Darker than Black completes the tale of Huang’s back story in brilliant film noir fashion, highlighting its continued focus on solid storytelling and character development.

Whenever I watch an episode with a character who has a mysterious past and a gruff exterior, my mind immediately goes to films like The Big Sleep, Out of the Past, Key Largo, and of course Casablanca.

There’s something very intriguing about Huang’s character that stems directly from his troubled past and his lost love. Once again, I think something that Darker than Black has done so well as a series is in giving all the characters some genuine depth and shape.

When Huang learns of Shioko’s deception, you really sense his remorse and pain. He’s a man whose memories are only of bitterness, resentment, and loss, and yet those are the very memories he has fought so hard to retain.

Dive-bombing, crow style

This has got to be one of the best stealth bombers I’ve ever seen. Sure, the range isn’t great, nor is the maximum payload, but you’d never see it coming.

MULTIKILL!!

Since when did Huang become so awesome? I think he took out more guys in this episode than Hei did.

They totally should have known better than to bunch up like that when their opponent is specifically using frag grenades. Now there’s no one left to revive the team, and they’ll all have to respawn back at the base.

Now when Huang learns that Isozaki himself was a contractor and also duping him, it just compounds the emotion of his plight.

As a side note, I also thought it was rather poignant how Huang says that Isozaki was “killed twice over” due to the fact that his widow’s memories were erased. It’s really a profound thought; if you have no memories then you have no true identity, you lose your humanity and your sense of self without your memories.

And if no one remembers you, then how much of an identity do you still have? Many shows and stories have explored that concept already, so I won’t get too deeply into the heavy stuff, but suffice to say that in many people’s minds, being forgotten by their loved ones is perhaps a fate even crueler than death. Then it’s not just a matter of having your life taken away, it’s as though your very existence has been erased.

It is indeed as if Isozaki never was. It also raises interesting conundrums on the nature of existence; if someone is entirely forgotten, was their existence totally worthless? Or is existence itself a virtue despite the memories of other people?

Wow, sorry to go off on a tangent, but seriously this show really makes me ponder about these things. I personally love it when a series integrates some measure of philosophy into the plot; one of the many reasons why I hold Mushishi in such high regard.

So now we see that one of the themes of this story arc is memory – Isosaki being forgotten by everyone else, and Huang, the last person who really remembers him, stubbornly holding onto those memories despite the cost.

I love this scene because it drives at the heart of the story without feeling pretentious.

As I’m sure with some you, it was with great loathing that I endured the scene in the Matrix Reloaded in which Neo has his discussion with “The Architect.” Look, I’ve read Simulacra and Simulation and The Intelligence of Evil, and all I can say is that what Baudrillard eloquently and brilliantly articulated in his books, the Matrix films (especially the last two) mutilated and brutalized into a bunch of pontificating nonsense with cheesy kung fu duels.

Fortunately, the Wachowski brothers had nothing to do with Darker than Black, and we’re able to have this incident here: As Hei is talking with the prophet he comes to grip with the nature of the contractors. Beings stripped entirely of their emotion and ability to show remorse, are they human, and if so, can they atone? Brilliant stuff.

And so the second theme emerges – humanity. If you kill people, does that make you inhuman? If you have no emotion, does that make you inhuman? If you lose your conscience, does that make you inhuman?

This particular thought is more straightforward than many of Darker than Black’s other thematic elements, since it’s all exposition, but rather than trying to resolve anything, it simply asks the questions and leaves them unanswered. Shihoko’s obeisance proved to be a nice counterpoint to this, but unfortunately wasn’t very well developed. Hopefully in coming episodes we’ll see this idea developed more fully as we learn more about Hei’s enigmatic past.

I get pretty tired of shows that try to be “deep”, but are so heavy handed in their execution that you feel like the scriptwriter is just beating you over the head with a philosophy textbook going, “Get it? Get it?” I think one of the strongest merits of Darker than Black is that they’ve been able to develop powerful philosophic and thematic elements, but so seamlessly woven into the larger story that you almost don’t notice them at first.

I think that because of this many people fail to understand the show. They’re either watching just for the action, or they’re so caught up in trying to “figure out” the sci-fi setting, or what Hei’s obeisance is, or whatever that they miss the richness that’s hidden in the details. Even I overlooked some of the more subtle aspects until Owen from Cruel Angel Theses took the time to point out his observations.

Darker than Black certainly never feels contrived, and yet still manages to deliver a tremendous amount of content in a half an hour.

What an amazing finale. Especially Huang’s final line. “Don’t trick me anymore.” That’s just excellent writing; his pain is so real it’s scathing.

I love this series, in case you can’t tell.

Looking forward to the conclusion of the first season; I truly hope this series gets another season at some point. The writing is just second to none.