Green and Johnson wrap up this series in a pretty efficient and logical manner.
Upon returning to Earth, Ash seeks out Wojciech, her former boss at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Wojciech has no leads on Selwyn, telling Ash that he's become a hermit.
Following Wojciech's advice to hit the streets, Ash goes to the Tyrell Corporation, and I totally gasped when I saw that its headquarters was so dilapidated. The building is so iconic that I found myself waiting impatiently for it to appear in "Blade Runner 2049," as if it couldn't be a Blade Runner movie without it.
Between Tyrell's death in "Blade Runner" and the Blackout in 2022, Tyrell Corporation apparently collapsed. Walking through the building, cannibals attack Ash. She's saved by Dr. Fost, a scientist whose isolation has clearly driven him insane. He introduces Ash to his "team," a group of rotting, undelivered Replicants sitting at a conference table.
My initial complaint about this development is that Fost appears to serve as a deus ex machina. Beyond saving Ash, he just happened to have worked on the team that created Isobel, allowing Ash to build a connection with him. Moreover, he also just so happens to have access to the Tyrell server, allowing Ash to get the locations of people who worked on the Isobel project.
That said, Green and Johnson don't make it that easy for Ash as Fost's information ultimately proves useless. Before Ash can start tracking down the scientists, the LAPD arrests her. Ash thinks that it's Wojciech who sold her down the river. However, we learn in issue #11's introduction page (hi, pet peeve #2) that it was Selwyn. Issue #10 ends with the Replicant Underground freeing Ash from the cruiser taking her to jail. (It turns out Wojciech tipped off the Underground.) Meanwhile, at his mountain-top retreat, Selwyn sends another version of Hythe after Ash.
Issue #11 begins with the Underground's leader Freysa explaining to Ash that the Underground mostly helps Off-Worlders on the run settle into new lives as they don't have the numbers for a revolution now that Tyrell Corporation ceased making Replicants. A former combat medic, Freysa repairs Ash's back brace, which was damaged in her scuffle with the cannibals. Ash panics when Freysa touches the brace, though it isn't clear to me if it's because of some unconscious revulsion to Replicants or something else.
Everything goes to hell when Hythe arrives, after one of the Underground members dimes out Ash. (Hythe hilariously shoots the woman, who clearly thought that she was getting some reward.) Three other Underground members sacrifice themselves so that Ash can escape with Freysa and Efraim, a young human boy for whom Freysa is a surrogate mother. The scene of him wrapped in a blanket on Freysa's lap is heartbreaking, expressing just how fragile life is in this reality.
At Freysa's bolthole in the city, she informs Ash that Selwyn bought up the remains of the Tyrell Corporation and has been making the technically banned Nexus 8s for rich people. Freysa wants Ash to stop him, horrified as she is by his Nexus 8s' lack of "light." She sends Ash back to Tyrell's estate in Santa Barbara, where Ash encounters Selwyn and four Hythes.
Selwyn is clearly nuts in his rich-guy way, coming to confront Ash face-to-face over her breaking their contract. In the ensuing gun fight, Ash takes out two Hythes before Selwyn disables her back brace, which, after all, Hythe herself installed.
I was wondering how Ash would escape this jam, as she seemed to have backed herself into a pretty serious corner. Though the answer is another deus ex machina, it's thankfully a fairly believable one. Chloe and Isobel return, since Chloe knew that Ash would go after her father. Chloe asks if he really intended to sell her to Tyrell, and he admits that he did, telling her that he regretted it every second of her disappearance. Chloe hugs him...and then has Isobel break his neck. So much for his belief that they could be a family again.
Remaining Hythe A goes to kill Isobel, but Remaining Hythe B kills A before she can do so. Like so many other Replicants, it turns out B wasn't as obedient as programmed. In exchange for the house and anonymity, B lets them go and gives Ash the controls to her back brace.
Later, they all enjoy some noodles, and Ash declines to Chloe's offer to go with her and Isobel to Arcadia, realizing that she belongs on Earth. Ash tells her that she won't be a Blade Runner anymore and says that Chloe can buy her a meal when she visits her on Arcadia. In yet another heart-breaking moment, Chloe tells her that she'll never come, and Ash tells her to send a postcard anyway. Oof.
The series ends with Ash in bed with Freysa, contemplating yet another new life and surrogate family ahead of her.
Final Thoughts: Although this arc wasn't as strong as the previous two, it was still a solid ending to this part of Ash's story. Green and Johnson did an amazing job putting us in this reality again, and I'm ecstatic that I've got other "Blade Runner" mini-series ahead of me. Not only do I want to see what Ash decides to do with her life, I'm excited by the numerous stories that this reality has left to show us.
Also Read: Blade Runner 2019 FCBD (2020) (August 26, 2020)
No comments:
Post a Comment