Hey Chooms, this is an adult show. Blood, nudity, gore, and language, and plenty of them all. Make sure the kids are asleep first, alright? Nova.

 

This can be a rough episode, but it’s well done. So you can really appreciate things as they start to happen. A cold open alone is a wonderful allusion to the opening of Cyberpunk 2077 with that iconic “Goood morning, Night City!” There’s a reason I used that in the intro for ALL the Cyberpunk 2077 videos. It stands out, it sets a mood, but most importantly, we see Maine before he had any augmentation. This sets the tone for him and this episode.

 

This is the first episode where Falco is more a member of the crew. We see him looking at the worked-over Tanaka. He also gets a great punch in on Maine after he attacked Kiwi. He drops them off and then he’s done with the job. He doesn’t really say anything, but just is there and then gone. It helps a bit just to have him there, introduce him as someone that David actually does know and has worked with.

 

With David and Lucy, things very plainly happened after the end of the last episode. David is sitting naked in the window of Lucy’s apartment. This leads to Falco dropping off Dorio, and Maine at Lucy’s apartment after a quick phone call. Dorio was asking Lucy to be the back-up diver with Kiwi knocked out. There’s a relationship building between them and it can only grow or wither on how they do things.

 

Lucy had a lot going on as well. There is a quick flash of a dive rig and the Arasaka logo. This is the first showing of what happened to Lucy. She’s especially paranoid about Arasaka. This is something that does develop a bit more later on in the series. She’s shown herself to be a very adept hacker in the last episode. She also seems to be just short of talking to David about things from her past before she dives in. This does stir up memories from her past which we only get hints. There is something more to what happened with her and Arasaka. She manages a very skilled hack with Tanaka conscious, arguing with David.

 

I’ve talked about Cyberpsychosis before in a previous review. This is one where we get to see more of the descent into it. For the TTRPG, Cyberpunk Red, this means that your Empathy and Humanity have Zeroed out. This could be from a lot of killing, getting lots of Augments, or just a carefully driven player narrative. That threshold gets crossed in a permanent manner, and the player needs to turn over their character sheet to the GM. There’s a chance the team could later take them on. If they manage to survive that long. Edgerunners shows this in a great way. It was gradual, with Maine just losing that critical grasp slowly. It was just at the worst time he could. Being on the job and trying to get information via hacking… all about patience. Not great when someone is mentally breaking. All he’d built up, it crashed down.

 

Thankfully, in Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpsychosis is only in the long quest Psycho Killer, (Qu'est-ce que c'est) and not something V has to worry about. Given many augments are available, that’s a very good thing. The game wouldn’t be too fun if you could just lose control of V simply because of “bad rolls.” We had enough time already with Johnny Silverhand doing that (and 1 ending).

 

All that said, seeing Maine losing himself was something. Just the steady loss of lucidity. He became increasingly trapped in his mind, running in the Badlands outside Night City. The stand out thing is he’s utterly alone. He’s plainly jogged for endurance training. When we snap to the present at the beginning of the episode, Maine’s shaking. He can barely hold something simple, and Dorio is very much talking about how the chrome is messing with him. This is something different from the games. The immunosuppressants are helping the body accept the augments. When the Runner has more chrome, they are also helping the users just keep their hold on themselves. It’s also just the extended period of the cyberware “load.” The more there is, the greater “strain” on the nervous system. This also makes Maine more unstable mentally. We see the first flicker within the first scene. We also get to see Maine’s first blackout. He attacks Kiwi with his frustration boiling over in the Psychosis. He slips farther and farther into it at a steady pace. He saw himself as wandering the Badlands in a parking lot. He’s almost completely unresponsive while lost in his mind. That conversation with Faraday is a great example of him just holding. The glitching of Maine’s perspective, how everything continues, but it’s clear something else is happening. An easy to miss detail is Maine starts seeing Faraday by the door. The collapse here is the start of the end. Dorio tries the immunosuppressants to keep him going, but he’s started tipping over the edge at this point. When he goes, he falls far. He snaps just as a fight begins. It just builds throughout here. He starts seeing Trauma Team and NCPD as Faraday as he’s blasting them away. Just after that is the Glitched Eyes of a Cyberpsycho. And it’s Maine vs everyone there on out. Dorio is very much included. When he comes back, the silence after is perfect.

This is something a bit different, with Netdiving factoring in a bit more. Kiwi (and Lucy) are both capable hackers. Kiwi is the team’s primary deep dive hacker. The dive sequences also show one of my favorite things from Studio Trigger. Just how they will use bright, pastel colors. If you haven’t seen Promare, it is recommended for the visuals alone. These are the brighter parts of the episode. It also has something important tucked away in there, a record of those who had the Sandevastan. She sees what Arasaka has on David with this augment. This could give her a new point of obsession. Lucy is protecting David (and by extension everyone else) by lying about the data not being there. Whatever it was to begin with, likely some very secretive prototype. Most likely the one Tanaka wanted to “volunteer” David for.

 

David gets a bit of a resolution in this episode as well. Tanaka is the head behind the project that was after “recruiting” David by luring him back to Arasaka Academy. Tanaka took advantage of this connection to try and barter his freedom. Just seeing them talk and the framing is just amazing. Just having the focus on the scenery, letting just the little movements of the characters talking do everything. This is also one of the times that David gets locked up. Just everything with Arasaka, tied with his mother, just overwhelming him. He gets stunned, being stuck again. Tanaka brings up just the right points to lock him up for a while, creating a very bad situation.

 

A little conflict between Maine and David was expected, but mix in having to deal with the Trauma Team (a very tactical, cleave through to reach the client, questions never group). But having them say goodbye just before Maine’s killed is rough in the best way. Closure is there, but the loss is very much felt.

 

Dorio and Maine start the fight with Trauma team to get Tanaka out. Taking on Trauma Team is one step short of taking on MaxTec (something NO RUNNER wants to do). To put it mildly, you want about a city block between MaxTec, their target, and you. They are meant to take on anyone chromed out who’s gone on a rampage. They were a consistent challenge throughout Cyberpunk 2077 if something went too far.

 

The ending of the episode fits absurdly well. The sun is just breaking the horizon. David is covered in soot, and dirt, looking older now. He’s clutching the arm Maine promised him. Just the silence save for the running of the car and the thumps of the road.

 

When everything hits the fan, it does so in a spectacular manner. As someone who plays TTRPGs, this can happen, and usually the biggest ones tend to make the best stories, when you survive. If there’s something that will always make a great story, it’s one of sacrifice. Maine’s in this episode, is one of those. He’s fallen over the edge and is spiraling out. He makes a sacrifice to save the few remaining members of his team. All the focus is on him. He gives up what he promised. Maine becomes one of the Legends of Night City.

 

The music is always on point. Here are the stand-out numbers for the episode:

“Major Crimes” by Health, Window Weather

“Consumer Cathedral” by Marcin Przybylowicz

“1101 Break” by Private Press

“Fuelled by Poison” by Antigama is what blasted in the car when David turned it on. It’s also the first track we get when Maine’s gone over the edge.

“Modern Anthill” by Marcin Przybylowicz

“Undertow Velocity” by Private Press is what you’re hearing during the big fights of this episode.

“Juiced Up” by PT Adamczyk is during the conflict with Tanaka as things are starting to go wrong.

“Zurawie” by Ugory is what’s playing when Maine takes his last stand against MaxTec. This is his death song.

“La Camopee” by Private Press is playing while Lucy is cutting through the ICE on Tanaka. This holds until she’s clear of it.

 

If there is something to be reminded of, it’s also the use of ambience and silence. The rain in the city, the shivering breaths, or just eerie silence. This one makes it stand out so well. There is no doubt of intent, to let us just be in the emotions from the previous scene. The silence as Maine is killed with the focus on Lucy. Just the raw, desperate hope that David’s alive she’s experience (and us as well).

 

This episode marks what you could consider to be the first arc of the show. The team is just David, Lucy, and Kiwi. Everything with Dorio and Maine is gone now. Once again, David has lost someone he looked up to. Things had a mark of finality, and ending to them. We still have questions that need answers.

 

Next episode, a new era begins. There’s an unclear time skip. David’s running a team now. So, let’s see what he gets up to. 

 

Until then, later Choom.