Lazarus

Episode 12

Doug's story in this penultimate episode perfectly represents everything going against the show at this point. There he is, lying in a hospital bed after last week's kerfuffle in Pakistan. He's under guard by some of Schneider's Army INSCOM goons, though they haven't bothered to restrain or cuff him, for some reason. Late in the episode, when the crap is hitting the fan and INSCOM puts the hit out on Doug, the goons go into the room and see nothing but a lump of bedsheets. It's the old “Stuff the pillow under the blanket and make it look like a person” trick that a show could maybe get a pass for if it were a cheeky live-action comedy series running on Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel back in 2005. Although any reasonable human would instantly clock the ruse from a mile away, nevermind trained government agents, the INSCOM guys are somehow completely fooled and shoot the damned thing while Doug hides behind a screen a few feet away. Then, just before the goon squad finally plugs Doug, the mechanized hospital bed he's standing on gets hacked and starts careening cartoonishly down the halls... like this was a cheeky live-action comedy series from Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel from 2005. Popcorn Wizard and Eliana have come to save the day. Hooray.

On the surface, “Close to the Edge” should have me over the moon, because it gives me everything I've been complaining about for the last two months. Plot threads are coming together, such as Popcorn Wizard's connection to the analgesic island community that the gang found a while ago, and the fact that the skeezy hacker dude from Episode 4 is back to do stuff. The episode also vaguely gestures in the general direction of developing Axel's backstory and character, which is more than we've been given in the previous eleven episodes. We even have a lead on Skinner's location, and my hopes for this one turning out to be genuine are high—if only because the show has only a single episode to go and there's no conceivable way this boondoggle can get dragged on any longer than one more week.

Yet, as always, the devil is in the details, and what sounds good on paper can fall apart so easily on account of shoddy execution. Just look at those scenes of Doug I described up top. His situation could have easily been suspenseful, or exciting, or any other variation of “the bare minimum of interesting” that you could come up with. Instead, it's just insultingly lazy and unserious. I get that Shinichirō Watanabe probably wanted to make Lazarus more of an out-and-out comedy than what Warner Bros. and Adult Swim were asking for, but Lazarus is not a comedy. An action-adventure anime can get plenty silly on occasion, but we're at the level where there is just no guarantee that any given scene won't have Lazarus suddenly becoming an Austin Powers-style parody of itself—and at least Austin Powers is funny.

As for those other story threads coming together? You can probably guess how all of that goes, too. This is, after all, the episode where Schneider unceremoniously murders the Army general he was working with, and then just casually shrugs it off to the other soldiers that barge in with “Don't worry, guys, I promise that he was going to do treason right this second. Anyways, clean this up for me.” This is the episode that suddenly decides our Hitman Guy also suffers from D.I.D., which is somehow meant to make his elusive identity and background make more sense. This episode teases the grand conclusion by hinting that Skinner might have been that one blind guy from the homeless shelter in Episode 3. You know, the one who looked exactly like Skinner, which every single viewer immediately noticed, despite Team Lazarus completely overlooking him?

In other words, the writers are all still operating very much in the mode of “Seriously, We Can All Admit That Nobody On Either Side of This Thing Really Gives a Damn, Right?” How else would you explain Axel and Chris' big scene together? Axel's only comments on his past and his connections are, “I had some friends once. They died. I guess I like you guys,” which compels Chris to make out with him a little. Never mind the tragic death of her former lady lover that happened maybe a week-and-a-half ago, or the fact that she has about as much chemistry with Axel as she does with Popcorn Wizard.

The end card tells us there is only “1 Day Left.” That makes me so excited—but not for the reasons I think the creators intended.

Rating:

Lazarus is currently streaming on Max and Hulu on Sundays.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.