This is a great episode. It has a good story and also really starts the ball rolling on a lot of plots that will continue through Act 26. We see Angel worming her way into the Paradigm Corp, we see Alex Rosewater and learn that he knows a lot more than he ought to, and we meed Ol' Crispy for the first time.
Schwarzwald is a loon, pure and simple. For one thing, he's a hypocrite. It's just like him to claim that he wants to reveal the truth and then burn all his writings. For that matter, he's been drawing a Paradigm Corp. paycheck all his life, but he doesn't hesitate to call Roger Smith a "lapdog" for taking one little job from them. He's a pyromaniac. I'm almost certain he's a misogynist, too, from that "What is that woman doing?" line -- as if the presence of a woman demeaned the macho scene with Roger. And he lusts after a Megadeus because of the damage he can do with one.
The Underground is a strange place. Does Roger see snippets of his own memories down there, or are they things that have soaked into the walls? The dream with his mother showed sunlight, something people in Paradigm have never seen. It might be a real memory from long ago.
Dorothy is magnificent in this episode. She's actually nicer to Roger than usual, putting his head on her lap, and actually explaining a little about herself as they walk down the tunnel -- normally, she reacts very negatively to any kind of personal questioning. But Roger's just had a bad shock and a nasty fall.
The Archetype really, really, REALLY wants Dorothy. Even in the middle of the fight with Big O, we see the Archetype move his head down to where the cockpit is and talk and blink through it, trying to draw Dorothy out. By that time, she has scooted to be back side of the cockpit, and is huddled so she can't see the Archetype. It has been trying to draw her in the whole time.
I should mention, too, that this episode shows a pattern of how Dorothy behaves in such a crisis. It is very difficult for her to flee. She can usually do it if told to, especially if Roger leads the way, but she will stop if left to her own devices. She didn't try to escape the Archetype until Roger pulled her along. Then she could run. We see her simply watch danger in many episodes. We'll see it in MISSING CAT, for example.
Does the Archetype have a cockpit? A lot of people on the forums have assumed that a Megadeus doesn't have a cockpit unless the animators show us the cockpit, but I think this is bogus. (Anyway, by that logic, Big Venus doesn't have a cockpit). There's plenty of room for one behind the Archtype's throat armor.
This is the second episode in which we see hemispherical underground chambers. We'll see more in MISSING CAT and in many episodes, including LEVIATHAN and HYDRA.
The whole Expo '04 setup is odd. Admittedly, the hemispherical chambers don't seem to have a terror effect, unlike the tunnels, so there's no particular reason someone 40+ years ago couldn't have used one for some kind of exposition. But it's still odd. The presence of a Megadeus is obviously unintentional; not part of the exposition. The use of "04" is a meaningless repetition of the episode number, just like the Leviathan having "17" painted on him.
Just before firing the missiles, Roger was so intent on giving an impressive speech that he forgot to set the fuses! The missiles went at least five seconds before the warheads exploded. Sloppy work, Negotiator!
In the last scene, Dorothy reverts to form. Roger asks her, "Aren't you cold?" and she gives him a snippy answer and does a flip to rub his nose in the fact that she's not human. She usually does this. She's not as obnoxious about it as usual because she knows it's mostly a joke -- he's repeating a question she asked him before -- but she still does it.
That's one complicated android.
This episode has also been the source of some of my favorite funny pictures:
