Lazarus 1×8 Review: “Unforgettable Fire”

Lazarus anime season 1 episode 8, titled ‘Unforgettable Fire’, had Axel, Leland, Doug, and Eleina work together to rescue Chris from a dangerous situation.

When the previous episode concluded with a new female spy greeting Chris by her real name, I was expecting ‘Unfrogettable Fire’ to focus on sharing details about Chris’s backstory. And while we did get that, the way it all played out took me by surprise. The latest episode opened with Chris already taken prisoner and waking up in an oil rig somewhere in the Barents Sea.

So, yeah, even though Chris knew the blonde woman from the previous episode, things weren’t friendly between the two. It’s revealed that the woman, Inga, was a Russian spy. Her team captured Chris (or Alexandra) because… drumroll… Chris had faked her death a couple of years ago and defected from being a Russian spy. So, of course, Inga and her team wanted Chris dead to close loose ends and get their revenge. 

I instantly knew there was a romantic history between Inga and Chris. I liked how the writing team handled their past while keeping with the “realistic” outcome of the two women not being able to have a happy ending due to their line of work. Inga was brokenhearted after Chris left. However, I could understand why Chris made her decision. If Chris, who had been planning to leave the agency for a while now, had made up her mind to randomly disappear one day, the agency would have killed Inga because she was Chris’s Handler.

The airport accident gave Chris the perfect opportunity to change her life because, according to medical records, she had flatlined. Her name was on the casualty list. Once being “reborn”, Chris changed everything about herself and found her way into working for Lazarus.

Chris and Inga still loved each other. But again, they couldn’t be together. I mean, this is a somewhat dark anime after all. So, Inga’s emotional “goodbye” to Chris made sense in context.

Axel, Doug, Eleina, and Leland got ready to Chris the moment they found her location. Even though Hersch mentioned there was a possibility Chris might have betrayed them, there was no way the crew was going to ignore Chris, especially not after Hersch mentioned how Chris’s wristband was supposed to stop her bloodstream and kill her if Chris didn’t contact her in three days.

The action-packed episode featured a bunch of cool fight sequences. Chris showcased some good choreography against an opponent while her hands were tied to a chair. Axel did his usual hand-to-hand stuff while jumping around. I liked that even though Axel’s quite good at fighting, he wasn’t unable to defeat the muscled spy (who had already been injured by Chris). Doug caused a major distraction and then proceeded to sharpshoot opponents. Leland flew his drone around to lend a hand where possible. Even Eleina assisted her team by remotely controlling the machinery around the rig.

The scenes where a bunch of people gathered around Eleina to watch what her team was up to as if it were some kind of Hollywood action movie helped bring some levity to an otherwise heavy episode.

Coming to Eleina having found Hersch’s connection to Skinner last week, the team couldn’t make much of a big deal out of it because they were running out of time to rescue Chris. I think with how Hersch helped the team get close to the oil rig and mentioning she didn’t want to lose Chris, I think the team’s more than okay with letting Hersch’s past slide. It’s not as if she worked so closely with Skinner that she knew about Hapna turning toxic and kept it a secret from the world.

With only 12 days (and 5 episodes) left and the team having no major lead to track Skinner, I’m looking forward to seeing where the story will go from here. 

What did you think of Lazarus anime season one episode 8, ‘Unforgettable Fire’?

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.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary