Please read PART 1 of Ergo Proxy anime guide first before reading this or you might not understand everything. Beware of spoilers if you haven’t seen the whole series yet. This is an episode guide where I add more information on some plotpoints and explain some of the mind screw episodes and some other stuff.

This post was initially posted on my Livejournal account in August 2014. As I decided to delete my Livejournal account and host my own blog, I have reposted it here.

PART 1 HERE

Episode 1

Translation of the Italian text in the beginning of episode 1.

-A voice tells the dome humans to shop and consume without moderation:
One of the tasks of the dome humans was to make Earth habitable again if they could. The humans in the dome are encouraged to consume as much as possible and leave waste, because that helps the eco-system get going again. They dump the waste outside of the dome as you see in later episodes.

Episode 3

-Vincent has a dream on the train. It’s actually Proxy One’s memories of Ergo deciding to leave Romdeau and of Proxy One firing all of the missiles to other domes. Just before Vincent wakes up Proxy One is seen leaving the train. He was there putting his memories into Vincent and watching over him.

-Vincent follows Pino who is infected and knows the way out of Romdeau. The reason all Cogito-infected Autoreivs follow the same escape route is because that’s the only exit out of Romdeau. They want to escape because they know otherwise they’ll be hunted down and killed.

-It’s possible Raul let someone kill Dorothy, Vincent’s Entourage, and was the one who framed him. He wants revenge against Vincent, because his family was killed by Monad. Raul uses this as a reason to catch Vincent and lock him up, but Vincent escapes outside instead.

Episodes 4, 5 and 6

-When Vincent falls out of the dome, he lands in the lake outside. You can see him underwater and Vincent also sees the underside of the wind ship, 400 Rabbits, that Hoody had hidden in the lake. Vincent is found by Hoody and has nightmares drifting in and out of consciousness.

-People who escape out of the dome are infected with a virus. 80% of them don’t survive. Hoody managed to cure some of them with a vaccine, but he eventually ran out and couldn’t help anymore. The reason Vincent survived was because he was a Proxy. Re-l wasn’t so lucky and had to be taken back to Romdeau for treatment by Hoody. Note that Daedalus treats Re-l with Amrita cells (=Proxy cells). This foreshadows Re-l’s connection to Monad. Afterwards Re-l can walk outside without a suit, because she has been cured with Amrita cells and most likely got a vaccine as well so she is now immune to the virus.

-Hoody is killed by Raul. It is revealed that one of the toy soldiers on the clock in the mall is missing. You can see that Hoody had that missing soldier in his house outside the dome, so he must have took it. Is this the reason he was thrown out of Romdeau?

-Quinn is seen with her son Timothy. Perhaps Quinn used to be a high ranked citizen in Romdeau who was allowed to have a child like Raul. Remember the pseudo-humans can’t reproduce, so they need permission to receive a child from the artificial womb.

-Hoody’s explanation about Proxies and what they can do all turns out to be true.

• They can change into human form: check.
• They can easily disappear at will: check (Because they move so fast, it looks like they disappear.)
• They can also enter humans and control their spirit: check (Bookstore Proxy, Proxy One and Senex are all examples of this).
• They can shoot lightning bolts/scorch the Earth: check (Kazkis shoots fire.)

Hoody also says he’s seen Proxies with his own eyes. It makes you wonder who he is and how he knows all this.

Episode 8

-We see for the first time that some Proxies can affect others’ subconscious just like Hoody said. Senex seems to have driven the woman in the cell crazy and and put her in an adoring, worship-like trance. The woman uses Senex’s actual name and what she represents. Other examples of this will follow in later episodes: Will B. Good with Pino and Proxy One with Vincent.

-When Vincent and Pino fly over the warring domes, they are greeted by a blinding light, which is hinted to have something to do with Senex's awakening. Senex most likely was sleeping and was awakened by the ‘Pulse of the Awakening’ just like Monad. However, when Senex awakens, she begins to kill off all the humans her dome that she encounters, reminiscent of Monad's killing spree in Romdeau. In the end, she is killed by Ergo Proxy.

Episode 9

- Charos and Asura Domes are both linked through the romantic bonds between their respective Proxies, Senex and Kazkis. It appears that the two Proxies agreed to renew their vows after The Pulse of the Awakening but before they could Senex was killed by Ergo. Kazkis had long since killed the pseudo-humans in his dome Asura and was attacking Charos dome to wipe out the humans there.

-Kazkis thinks Ergo has come to replace Senex, but when Vincent refuses and Kazkis realizes Vincent can’t remember killing Senx; Kazkis goes over the edge. He’s angry at Vincent/Ergo for acting like a coward and giving his memories to Monad who couldn’t take it. Kazkis considers Vincent a traitor among the Proxies for running away from his duties and Kazkis attacks him. He also wants to avenge Senex. Being the Agent of Light, Kazkis has the ability to shoot fire from his palms.

Episode 10

-Re-l’s not dead after all. Daedalus managed to heal her wound and hid her in an empty town on the outskirts of Romdeau dome. Meanwhile he filled out her death certificate and faked her death to everyone in Romdeau. Raul finds out the truth though.

