Darker Than Black – Episode 11 (Finally!)

Oh my god, after watching the entirety of Iroha, I go online and they have BOTH Gurren Lagann 13 AND DtB 11 subbed (finally!) Rejoice! My good fortune brings me such joy on this night. Okay, so, here’s the game plan: Darker Than Black, Gurren Lagann and then Iroha, all in one night and hopefully in the span of three hours so that I can get some sleep.

Here goooes, Darker Than Black 13! My weekly Hei fix!

Plot Okay, so the story starts off on a bus traveling down a very lonely, moderately futuristic highway, headed for PANDORA. Hei, eh, we’re gonna refer to him as Li-kun for this one because he doesn’t go all contractor and kill people in this one. So, Li’s sitting in a window seat on this bus traveling (in my opinion into an absolute lunatic hell, PANDORA gives me the creeps) to the Gate. A girl next to him asks if he believes in the urban legend that you’ll regain what you lost in the Gate but for a substantial price (this just screams FMA, the Gate? Equivalent exchange? Guys with superpowers, alchemists? Roy and Hei? Yeah? Yeah?…No?…eh, fine.) Li blinks quizzically at her and answers, “Who knows.” She chuckles at his skepticism, admitting that she doesn’t really believe in it either and introduces her self as Corinna Moku, third year (assuming she’s a junior) at Beijing University. They shake hands, he introduces himself, the entire bus starts gasping as PANDORA appears.

The magic school bus, O_o

PANDORA, in the words of Corinna, is larger than I thought. The place is completely white, I guess it adds to the scientific nature of the installation. The entrance is apparently a giant circular tunnel that leads inward to an elevated highway sandwiched between two enormous walls rising out of the ground leaving only a narrow band of the night sky visible. Shocked and in awe everyone, Li and Corinna included, are staring and gawking at the place. The actual facility soon shows up, under the eerie light of florescent street lamps the bus pulls up to the front gate. Etched above the entrance are the words: Phisicalqantity Alternation Natural Deconstruction Organized Research Agency (just what in the hell does that even mean!?) The bus continues into PANDORA and the gate. Everything on the inside is white, too. The rooms are white, the equipment is white, the MRI machine, scanner type…thing that Li’s being tested in is white. Even Li’s sister’s name is white (Bai.) Just exactly what is NOT white?!

 
Just exactly WHAT HELL IS PHISICALQANTITY!?!?

As to why Hei is going to PANDORA….Mao, Huang and Hei sitting on the playground slide for the mission briefing. Mao’s disbelief is evident when he finds out that they’re planning to send Hei to PANDORA, knowing the consequences of a contractor being near the gate, not to mention he probably won’t be able to, as a contractor, just waltz into the agency. Huang insists on the seriousness of the ‘syndicate’ and that it must be done. Hei asks what is it they want him to do (excellent question.) Apparently the purpose for Hei’s visit to PANDORA and the gate is to retrieve, not exactly what he lost but he may just pick that up along the way, but a meteor that was the target of a failed CIA attempt under the guise of an explosion caused by faulty wiring. Mao concludes that the meteor is still in the gate, Huang confirms this and adds that the goal of the ‘syndicate’ is for Hei to transport the meteor out of the gate. He pulls a matchbox out of his pocket and slides it across to Hei. At first it appears to be nothing, but the light reveals the clear rectangular sticker in the box. Huang goes down the slide, his last comment being, “Just do as you’re told. It’s business as usual,” and leaves.

That sounds so perverted, “You’re coming with me.”

Back to the present and PANDORA, after physical tests, Li’s subjected to further questioning. Do you consider yourself a patient person? Have you ever seen an UFO? Do you believe in the existence of God? Do you know any contractors? He answers “No” to all of the questions and the next scene they stamp a large 18 across his identification papers. Apparently “No” is the correct answer to everything. He also runs into Corinna again who’s looking paranoid, neurotic and hallucinating. Concerned, Li asks her what’s wrong and the girl in pink turns to him with the most crazed look in her eye. Li involuntarily jumps. She snaps out of it long enough to tell him it’s nothing and then suddenly she jerks back up and is glaring worriedly into empty space. Naive as always, Li tries to ask again what was wrong but she cuts him off halfway and shouts, “Didn’t I already say everything was fine?” Li instinctively apologizes. The commotion brings out several police officers (or would it be better to call them MPs? they don’t look civilian.) Corinna tells them it’s nothing. The people at the entrance calls next and Corinna starts walking. One of the police officers grabs her wrist, impeding her advance. She struggles and yells for them to let go, instead she gets zapped and blacks out. The officer, a rather brutish man with the typical misplaced arrogance of a know it all policeman tells his subordinates to bring her back to testing. All the while Li and the rest of the soon to be employees of PANDORA are staying and gawking at the scene. The person calls out next again and Li proceeds through the gate, the policeman watching him suspiciously all the while.

