After a long wait of approximately eight hours, Psycho-Pass is back, and is as velvety dark and cerebral as ever. Things start off with a bang, from a demolition expert’s bomb, in a return to the early part last season’s criminal-of-the-week format. But while in that season’s first episode, the innocent, impressionable rookie inspector Tsunemori Akane tried and failed to defuse a situation, shooting her own enforcer in the process.
This time, she’s a little older, and a lot wiser, takes full control of the situation, and with one eye on the future she wants to build and another on the desire to preserve life whenever possible, gets a much more favorable outcome. It helps that her innocent, impressionable rookie Shimotsuki Mika (Sakura Ayane) doesn’t get in her way or muck up her plan. She does what she’s told and complains a little, is all.
She has no idea of the horrors and struggles her partner has seen, or the secrets she must bear. Mika is content to rush in, point the Dominator at the target, and shoot. In the culprit’s present state, that would mean death, which Mika is fine with because it’s what Sybil recommends. But it’s not fine for Akane. She is patient and thoughtful in the application of her duties.
She also studies the culprit throughout the episode. He seeks to minimize innocent casualties. He’s purely concerned with punishing MWPSB, the agents of the system that sentenced him to a life of mediocrity. While others dismiss his online screeds as paranoid nonsense, Akane sees someone genuinely concerned with society’s direction, not someone who has totally turned his back on it.
Culprits’ Crime Coefficients rarely go down, especially in the heated rooftop standoff that occurs. But as long as there’s a slight chance of saving an individual’s life, Akane is going to give it her all to make that happen. It’s a great moment when she finally succeeds in getting his CC down below 300, activating the Non-Lethal Paralyzer. It feels like justice, administered by the one holding the gun, not the gun, itself.
After the crisis passes, Mika doesn’t seem convinced. She’ll learn. In one of the better touches of the episode, Ginoza tells her as much in the same way his late father Masaoka coached Akane, even calling her “Missy.” The show also ends with the expected twist to reveal the villain behind the villain, in this case, someone who isn’t just criminally asymptomatic, but whom technology doesn’t even recognize as a living being. Interesting.
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