Don’t Blame The Machine – Episode 2 opens with a brief scene of ImaTech workers being led through morning stretches and exercises.  This is until one of the male workers (Anam Sekiguchi) becomes frenzied by an alert of a security breach in Division Five. He immediately races from the room, knocking several of his companions down in the process.

Outside with a stiff drink and a cigarette, Suzie Sakamoto (Rashida Jones) remembers the day that Masa Sakamoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima) asked her out. Before returning inside, she noticed that she was being watched by another Home Bot from an apartment above. A brief flashback to the man who was watching her from the first episode, suggests that he might be watching through the Bot.

Suzie thinks nothing more of this and returns inside to question Sunny (Joanna Sotomura) about the intimate kissing gesture it made and what Masa was doing in his lab. Sunny maintains the claim that its first memory is meeting her.

Sometime later, Suzie takes Sunny to a technician (Kenichi Abe) where she learns that Sunny is much more advanced than it appears. From what the tech can determine, it appears that the bot is perpetually updating. The tech practically throws them out after Suzie mentions the hacking bot guide. Much to Suzie’s surprise, the tech’s young assistant approaches her and Sunny on their way home. She tells her that she was right about the guide and refers to it as, ‘The Dark Manual.’ Although she can’t offer more insight, she does show her a tattoo that the creator uses as a signature. Something about the tattoo causes Suzie to immediately think of Masa.

Suzie visits Noriko Sakamoto (Judy Ongg) to pay respects and is surprised to learn that she has a whole apartment full of guests. In an almost guilty way, Noriko claims the guests were a suggestion of a friend. At the time Suzie appears to be more interested in Masa’s absent painting in the living room. Noriko also quickly explains this away by saying that it was from Masa’s shy phase but later admits to throwing it away. When Suzie questions her about ImaTech, Noriko genuinely maintains the belief that the Masa worked in refrigeration. Despite this, she doesn’t appear at all surprised to learn that Masa designed Sunny. After all, she says Masa was very smart. They don’t get long to debate this because a guest draws Noriko’s attention elsewhere.

Deeply troubled by her visit with Noriko, Suzie looks back on her first date with Masa. At the cocktail bar, they discuss everything from her tutoring American math to the attractions she’s visited. This appears to be a short conversation due to her working all night and sleeping during the day. He tells her she is missing Japan and claims that his father could help her get a proper job in education. This leads to her admitting that education is sort of a side gig from her career in finances. Masa eventually gets around to asking her why she wants to move to Japan, which reveals that she is interested in the local hermit population, the Hikikomori, who completely disengage from society. Much to her surprise, it was something Masa pursued for 3 years. It was during this date that he also told her he worked in refrigeration.

This memory inspires Suzie to return home and literally tear apart Masa’s office looking for clues. Things immediately turn awkward when Sunny starts randomly knocking and throwing things, thinking that it is helping Suzie. After a brief argument, Suzie admits for the first time that Masa could be the author of The Dark Manual. Sunny also pledges to help Suzie uncover the truth while simultaneously suggesting they begin with his work office.

Sunny immediately stalls out and begins making dial-up noises when it and Suzie get within a few yards of ImaTech. Things only get worse from there when the front desk receptionist (Shino Shinozaki) tells her that she’ll need to make an appointment to get into Masa’s office. Suzie luck changes later when she slips by the receptionist and runs into Yuki Tanaka, who initially pretends not to remember her. She plays on his fear of Masa to get him to let her into Division Five.

This is when it is revealed that the opening scene is currently taking place. Just as Suzie discovers that someone has attempted to conceal the blood evidence she saw during the Christmas party, Sunny wakes from its stupor. There is a brief chase scene but Suzie manages to escape thanks to Sunny.

When the discovery of Masa’s shoes makes him officially deceased, Suzie remembers when he explained his love for refrigerators to her. According to him, it is how they cheat thermodynamics by creating cold from heat. At the same time, the airline attendant’s conversation outside with another Home Bot reveals that he is some sort of spy and lied about the discovery in order to get a read on Sunny but was unable to do so.

The episode ends with Suzie asking Sunny to comfort her. As they fall asleep, Sunny’s dreams reveal that it was the bot that went AWOL and Masa covered it up.

 

Sunny Review

As for a second episode, this was a decent one. It not only expanded on the original stories but it added even more mystery and intrigue. Once again, I find the Japanese culture refreshing.  It is nice to see how they do things differently and Kyoto seems like the quaintly perfect little village to introduce the country. I honestly don’t have too much to complain about other than the, ‘suck a d*ck references’ are a bit trite. Other than that, I’m enjoying the episode. I’d give this one a 5.6 out of 10.

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