This is my mop, there are many like it but this one is mine…XD

Welcome to janitor boot camp. Armed with his trusty mop, bucket and other sanitary supplies, Private Li Shen Shung is ready to tackle the paranormal, the supernatural and his short yapping boss. Lined up with other prospective employees who, in the fine words of the unnamed, yapping boss, will provide an optimal working environment for the hardworking scientists of the institution. They’re stuck under the command of this yapping creature for the next month, even if they die. So much for rest in peace. As you can tell, I’m hating the boss even if he’s a minor cameo. Despite his lowly position as only a janitor, he needs to flaunt what minuscule power he holds and it irks me that he does so. Any case, they take a tour of the facility. Sector three is the most important sector under their cleaning jurisdiction, all of the cleaning is done at night. Halfway through his speech, Li’s distracted by a set of telescopes in the room across the hall. The boss immediately tells him that that particular room needs no cleaning, the scientist working in that lab is meticulous. Just then, Chief Sergei passes by, his entrance to the lab blocked by Li and his superior. Immediately the yapping boss pulls Li out of the way to let Sergei, a balding man with sideburns and a beard, pass by. A tan skinned girl (is it safe and non discriminatory to assume she’s Indian?) follows but bumps not so accidentally into Li causing her to drop all of her papers and Chief Sergei to ditch her. Extremely angry at his clumsy subordinate and extremely apologetic to the girl, the yapping boss yells at Li to help her pick up her stuff.

Oiy, teh library, the forbidden section, O_o

Li also picks up a note to meet the girl in A-3 equipment room in an hour. They meet in A-3 equipment room in an hour (strangely reminiscent of underground library stacks I visit sometimes.) The supposedly Indian girl is Li’s man on the inside, if you will. She states that she knew that they were sending in someone to work in sanitation. Li asks if there are any other people from the ‘syndicate’. The answer is yes but it’s of no real help since she confesses in the next sentence that she doesn’t know any of them. She also bluntly states that she will be of no help whatsoever. She joined the ‘syndicate’ for the sake of researching in PANDORA and nothing else. Two years passed with no word from her parent organization, until now. She tells him not to rely on her and since it’s Hei we’re talking about, he doesn’t need to rely on anyone. Li also asks her about the meteor. She doesn’t know much about that either, but researching it’s origins is invaluable to solving the mystery behind the gate. Rambling on about the meteor, she realizes it has nothing to do with the actual mission and takes her leave, saying that if anything comes up, she will tell him. Also, she adds that her name is Mina Khandar Swami (I think it’s safe to call her Indian now) and that the translucent sticker Huang gave him isn’t necessary. There are no ways to tell who’s a contractor.

Ah yes, I insist on wrapping myself with a large hideous brown towel when stargazing.. ._.

Back on the job or maybe, on the contrary, off the job, Li wanders into the telescope room. Just as he is about to place a hand on the telescopes a voice tells him to stop. The voice belongs to a blonde man, the meticulous scientist of this lab. He tells Li that he’s in the middle of an experiment and left explicit instructions not to clean this room. Apologizing, Li lies or maybe not, and tells him that he use to have telescopes just like the ones in the lab, Satake models. Possibly surprised the scientist asks if Li’s a stargazer. He replies yes, but before the sky disappeared. The scientist, after asking for Li’s name, invites him to see a ‘real’ star.

They’re up on a room, each with a large brown sheet wrapped around them, I’m assuming it’s either cold or all stargazers working for a craze facility in the near future take large blankets with them. Some telescope techno jargon later, the scientist peers into the telescope. Curiously enough, the sky’s gone and they are no stars to be seen, Li inquires what exactly was the guy doing. He replied, with a matter of fact tone that he’s stargazing. No matter what happens to the sky, he remains in complete denial, loyal to his stargazing hobby. He asks Li to take a look. Li sees nothing and reports this to the scientist. The scientist, a blonde man with what looks to be green eyes, is pretty mild mannered, congenial man, the kind that makes a good father (in my opinion anyways) and on the flip side all the kind most liable to go crazy in the second half of this arc for some insane cause. Anyways, the scientist tells Li to forget everything (easier said than done), forget the moon isn’t there, forget the fabrication of the sky, the disappearing rockets, everything and just remember and envision what the night sky use to be. Li takes his advice and upon gazing a second time into the telescope, he is astonished to see actual stars. He immediately asks why and the scientist gives him the hand wave-y subpar answer that the impossible is possible within the gate. Then the scientist gets all philosophical and asks Li what would happen if all the people in the world undergoes this epiphany. He concludes that only then will they be able to see the true sky. Li gives him the most skeptical of looks and the man chuckles telling Li he is a honest man, his face speaking the words of disbelief for him. Then he tells Li that he should join his group, him and his sister who is unable to move apparently. The scientist adds that someday he wants to remove the false sky and take his sister into space. Knowing that Li also has a sister, although not incapacitated in the sense that she can’t move, but being a far removed entity, he wishes that the man’s dreams would come true one day.

