Lazarus 1×9 Review: “Death on Two Legs”

Lazarus anime season 1 episode 9, titled ‘Death on Two Legs’, introduced a major incoming threat for Axel as the team continued to run out of time to find Skinner.

Even though certain plot threads progressed in ‘Death on Two Legs’, the latest episode was more about introducing a new character who got tasked with taking down Axel. And judging by what the mysterious man’s capable of, Axel better be prepared to face an incredibly deadly opponent.

The episode opened with the mysterious new character enjoying a piece of steak at a fancy restaurant. Turns out, he’s only into eating a specific type of steak and ordered nothing else from the menu, because he requires a certain amount of protein to remain in peak physical condition. Once done, we got an awesome scene of the guy in black calmly walking down a street while chaos erupted around him due to an armed man.

I’ve been waiting for the creative team to showcase the downfall of society ever since Skinner announced people would be dying very soon. We have had glimpses of that, but overall, things have remained quite quaint. So, I’m glad that changed in the latest episode. The scene with the armed man was well visualized. I rewatched it three times before continuing to the rest of the chapter.

From what I could understand, it’s revealed that the mysterious man went by the name HQ. Apparently, he worked for a hitman named Soryu. The officials (one of them being a person linked to INSCOM) who wanted Axel were interested in hiring Soryu to do so. However, with Soryu demanding $30 million for a single job, the officials wanted to test Soryu before paying him such an amount.

What followed was an awesomely choreographed fight sequence between Soryu and a bunch of military men in an abandoned apartment complex. We got to see Soryu brutally kill each opponent using his weapon of choice, a knife attached to an incredibly sharp string. I want to see a similar knife-wielding character pop up in the John Wick franchise. He would fit perfectly. 

Having proved himself, the officials paid Soryu and provided him with details on Axel. So, yeah, it looks like our parkour-skilled co-lead will have to handle having a target on his back while trying to work with the rest of the team to find Skinner. I’m interested in learning about why Axel’s such an important person to apprehend.

As for Soryu and HQ being the same person with HQ being the bespectacled persona… yeah, I think that’s what’s happening.

The past couple of episodes did mention Abel and Hersch being summoned to sit in front of a committee to defend Lazarus’s ongoing operations. We finally got to see that happen. In my opinion, it was handled well. It made sense for the committee to side-eye the team’s actions. In a sense, the team did cause a lot of damage and had nothing to show for it when it came to being anywhere close to tracking down Skinner. The mission to rescue Chris in the previous episode had caused a whole lot of international political tension.

The twist during the meeting was Leland being called in as a witness. I kind of knew Leland would be the one to serve said purpose the moment the committee brought up needing a witness. And while he spoke the truth about the team’s actions concerning Hersch, I think it was clear he wasn’t going to betray the team. Not only that, the anime’s been hinting at Abel and Leland sharing some kind of history.

Due to Abel having a picture of himself, Leland, and another older man on his office table, I assumed Abel was Leland’s stepfather or something queer-ish. However, it’s revealed that Abel was only close friends with Leland’s father. It was a personal detail that people wanting to use Leland to terminate Lazarus weren’t aware of. But Abel knew about Leland being asked to be a witness and was sure the young man wouldn’t throw the team under the bus.

I do think the committee would have stopped Lazarus from operating even after hearing Leland’s testimony if it weren’t for Skinner deciding to release a new video message. Leland saying that it was necessary to rescue Chris because she was a valuable part of the team’s plans to find Skinner would have been met with a laugh from me if I were a part of the committee.

Don’t get me wrong. I like the main characters. But except for Eleina, none of them have shown a skill or insight that couldn’t be replaced. I’m still waiting to see what made Axel, Leland, Chris, and Doug stand out from other skilled people for Hersch to pick them for Lazarus. With us being freaking 9 episodes into a 13-episode season, that’s something I shouldn’t be questioning at all.   

Anyway, back to the video message, turns out, Skinner grew disappointed that no one had been able to find him yet. Not only that, but he was rolling his eyes at how society was still worried about international law and war instead of working together to find Skinner and make him release a cure to HAPNA.

Skinner raised the stakes by announcing that the first death will occur in 10 days and that person will be… drumroll…. Skinner himself!

I liked how Abel used Skinner’s message to his advantage and encouraged the committee to allow Lazarus to continue operating. In a way, even if the team failed, the world could still use Lazarus as a scapegoat and pin the failure on Abel and the rest instead of taking responsibility.

Checking in with the rest of the team, we had an interesting conversation between Axel and Doug during their grocery run. Doug’s been wondering about whether or not Hersch will keep her word and give each team member what they were promised once Skinner’s found. Doug’s suspicions were understandable. The team knew too much about a lot of things, and simply letting them be free didn’t make sense. I mean, I doubt Hersch will kill them all, but yeah, being suspicious went with Doug’s character. He should be wondering about possible outcomes. Doug even brought up the team having a mole. We know it’s Leland, but let’s see if Doug will confront him down the line or not.

Another plot thread that resurfaced dealt with the strange pill Chris found while searching Skinner’s house with Leland. She asked Doug to look into the pill. So, let’s see what clues it might be able to share. I highly doubt the pill is the cure to HAPNA. But I’m still intrigued by it.

What did you think of Lazarus anime season 1 episode 9, ‘Death on Two Legs’?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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