English Dub Review: RErideD: Derrida, Who Leaps Through Time “The Fate of Time”

If at first you don’t succeed…

Overview (Spoilers!)

Our favorite outlaws drive through the desert towards the city of Garbon, where they’ll hopefully find Mage. Graham swerves around falling rocks, and the radio is hijacked by an outside source that warns them against continuing on. Over her headpiece, Donna threatens Andrei, outraged that he would spy on her. The gang checks into a hotel.

Videaux enters a smoky bar and probes the patrons for information. Derrida realizes that he recognizes the voice on the radio. Videaux returns and announces that Cassiel is in town, but Donna is also looking for him. Suddenly, Derrida gets a phone call from Cassiel—yep, he’s the radio guy too. Derrida and Videaux want to meet up with him, but Cassiel says that will only lead them into Donna’s trap. So he agrees to meet them… on the highway at dawn?

Derrida confides in Videaux that he can’t significantly change the past. The crew drives away from the city, but Donna is in close pursuit, shooting at Graham. The truck in front of them lets Graham inside—Cassiel is the driver! He’s also one of the people who developed Donna’s mechanical arm, so he’s able to shock her off her motorbike.

Cassiel helped to create the DZ bug ten years ago—but he also tried to warn Derrida about it. When Cassiel met with Mage, she requested furniture and equipment to recreate her old childhood home. As the three men climb a cliff to Cassiel’s hideout, Cassiel reveals that it was Mage who woke Derrida from cryostasis. Afterward, Mage went off to continue working on Derrida’s time travel research.

Suddenly, the time ride fog appears. As Derrida resists time leaping, Donna appears and stabs Videaux. Donna shames Derrida for being the son of the DZs’ creator, and Derrida leaps to the moment he made the patch file and received Cassiel’s call. He snaps back to the present, uses a device to stun Donna, and then he and the other guys… jump off a cliff. Derrida leaps back to the past, where he pocketed a device that can stun DZs.

Back in the truck, Videaux is bandaged up and getting rest. Cassiel agrees to throw their pursuers off their scent. Derrida wants to leap back to the same time, but Ange tells him that he can only change a given moment once.

Our Take

It wouldn’t be RErideD if I didn’t walk away with hundreds of questions. Here’s a few of them: How did Donna discover that Andrei was spying on her? Why was she so shocked that Videaux changed his route to avoid falling rocks? If she’s one of the best assassins ever, why is she so desperately incompetent? How can Videaux be sure that Donna won’t attack them if they’re in a hotel? Why wouldn’t she attack them in a hotel? Why is it safe for them to meet Cassiel on the open road but not in a café or something? Who the hell is Angelica? Who the hell is Cassiel? Is Donna a DZ? And do Derrida and Videaux ever sleep?

As you can maybe tell by this list, I’m confused about Donna as a character in general. She monologues to herself in flowery, overdramatic language that isn’t natural or believable in the slightest. I like that she’s a fiery person who stands up for herself, but her threats to Andrei are too over-the-top to be scary—when I think of truly frightening assassin characters, their calm, quiet words are always far more frightening than blustering threats would be. Even more confusing, Donna implies that she’s a DZ by referring to the DZs as “we”—plus, Derrida is able to stun her with that device meant for DZs—but she also despises the man who created her, uh, species. If Donna’s a robot, then why does she look like a human? Why does she seem to have a highly advanced AI, whereas the other DZs are just mindless killing machines?

I also struggle to understand Cassiel’s role in this story. He was mentioned for the first time in the museum in episode five, but the characters have talked about him for the past four episodes as if we should have known him all along. This is the first time we’re seeing Cassiel warn Derrida about the DZs (unless the scene in episode one was so unmemorable that I just forgot about it, which isn’t great either), but Derrida acts like this was a huge turning point in his life. Even weirder, Derrida started writing the patch file before he received Cassiel’s call. So Cassiel’s role in Derrida’s past? Inconsequential. He didn’t lead Derrida to do anything Derrida wouldn’t have done otherwise. What’s the point?

That being said, I do like Cassiel. He’s not a well-developed character by any means, but it’s rare to see a visibly middle-aged man taking part in cool action shenanigans. His inventions are compelling, and Chuck Hüber does a great job of making the character’s voice natural and likable. And when it comes down to it, Videaux is a pretty cool dude too. I’m getting pretty tired of hearing all his gossip secondhand when we could be watching him retrieve it instead, but damn. Very little is funnier than watching a buff, macho bodyguard walks into a seedy bar and order, “Just milk.”

The most intriguing part of RErideD, hands down, is its take on time travel. My theory is that Mage is trying to perfectly recreate the atmosphere of the party because it will make time riding easier, which is a pretty cool idea. And I love the twist that Derrida has accidentally ruined his chance at returning to so many specific moments in time. He’ll have to be a lot more precise now, and the stakes are ultra-high, considering he only gets one shot at each moment. The reveal is satisfyingly horrifying. Derrida as a character is instantly forgettable, but Trout Theory might linger in my mind a little while longer.

Score
4.0/10