The next day, Li sees Corinna in the lunchroom. She’s acting even weirder, making an absolute mess of her food, even crushing her milk carton. Li’s situated across the table from her with a large bowl of ramen, chopsticks in midair when she start screaming at her hallucinations. Freaking out completely she mutters something about getting out of here. Li looks alarmed and asks her how. She continues to mutter incoherently about handing ‘it’ over to a man and after screaming about betraying the country and mama, about how she is who she is, she runs out of the empty cafeteria. The scientist holding a beverage carton walks past, commenting in her present state it might be hard to return to society. Li divulges to him about her plans of escape, both men not knowing exactly how she was going to accomplish said escape. The scientist declares her statement a cause for concern and leaves. The yapping janitor boss, with his own bowl of ramen, watches.

Traveler’s myth #4: American spies do not work in Japan

Later that night, as Corinna takes apart a telescope in the off limits lab, she hears a noise. Stupidly she shines the light on the main entrance, nothing was there, she sighs and continues. Several seconds later, she’s electrocuted and dies. At this point you think it’s Hei, that creepy contractor background music was even playing and it’s evident that Hei, BK201, is the only contractor thus far able to manipulate electricity.

The lab is quarantined. Li asks a fellow employee what happened and the man tells him that Corinna was murdered. Looking considerably shocked, whether sincere or insincere, Li before being able to do anything, is framed by the yapping janitor boss (very suspicious…) and is taken away for interrogation. The yapping boss even claims to have seen it with his own eyes (at this point I’m thinking he did it, then of course, he saw it with his own eyes.) There are so many despicable, conniving characters in this episode. The police guy is one of them. He, stupidly, asserts that if Li killed Corinna, it was a crime of passion. However, his test results confirm that Li was innocent. The police guy tells the yapping boss to keep an eye on Li after the interrogation.

Gestapo, O_o, still can’t believe a corporal is in charge

Li, suffering from the side affects of the interrogation runs into the Indian girl. Meeting again in A-3 equipment room or where ever, she asks if Li really didn’t kill her. He replies that he had no reason. She muses whether or not contractors really need a reason to kill. Moderately ‘upset’ by the incident and her comment, Li tells her coldly that if she has nothing else to say then she should leave. Finally realizing that Li might be ‘upset’ by this situation, she explains that she was simply surprised, assuming that like other contractors, he’d be emotionless. Then she pries further into who was the actual killer, but stops herself from making anymore unnecessary comments. Li tells her that is he wants to continue her research she should not act alone.

Later in a phone conversation, the police guy tell someone (who?) that Corinna was CIA and had asked in exchange for her departure from PANDORA that she’ll hand over the meteor. Judging from the stripes on his uniform, I’m thinking he’s either military or paramilitary. Also, two stripes, he’s a corporal by American NCO ranks. There’s an announcement over the facility loudspeaker system dictating that Chief Sergei, bald man with side burns and beard, is going to conduct a surveillance run with a camera gadget of sorts. Li, among a handful of others, is summoned. Apparently, the people gathered is for more data. Nick, the stargazer in denial, “I have a dream” scientist also shows up, being apart of the Third Sector team. Patting Li on the back, Nick confides in Li’s innocence saying that he’s not the type to kill people. He also says he understands the harshness of an interrogation, wonder why…

Two words: Oh, shit

The surveillance run starts. The little camera gadget hums through the ruins inside the gate, zooming in past a car, the scientists discover a previously non existent crater and this new development, Chief Sergei notes, will force them to redraw all of their present maps. Right about now, Li starts going a bit crazy. The Indian girl notices. Freaking out and breathing increases, Li sees an image of his missing sister by the white van. Her lips are moving, no words, and it fades out. To the scientists, this incident translates into a large blue flash that Sergei concludes was the meteor.

