really dwelled on these plot points in any way. It’s very much a “hey let’s read the wiki” sort of exposition dump, just dropping random factoids with no sense of pacing or excitement.
Elle learning to defend herself with a pistol is an avenue for good character growth. It makes sense. If only it had, uh, any sense of urgency to it. The issue is that we the audience were introduced to Elle in the very first episode as a katana-wielding slayer and ace close combat expert, deftly sending half a dozen competent foes to a red-hued graveyard all on her own. So the idea that now she has to learn to defend herself feels strangely out of place.
Furthermore, the entire deployment of the LAPD scene ends up being a flop. Marlowe is set up as this important, vital character to what’s going on, but even he quite literally says “Well I guess you don’t need me” and leaves. There’s a bit of a fake-out where we think Doc and Elle are about to be captured, but it ends up being Joseph instead. We really don’t know or care about Joseph at this point, so his capture barely has any emotional impact. Furthermore, we never see anyone express any concern over the random stuff the LAPD or Marlowe are doing, making his capture even more of a non-event.
The one positive thing I can say about this episode is that the smoke from Marlowe’s car was very well done. Hats off to the team for rendering some top-notch effects there.
Rating:
Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.
Blade Runner: Black Lotus is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll and Adult Swim.
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