English Dub Review: Code: Realize “Warmth”

That’s a long way down.

Overview (Spoilers)

Overwhelmed with the sudden fall of Lupin into the inner abyss of the Nautilus, Cardia feints. While she is unconscious, Finis drags her back to Beckford’s core. The machine completes the activation of her Horologium and absorbs her, draining the energy from the device while leaking bits of Isaac’s memories into her. What could have driven a man to do all of this? Well, he was an alchemist working to solve a famine, but the people went nuts from the hunger, blamed him for it, and murdered his family in a fire. While this flashback pours through her mind, she gets flashes of her own memories of Lupin, along with a vision of him tearing at the core to reach her. Wait, that’s no vision! He grabs her hand and pulls her out of the fluid of the core. Lupin’s alive? No matter, the power of the Horologium is now in Beckford’s control, and he can even project a hologram of himself. No more need for Finis.

However, even this was part of everyone’s plan. If enough power were to be drained from the Horologium, Cardia would no longer be caustic. The trick was not letting too much be absorbed, or she would die. Or at least, that’s how the theory goes. After that, all that’s left is to take out the Nautilus, and Beckford with it. To that end-BOOM! Bombs go off all over the ship, planted by Lupin and company before he came in to rescue Cardia. Angry at being tricked, Beckford attacks Lupin with mechanical tentacles, and mocks that he is a god, able to see all! What he doesn’t see is that Lupin strapped dynamite to the base of the core. With a toss of his cane, he ignites the bomb. The core collapses, and shortly thereafter, Finis falls through the floor to his death, even though Cardia tried to save him. Everyone who isn’t dead runs for their lives, and most make their escape, but a burning girder lands in front of Lupin. His previous injuries reopen, and he is unable to continue. Rather than go on without him, Cardia jumps over the girder to join him. Since they aren’t long for this world, Lupin takes this moment to grant her wish. He touches his bare hand to her bare face. There is sizzling, as his skin begins to dissolve… and stops. The Horologium has run out of power, and she is no longer caustic. She is also in cardiac arrest. The two fall from the crumbling ship and to their doom.

Oh, except that sometime later, while London rebuilds, they both turn out to be alive. They’re getting married. Mazel tov.

Our Take

Well, a lackluster finish to a lackluster show. Let me start by saying that at least the voice acting and visual direction was enjoyable. J. Michael Tatum actually gave Lupin a bit more depth and emotion than he usually does, and I think Jill Harris actually gave some emotion to Cardia. I know! I didn’t think it could happen! Unfortunately, this does not seem to extend to the other characters of the show, who are all the same emotive level we’ve seen for twelve episodes. That’s the problem with flat archetype characters. If you emote any differently than three standard states, you’re breaking character.

I liked how this episode looked. Visually, it had a few interesting angles to its cinematography, lending to more drama where it needed it. Probably the best shot in the entire series was of Lupin and Cardia falling from the ship. Unfortunately, this quality was inconsistent. There were plenty of shots with errors in them and a few that were straight on and boring cinematography. Many times, Isaac Beckford’s appearance just looked wrong. Primarily in his eyes. You could reason away that it is because he’s a distorted version of Beckford, but the same thing happens a couple of times to Cardia as well.

What really hurts this episode is its writing. Completely predictable and yet, for those things that are surprises, it doesn’t even bother explaining them. How did Lupin survive his fall? They don’t say. It would have taken all of two seconds. When did Lupin plant the bomb on the core’s base, when it was observed by Isaac or Finis the entire time? How did the two of them survive the even worse fall from the ship? Nah, you don’t need to know that! There is an entire scene devoted to them musing over the fact that she’s still alive with a depowered Horologium. We could have used that time to explain your solution to the much more realistic problem of terminal velocity. We never knew how the Horologium operated. It just did. Having her survive after it shuts down is a suspension of disbelief we can handle. Falling all that way? Hundreds of meters up? You got some ‘splainin’ to do, Lucy!

At the same time, this episode has so much stock plot that it almost wrote itself by getting the scenario tossed into TVtropes.com. Rescue girl, check. Defeat baddie at a dramatic moment after he reveals his true form, check. Run dramatically from enemy’s lair as it blows up around us, check. Marry girl and show everyone having a happily ever after time, check. Even though, these characters having a happy ending is a bit of a letdown. Helsing alone should have a bad end, or at least something close, as He agreed to give himself over to Drac for some murdering. We can argue that the ending suggests Drac is no longer up for that, and let him go, but this wasn’t stated in the episode. It was just skipped past. Frankenstein, if his book is yet to happen, is about to go into a whole world of anxiety, pain, and death. What if these are just alternate versions of the characters, and their books don’t happen? Then what was the point of writing them in the first place? Why not create original characters and run with that? It wouldn’t take much, you just change the names. Done.