Darker than Black ep.04

April 27, 2007 | 27 Comments

This series continues to impress me episode by episode. Just when I thought that things will get boring and repetitive, the writers and animators prove me wrong. They've done such a good job in maintaining an episodic storyline while still including the overall arc in it. The action also doesn't let up and some of the things that have been shown in this episode are quite violent. This, however, serves as a reminder of the dangerous nature that each Contractor brings into the world. Those who can control their power may use it for their own greed while those who can't control the power will be an even bigger danger for the society. I know I keep comparing the show to Heroes but after this episode, the similarity is striking. And in a way, this series one-up Heroes because it presents the plotlines that Heroes want to show faster.

The episode begins with Tahara smashing the potted plant in anger. At the scene of the explosion, the two detectives, Saitou Yuusake and Kounou Yutaka, inspect the victims. Kounou tells his partner that the Astrology department has confirmed that the new star's spectrum indicates that this is the work of a "Moratorium". Upon seeing the body of the victim, he points out that the victims are burned to crisp just like bacon that he had for breakfast. Saitou agrees that they're in trouble if this is the work of a Moratorium. Nearby, Mao wonders why this happened to Tahara's daughter and wants to know what Hei found out when he was following Mai. Upon hearing this, Hei remembers what Mai said about how her father planted something inside her hand. Inside a car, Kenneth, Myer & Hilton henchman tells his partner that there was no information about Mai as a Contractor up till now. This means that they need to get Tahara's research no matter what.

Speaking of Mai herself, she's in the middle of walking on the road, looking dazed and confused. Whe she bumps into a pole, she looks up and sees her own reflection in the street mirror. She becomes horrified upon seeing her own eyes and starts screaming around. When she looks into her hand, she also realises that the little light that used to be there is no longer exist. In fear, Mai runs to the street and almost got hit by a truck. However, her eyes suddenly lit up again and in no time both the truck and its driver are burned to crisp by her firestarter power. A terrfied Mai claims that it's not her mistake and runs off again. At the same time, Misaki receives information from her boss that Myer & Hilton has supplied Contractors as 'weapons' in the past. There has also been mass-production of hybrids by mating Contractors with different capabilities. They've also let normal people to get contract by giving them brain surgery.

Misaki wonders about the connection to the new Moratorium (Mai) but unfortunately her boss is not sure about it yet. He, however, knows that 10 years ago a Japanese guy was employed as a researcher but there's no detail on the guy. It is believed that the details of the research is related to the appearance of the new star. Upon finding out about this, Misaki decides to go after the Moratorium. The boss urges Misaki to find and contain the Moratorium as soon as possible because these guys are not Contractors or Dolls. They are monsters who have no control of their ability. A few minutes later, Misaki arrives at the National Astronomical Observatory where the lead researcher called Ishizaki greets her. Ishizaki informs her that an observation about the subject is currently carried out by spirit mediums. Cut to a shot of Dolls laying inside large tubes. As for evacuation procedure, Ishizaki suggests they tell people that there's a gas pipe leak.

The two go inside some kind of stargazing lab where Misaki greets an old woman called Hoshimi-sama. Later on, Ishizaki explains to Misaki that the reason a contractor is primarily called a contractor is because they need to pay after using the ability that they have. If the payment is postponed, there's a chance that they would go into automatic destructive state known as Moratorium. If this state continues, they'll turn into Dolls just like their observatory spirit mediums. A Moratorium' is different from Contractors in that they can't control the capability on their own. Misaki seems kind of tense upon hearing this so Ishizaki humours her by saying how Misaki seems to scowl most of the time. At the same time, an evacuation procedure happens in a neighbourhood. Just as planned by Ishizaki, the announcer simply claims that there's a gas pipe leak. Mai can now be seen curled up in a corner street until her friend, Yuuka, notices her.

Yuuka and her father tries to take Mai with them but Mai goes berserk when Yuuka's father grabs her hand. Mai ends up frying Yuuka and her father to death. This act is seen by the little lights, which report the incident back to the spirit mediums in the observatory. As a result of this, police come to a park, trying to capture Mai. Unfortuantely for them, Myer & Hilton Contractor, Luke, uses his ability to tear off their limbs before taking Mai with them. Later on, the two men call Tahara, informing the guy that they have captured Mai. Kenneth demands Tahara's research, which focuses on how to seal a Contractor's ability. Kenneth is also aware that Tahara had used his own daughter in an experiment. As for Mai, she can be seen sitting on the ground, drawing on the ground like a little girl. Meanwhile Hei confronts Tahara about how he's been experimenting on his daughter. He wants to know what Tahara injected into Mai's wrist.

