English Dub Review: BEM “Falling”

 

Overview:

A person from the Outside pledges to help.

Our Take:

We meet a new human character, Briggs, the head of a pharmaceutical foundation with a penchant for altruism. His latest focus is on the humanoid monsters, and makes it clear that he’s sympathetic to their cause. It isn’t Bem who gets the worst of it this time, but Briggs, who is first framed and then denounced. Yet despite that, he remains close to his promise, and as a result, Bem starts to trust him.

Admittedly, I spent this episode waiting for Briggs to betray Bem, because that’s usually what happens in this show. While it’s not devoid of hope, the monsters have spent their life being betrayed, and what we see isn’t that much different. However, Briggs truly did mean what he said, even up to the very end. Bem wasn’t being naive, but he really found someone who wasn’t lying, and really was on their side. That revelation makes Briggs’ death all the more sadder, even if he did die in pursuit of what he promised. Here is someone who really was going to do some good in the world, but that doesn’t match up with politics, and so he’s humiliated and discarded.

I’m not sure if this is more positive or more negative by the standards of the show. On one hand, someone genuinely is curious about and wanted to help the humanoid monsters. Bem tested Briggs multiple times and showed that he was worthy of trust. The Alphas have spent most of the show unable to trust and believe people, and here is someone who does care about them. Unfortunately, said person gets killed off as collateral damage. There isn’t anyone long-lasting on their side, not yet. That in itself is kind of a tragedy, but this show is a noir…

The Unseen Council wields a ton of power, enough to ruin the reputation of someone that seems to have a lot of power themselves. At the very least, they seem to want to keep the inhuman monsters as something to be feared, not something that elicits sympathy.

That and the female leader of the council doesn’t look very human at first glance. It could just be fashion style, but we haven’t seen anyone else look quite so exaggerated before. If she is inhuman, then what is her objective? Why does she want in manipulating society? And how does she know Bem?