1x23 Brain Scratch

[8.1/10] This episode is a nice melding of a spiritual/philosophical/social commentary theme with a thought-provoking and poignant sci-fi premise, both of which are very much my jam.

For starters, I love the concept. The notion of chasing after a bounty that doesn’t exit, because the “person” is a fictional digital persona, has a surprising amount of resonance to the modern day with sock puppets, bots, and A.I.-generated images. It makes the hunt interesting, since the combined talents of Ed’s hacking, Spike’s cult outreach, and Jet sniffing for old friends still come up empty. Sometimes, these twists can be silly, but here it feels genuinely surprising and on theme.

That theme is hard for me to pin down, but full of interesting commentary from the writers. Dr. Londes talks about the inherent need in people to reach for something bigger to help provide comfort and stability in a chaotic and corrupt world, whether that's traditional religion, cuts that foster a sense of belonging, or the simple rush of information in a televised and increasingly digitized world. Again, while the T.V. focus is a little dated, much of this episode feels prescient, with more and more of our lives being lived online and questions about the healthiness of being bombarded by information constantly. The way various belief systems fill in for that sense of community or belief in a higher power is also an interesting tack for the show to explore.

Now most of these statements come from the mouth of the show’s ostensible villain, one who’s at least partly compensating for his own personal losses as he spins this philosophy, so it’s hard to know how much the show wants the audience to contemplate these points seriously and how much it wants us to reject them given the source. But either way, it kicks some intriguing dust in the air, even if I’m not entirely sure where it settles.

There’s also some cool structural and format elements to this one. I love how the opening part of the show is told entirely through clips on television, with diegetic news clips and channel surfing to fill in the blanks rather than the usual exposition. It helps demonstrate the sort of power of information first-hand the show is talking about. ANd it’s not lost on me that it helps drive the point home that the ostensible Dr. Londes wants to make. We are the people watching television and escaping to this fantasy world, whether or not we do so at the expense of our real lives. In the age of concern that T.v. would rot people’s brains, it’s interesting to see a T.V. show use the medium to at least consider the criticism and maybe even fling it at its own audience.

Likewise, there’s some cool metaphysical questions about people trying to preserve themselves through uploading their minds to the cloud. Whether that would really be you isn’t something this episode delves in too deeply, but it affects the people in the cult and those who loved them. To that same end, the idea of losing loved ones to powerful, comforting, but perhaps manipulative or outright dangerous belief systems is another point that's all too salient to the modern experience.

The imagery here is cool as hell too. The giant stack of televisions in the center of a dingy body-strewn room is haunting. You can see everything from The Matrix to Kingdom Hearts 3 taking cues from the scene.

I particularly enjoyed the big twist here -- that Dr. Londnes is, in fact, the digital avatar of a poor young hacker who suffered a medical emergency that kept his brain functioning, but his body inoperable. The sense that the digital space is where he survives, but it left him with a pathological need to convince people to shed their bodies too, is a fascinating and unique bit of character psychology. As much as he is the author of a great deal of hurt and even death, he is a tragic figure, one who lost something deep and significant in a way that warped him and his worldview.

Overall, this is one of the more spiritual, dark, and inventive episodes of Cowboy Bebop to date, and a real standout in terms of philosophical and emotional depth.