Tahara explains that he was a survivor of the Hell's gate inspection party and brought a substance back with him back then. When that substance was embedded into the body of a contractor, he found out that the substance is capable of repressing the contractor's ability. A flashback then shows Mai tried to burn flowers and didn't understand why it's wrong. When Tahara was employed by Myer & Hilton, he decided to use the substance to repress Mai's ability. He then continued his research because he knew that the seed will decay one day. True enough, the substance quickly became tamer and Mai's ability returned again. Tahara eventually realised that the seed couldn't seal off the power. To make things worse, it turns Mai into a Moratorium. All of these happened because he didn't want Mai to turn into a Contractor. Feeling remorseful, Tahara decided to destroy his experiments, erase Mai's memory by using ME, and left the company.

Tahara claims that he didn't really want to turn Mai into an experiment subject but Li thinks Tahara abandoned everything and ran away. In response, Tahara slams Li into a bookcase and tells him that it's impossible to seal off Contractor's abilities. He doesn't see the point of continuing a research which turned his daughter into a monster. Tahara eventually calms down and tells Li that he planted the seed in two places. One is in Mai's hand and another as a plant. He hoped that if the seed bears result, it will allow him to stop Mai's Moratorium status. He also admits that by giving the plant water, his conscience feels better. Unfortunately for Tahara, the seed didn't bear result. Before Li left the office, Tahara tells him that he's afraid that one day he has to see the result of his mistake. In response Li tells him that if he wants to repent, he gets the wrong person. As far as he's concerned, Tahara can close himself off in this room forever.

That night inside the factory, Mai is still drawing her father's face on the ground. When Luke and Kenneth hear a noise, they think Tahara has arrived. All of a sudden, however, the electricity goes off. Hei and his group has launched an attack on the kidnappers. Hei eventually face to face with Luke, who uses his ability to slice and dice Hei. Hei manages to escape but his mask got torned off. Hei tries to jump down to attack Kenneth but Kenneth threatens to use his gun on Mai. At the last second, Tahara appears to ask Kenneth to release his daughter. He doesn't want to return to the company but he's willing to give them his research. Kenneth decides to let Mai return to his father but Mai refuses, claiming that she doesn't know Tahara. Tahara simply grabs her arm, causing Mai to activate her fire power again. As the two are surrounded by fire, Tahara throws down the wilted flower, telling Kenneth that it's the remain of his research.

Before Kenneth can take the flower, Mai's fire burns it down. Mai also refuses to believe that Tahara is her father, telling him that his father is cooler and amazing. Tahara disputes this, telling her that her father is a cruel person. Tahara then tries to stab his daughter but before he can do this, Luke kills him with his power. Hei reacts quickly and kills Luke with his power. Mai then moves forward, trying to kill Kenneth. Hei asks Mai to stop but Mai asks him why and burns Kenneth to death. All of a sudden the water sprinkler goes off in all direction, extinguishing the fires. When Mao arrives, it notices that Mai is singing a song. The cat believes that this is Mai's price. Huang, on the other hand, thinks it doesn't matter that they don't get the research since they get something more valuable. In the aftermath, the police can't find Hei and the others. They do know, however, the the new star still hasn't fallen yet.

Impression:

This story is one major tragedy waiting to happen. I knew that there's no way for Mai to ever obtain happiness after what happened in last week's episode. To make things worse, her distant father turns out to be a bigger jerk than he seemed. It's hard to believe that he actually experimented on his own daughter. On the other hand, the tragedy shows that there is a consequence if a Contractor doesn't pay the price for using his/her ability. I'm not sure how long can a Contractor witholding payment but it seems Hei is quite capable of doing this. Assuming eating is his price, then he seems to wait until he's used a lot of power before paying it all by pigging out in a restaurant. Those who don't pay, however, risk turning into a Moratorium, which is basically someone who has no control on when and where they can unleash their power. The problem with this is that, those who gets disadvantage the most is not the Contractor but the people around them.

Speaking of Contractors, the part about cross-breeding people with different abilities reminded me a lot of Heroes except that they do it faster here. All they need now is a Sylar-like Contractor. Speaking of brutality, I felt sorry for the poor policemen who got sliced and diced. It was extreme cruelty because Luke could have just injured them instead of killing them but he chose to do the later. Mai herself was quite deadly as a Moratorium. I think she'd be traumatised for the rest of her life, knowing she inadvertently killed her friend and her friend's father. It's interesting how she turns back into a Contractor towards the end. I think the sprinkler that went off towards the end basically ended the moratorium state that Mai suffers from. It gave enough water for her and the plant. Having said that, I wonder what will happen to her from here on. Will Huang sell her to their organisation or will they use her from time to time?

Preview

On next week's episode: April, July, and November.

© memento 2003