Preview Flashbacks, I’m assuming of Bai and Hei when they were young, stargazing together with what looks to be a Sakate telescope. He’s standing in a large pool of blood, his sister talking with streaks of blood down her face, he’s shaking hands with Nick-san, the weeping Indian, something about the starry sky being the mirror I saw you with, contractors not dreaming (neither do electric sheep, or do they?) I really, never truly understood their previews, I just go along with the transcendental…vagueness and ambiguity of these ramblings, it sounds like Yin.

Comments Oh boy, it looks we hit the jackpot this time! So much plot development (XD Draft Saved at 3:33:33, just had to get that in there.) A LOT of stuff happened in this, more than I anticipated. I guess it’s logical, it’s approaching the midway point of the series. Alright, so here’s my random…musing, if you will.

THAT YAPPING JANITOR MAN IS EVIL! That guy with the bad haircut and squinty eyes is bad business, I’m telling you. I don’t like who he’s pretending to be and I sure as hell won’t like who he actually is. Then again, everything I say can be wrong, but that guy got on my bad side. For one thing, his presence in the lunchroom during the Corinna-Hei encounter I found to be suspicious. AND the fact that he framed Hei for Corinna’s murder sets off the alarm. The man said that the video surveillance cameras were broken, yet the yapping janitor boss insists that he saw it with his own eyes, what’s up with that?

And then there’s Nick-san. I really have no misgivings about him, I actually find him to be a pretty decent character. If he dies, I’m going to be pretty sad, I dislike it when nice guys dies. But there’s always the possibility of Nick-san turning into a dream obsessed lunatic. Anyways, I don’t think that’ll happen.

In any case, regarding Hei and Li…They are completely different people. This character confirms and shakes my assertions that Hei is an excellent actor and liar, but also the honesty and sincerity with which Li acts with Nick-san in that scene makes me wonder. Perhaps he’s like a rainbow with the red and the violet but nt quite all of the colors in between. At one point, he would’ve been a blank slate, emotionless like the rest of the contractors. But somehow he managed to salvage a few colors of his personality. Is he a living collage….of something? Or maybe it’s all him, all one person, he just acts according to his situation. He steps back into Hei when he speaks with the girl so effortlessly, I wonder..

Also, as a side note, it says on his identification papers earlier in the episode where they stamp it, that he’s Chinese. Is he actually Chinese? This show incorporates many Chinese aspects, especially in the last segment where it….pretty darn Chinese. Alice, Wei, Misaki’s dress….Not to mention the people’s names, Hei, Bai, Mao, Yin, Huang. Strangely enough, with my bad Chinese I managed to pick up on their names and their meanings early on and it was (Haha, draft save time 3:43:34, don’t ask, it was just funny) pretty….funny. The guy’s name is black, literally. Imagine replacing Hei with Black. And also, they pronounce it He-ey, almost like mispronouncing horribly ‘hey’, but in Chinese, hei is monosyllabic. Also, when I realized his sister’s name is Bai, I had such a laughing fit. It was so….obviously! Hei and Bai, black and white, the ying and yang thing. And before the preview for this episode I always thought the girl in white in the opening was his sister. Now I’m at a loss again as to who she is.

This was the first episode I really paid attention to who was backing Hei’s operations. This ‘syndicate’ thing bugs me. Reminds me so much of Bebop and that ‘syndicate’. Remember what happened with that? Ooh, the Bebop ending tore my heart into pieces. I loved that show. I have this ominous feeling that this ‘syndicate’ thing is going to ram horns with PANDORA and the November 11 people and tossed up in there will be Misaki and the police and in the center of all of it, Hei and his sister. I hope it’s going to be epic, I love it when it’s epic. Either it’s epic as in it’s action packed and just…grand and fantastic when it ends, or it’s epic on a lesser more emotional scale. I’ll do for both as long as it’s damn good.

The last, I swear, the last thing on my mind: why does Darker Than Black remind me of FMA somewhat? Is it the fact that they have a “Gate” too? Or the whole you need to pay a price thing in the beginning, Equivalent Exchange ring any bells? And alchemists and contractors? Maybe I’m just over thinking, but I’m beginning to see some parallels.

Anyways, overall, this episode was good. It was good, thought provoking, no steep cliffhangers but I’m itching to see what Bai is all about and exactly what the hell happened with her and South America. I’m also interested in November 11 who played a minute role with Havoc and is sure to return as a perennial villain in this. I’m hoping Darker Than Black is finally taking off, I want the plot to escalate because it has such potential. Oh man, did we hit the jackpot.