Lazarus Ep 5 Review
At this point in the story, it would be safe to say that Lazarus’ hunt for Dr. Skinner has been nothing but a wild goose chase. The elusive creator of Hapna has hid himself so thoroughly, every potential lead the team’s found has been a dead end. In the last episode, though, the team learned that Delta Medicinal, the pharmaceutical that approved the trials for Hapna, had some idea about its true purpose. With that in mind, Lazarus comes up with a plan to try and lure Dr. Skinner out into the open. A plan that, in hindsight, was so desperate that someone like Skinner would know not to take the bait.
In keeping with the trend of having characters open the episode monologuing about their thoughts on Hapna, this episode’s choice is Axel. He never saw the appeal behind the drug, only taking it once while in prison. The irony that even that was enough to damn him like almost everyone in the world is not lost on him or the audience, though.
Another Lead?
With the team having gotten evidence that the company that cleared Hapna for clinical use knew something was up, Lazarus’ next step is to confront them about it. They try to come up with a plan to get inside the building, but in true rebel fashion, Axel brazenly walks in the front door, re-enacts the elevator battle from Captain America: the Winter Soldier, and walks out like a boss. Watanabe and his team truly were attempting to make Axel into the second coming of Spike Spiegel, and so far, it might be working.
Sadly, the CEO of Delta is as left in the dark about Hapna as everyone else is. They tested the drug on monkeys, and confirmed its lethality, but that’s about it. They want to catch Skinner as much as everyone else does. Left without any other option, and with the government wanting results soon, Lazarus has no choice. They team up with Delta to devise a trap to lure Skinner out.
How Was this Plan Supposed to Work?
Their plan is simple: they have Delta stage a fake conference claiming they’ve created a cure for Hapna. Their hope is that this will be enough to have Skinner, or someone affiliated with him, sneak in to see if its true. While the plan might seem clever on the surface, though, there are multiple flaws to it.
Firstly, Lazarus and Delta are operating on the assumption that Dr. Skinner will take the bait. Given everything revealed thus far about him, he’s not the kind of person who would. He was confident enough that no one would realize Hapna was a trap, he went into hiding two years before revealing it. The chances he would fall for Delta’s bluff are slim to none.
Second, they fail to take into account the fact that claims about there being a cure would be enough to entice other people to try and get it, not just Skinner. They do implant a GPS in the fake cure, but that relies on thief getting outside the building.
Lastly, they fail to account for the fact that in their current day and age, anything that’s electronic and can run on a network, no matter how small, can serve as a means for a skilled hacker to get inside remotely. They could then mask their cover using something else and slip away undetected.
Complete Waste of Time!
In the end, everything about Lazarus’ plan that could go wrong does. The only guy who tries to steal the cure is someone random who uses it on himself, only to look like an idiot. Worse, the inevitable hacking attempt uses a blind spot so well hidden to the point of being laughable to break in. The hacker, Popcorn Wizard, runs circles around Eleina before making their big getaway. Eleina gets the last laugh by revealing it was a bluff, that’s little comfort to Lazarus. They essentially wasted theirs and everyone else’s time.
There are twenty-one days left before the first people who took Hapna start dying, and Lazarus is no sooner to finding Skinner. With the series approaching the halfway point, it’s not a good idea to continue with this wild goose chase. The series needs to start giving people solid leads on Skinner sooner rather than later. Otherwise, people are going to start to lose interest.
