English Dub Review: Blade Runner: Black Lotus “Clair de Lune”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Joseph finally comes clean about his past as a Blade Runner, telling Elle the story of a young detective who let love get in the way of his duty.

Our Take

When I wrote about last week’s episode of Blade Runner: Black Lotus, I mentioned that the show needed to do three things in order to correct its course and bring the season home to a decent conclusion. I wanted to see more of Marlowe, see what Niander Wallace Jr.’s impact on the story was and most importantly, be given a reason to care about the relationship of Elle and Joseph. To my surprise, the show managed to do all three things I had hoped for and surprisingly enough made for a really great episode.

“Clair de Lune” features Elle and Joseph brought back together yet again, though unlike previous episodes, the two stick around and begin an earnest conversation about the past. Elle has killed every participant in the Doll Hunt, but the past refuses to let go, haunting the replicant’s dreams.

While it’s nice to see the two finally sit down and bond for the first time in what feels like forever, the majority of the episode is told in flashback. I’m not going to lie, I was really irked initially seeing the show pull this with four episodes left, but the subsequent story was so engaging I wound up not caring. Joseph tells his own story from the past he can’t seem to escape; a lounge singing replicant whose charms made him forget about his duties as a Blade Runner.

The flashback wound up being one of the best things I’ve seen all season long. A classic noir set up with the touches of futurism makes the show feel more like the Blade Runner movies than it had before. The music crooned by the replicant drew me in and seeing a younger, more idealistic Joseph was nice. And we finally see his past with fellow Blade Runner Marlowe, who strongly implores Joseph to finish the job despite his feelings. His menacing presence seeps into Joseph’s mind and forces him to kill the replicant he had fallen for, finally shedding some light on Joseph’s current day struggles with alcoholism and inability to connect with others.

Aside from gaining this insight into Joseph, his story convinces Elle to go after one last person; the shrouded man from Elle’s pool memory. Hijacking some equipment from Doc Badger, Joseph sets up a way for Elle to replicate her memory into identifiable information. She’s able to digitize her memory and the man from Elle’s memory is revealed to be none other than Niander Wallace Jr.

Of course, this shouldn’t come as too much as a surprise, considering his biometric data was in Elle’s palm scan in the previous episode, but what is a shock is the revelation that Joseph is actually working for Wallace. What’s more, he’s tattooing a new woman in the same way Elle was marked. With so many revelations, it’s anyone’s guess where it goes next, but I have to say the show finally seems like its trying.

The episode has its flaws. I feel like Joseph’s backstory could have been told sooner. The revelation that he’s been double crossing Elle would have had a lot more impact if I had seen this tragic backstory sooner. It was a great humanizing moment for Joseph, but it was immediately undercut by the sudden reveal. I also feel like we don’t know enough about Niander here to see him as a real threat just yet. I know he’s prominently featured in Blade Runner 2049, but here he barely registers as a character, so as a final boss, I’m kind of skeptical.

That said, the episode addressed a lot of the things I wanted it to and it also delivered a great neo-noir story which is what a Blade Runner show should be doing. If it keeps up this pace, I’m optimistic to see how the final three episodes pan out.