I admit, after last week’s boffo debut for a very kick-ass Godzilla, I was hoping to see more of the G-man this week. He slips into a supporting role to the science/conspiracy plotline this time, but I assume we’re going to get a lot of him in action in the final two episodes. When the top boss is the destruction of the world, however, I assume even with his name in the title Godzilla will have to step aside and let the catastrophe drive the final act of the series. There are two parts to the title, and they seem to take turns being in the spotlight.
It wouldn’t be a Godzilla story without humans acting stupid, especially those in positions of authority. There’s a lot of pushing and pulling here, and Li’s offscreen death seems to have been confirmed. An emerging key figure is the “journalist” Kai, who’s apparently a mucky-muck in some sort of secret organization with lots of knowledge about the singular point. He pops up wherever the important stuff is happening this week, starting with stealing the Godzilla skeleton from underneath the observatory (and the noses of Yamamoto and Satou). He also temporarily restrains the Ootaki crew, but only until his choppers make their escape. Which is good, because they all have a lot of work to do.
B.B. – real name Bearach Byrne – has emerged as the most interesting human character in the story for me. He presents himself as Mai’s ally in wanting to focus on the catastrophe over the orthogonal diagonalizer. Which only makes sense since the latter seems to be at best a temporary fix, but Tilda doesn’t see it that way (maybe because Shiva has a patent?). Bearach goes full rogue though, already (apparently) having sent O.D.’s all over the world to help fight the red dust. Allied with him is Michael and – again apparently – Kai. He’s waiting for them when they show up at the hole where Salunga popped up to the surface, ready to join them for a little spelunking.
In addition to Byrne, I’m finding both the A.I’s to be really fun, not least because the seiyuu playing them are doing very fine work. With Pero II it’s more about the comic moments, like the theft scene at the airport and this week, making Tarzan noises as he swings from step to step on the path in the cave. Jung goes through some considerably meatier stuff, as he deals with emotions and is subject to a forced upgrade presumable sent from the future. He still reflexively moves to defend the team when they’re attacked by a radon (in Tokyo, where they’ve traveled along with Satou to take on Godzilla), but then goes back to sleep.
Eventually JJJ wakes up as a baby called Jet Jaguar PP, and proceeds to display an astonishing ability to learn. This is a really well done sequence, but it’s only the preamble to the big piece of information – 3.139.140. Satou-san is a map otaku and immediately picks up that these are GPS coordinates near Tokyo Station – 100 meters above it to be precise. This, apparently, will be when a message comes through from the future – how to defeat Godzilla, or prevent the catastrophe. Or both, or neither – time will tell. But Godzilla is absolutely kicking Tokyo’s ass (along with any kaiju that get in his way) so even an upgraded JJ isn’t going to take him down without serious help.
This all gets pretty dense even by Godzilla S.P. standards – all this talk of preformation (a largely discredited theory at least where biology is concerned) is pretty out there. But it does seem likely that the singular point is just that, a singular point – which makes sense. The skeleton, the cave in India, whatever other things or places register as singular points – they’re all part of the one actual singular point, and it’s only our perception that makes it seem as if there are many of them. I guess in the next two weeks we’ll find out how Yun and Mai (and maybe B.B., whose loyalties are still in question) can using that to defeat Godzilla and save the world in the process.
