English Dub Review: Blade Runner – Black Lotus “The Doll Hunt”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Elle retrieves the data from the device she had with her, triggering her memories of being hunted by Bannister, Hooper, and Earl and Josephine Grant. She was part of a group of Replicants that were programmed to be incapable of harming humans, which their hunters used to their advantage, with Hooper even taunting her with a knife and killing another Replicant, Miu, in front of her. However, something allows Elle to turn off this function, allowing her to kill Hooper and escape with his camera. In the present, Elle plots with Joseph to search for the remaining people who were hunting her. With Hooper and Bannister dead, that leaves only the Grants, with Earl being the chief of the LAPD. Officer Davis brings up a sketch of Elle’s tattoo and tells Earl what she’s found, but Earl dismisses it, telling her that there are no more Replicants to find. In reality, he’s actually planning to take care of this himself.

OUR TAKE

An curious detail I noticed in the credits is that this episode’s production code is 101, which would usually be used for the first episode of the series. What’s curious about this is that I honestly feel like we could have started this show with Elle already on her revenge rampage instead of slowly lurching to what should have been the main premise of the story to begin with. The first Blade Runner was also about a detective going after some Replicants out for revenge, and the sequel focused on a detective Replicant who ends up on a search for answers about himself, so a story about a Replicant on a revenge hunt for being hunted like a dog feels like it would be consistent enough of a subject without feeling like it’s retreading anything too similar. The problem that we’ve reached, however, is that, again, we’ve already used up four of thirteen episodes getting to where we should have been at the first episode. It’s at least different enough that we’re starting from the Replicant’s perspective instead of the detective’s this time, but we’ve also already killed off half of the targets before the proper hunt even started. All that’s left is Earl and Josephine Grant, and they have to fill out nine more episodes.

And then, even with that in mind, what’s the end game here? The first movie led Roy Batty all the way to the creator of Replicants to get his answers, while Ryan Gosling was on a search that threatened to break down the lines between humans and Replicants, something that several parties had interest in preserving. Elle’s journey, in contrast, is very personal to her, which is fine, but it’s not exactly set up to be very compelling. She’s going up against a police chief next (who looks like he’ll be going way overboard based on the preview for the next episode), and then Josephine who is his wife, but then what? Where is this going? The journey means more than the destination, but the destination just seems to be two more dead people who we barely know. Not to mention the reveal of Earl they tried for was severely undercut by the fact that Stephen Root has an instantly recognizable voice…matched with a very unremarkable character design. All in all, still not super thrilled about Black Lotus, especially after rewatching 2049 this past Friday.