-Daedalus develops FP bullets based on Monad’s Amrita cells. These bullets have the ability to kill a Proxy. He gives two of them to Re-l and prepares a ship for her so she can search for Vincent and bring him back to Romdeau (and bring back a Proxy specimen).

-Raul reveals to Daedalus that not he, but Donov Mayer ordered the attack on Re-l and Daedalus. People from Romdeau aren’t allowed to leave the dome and if they do, they may never come back. Daedalus let Re-l back in, so that’s why they were both punished. Donov makes no exceptions, even to his granddaughter.

-Re-l has a dream about a childhood version of herself. The child Re-l encourages her to leave, but warns her as well. The little Re-l is not Real Mayer, because when Real Mayer is introduced to Raul in episode 18, she is much younger than little Re-l in Re-l’s dream. I believe this is the part of Monad inside of Re-l speaking to her for once. More proof is that little Re-l wears blue eye shadow at the end of the dream, something Real Mayer never did. Daedalus only decides to create another Re-l after he is abandoned by her in episode 13 when she follows Vincent.

-The Autoreiv at the end of the episode who stopped delivering the paper may have gotten infected with the Cogito because of Iggy.

Episode 11

Vincent enters the City Lights Bookstore after losing Pino and the ship in the fog. The bookstore is owned by the Bookstore Proxy, the man Vincent meets. Here, the books are either filled with questions to do with Law or information regarding him as a way of getting his memories back.

The similarity to City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco should be noted, as the "owner" or keeper of the books and memories wears a beret and snaps his fingers to trigger Vincent's memory. The owner also makes note of the fog surrounding the store, a weather trait San Francisco is well known for. Regarding these references or similarities, the Bookstore may have been near what remains of San Francisco.

The bookstore is located in the ruins of a dome, possibly the Bookstore Proxy’s dome. The dome may have been one of the several destroyed when Proxy One launched his missiles to have vengeance against the space-humans.

Anyway, every time the Bookstore Proxy snaps his fingers, we enter Vincent’s mind. There Ergo Proxy talks to him, trying to convince him that he and Vincent are one and the same. Vincent should accept he’s a Proxy, but he doesn’t want to.

Actually it’s not Ergo talking to Vincent; it’s Proxy One. If you pay close attention, you’ll notice it’s Proxy One’s voice. Proxy One is working together with the Bookstore Proxy, influencing Vincent’s mind. Proxy One wants the Ergo side of Vincent back. He wants Ergo to forget about his human side. Vincent must accept he’s a Proxy and that he and Proxy One are the same. This is alluding to the fact that Vincent is a near copy of Proxy One. Proxy One wants Vincent to remember that, because it is important for the ‘Pulse of the Awakening’.

The Bookstore Proxy meanwhile keeps bringing Vincent back to the present and then to his mind again by snapping his fingers. It’s also interesting that Vincent takes a trip along his memories of the past, with each person appearing with an Ergo Proxy-mask. Ergo/Proxy One comes with a nice statement. At the moment, he’s only observing the world, while not being any part of it. It’s also interesting that near the end of the episode, Re-l gets to be the one who loses her mask.

At one point the Bookstore Proxy thinks Proxy One is going too far and intervenes. He thinks if Proxy One continues, it would be bad for Vincent’s mind. But Proxy One ignores him and continues with what he’s doing.

At last the trial comes to an end for Vincent and he receives directions from the Bookstore Proxy to Pino and the ship, wondering what happened. This is when Re-l manages to catch up to them with her ship and finds Vincent.

Episodes 12 and 13

-Iggy was infected with the Cogito since episode 7, but he knew how to hide it until now.

-Iggy loves Re-l but hates her at the same time, because the Cogito made him realize how much she ignored him. In the end he gives his life to save Re-l and Re-l realizes her mistakes at last.

-This Cave Proxy was an example of a Proxy who had gone mad and had fled his dome or... maybe not. Iggy discovers some moss-covered things and realizes they were artificial wombs and that they are standing in the middle of a moss-covered dome. Iggy wonders if the Cave Proxy was the one who created all of this.

-The Autoreiv with the brown skin accompanying him probably had the Cogito virus and that is why she protected her master. Also that is why she tried to kill Re-l after Re-l had killed the Proxy.

Episode 14

We have this Proxy who can change his appearance at will, and he keeps bothering Re-l, Vincent and Pino with this ability. Pino probably featured her best performance up till now.

This episode is actually a whole flashback. The episode begins with a teaser of what happens at the end of the episode. Re-l philosophizes a bit. She believes that the world doesn’t end once she dies, though she used to believe this as a child. She’s a true realist. Then it seems that Vincent seems to have done something stupid, though he seems to blame Real and Pino for this.

Flashback begins: We then switch to a lake, in which a dead Real is floating, with Vincent and Pino standing right next to her. The OP rolls, and we switch to Pino and Vincent doing some groceries. It seems that they ran into another abandoned city, Ophelia. This time, not even Autoreivs are active. Re-l walks around a bit, and gets some visions of Iggy. The city has a strange shape. Much like a huge crater entirely populated with houses and with a small lake and lots of trees in the middle. She walks around a bit, takes a look at the ship they travelled with and then she arrives at the lake. At that time, she could’ve sworn she saw something. That’s the first clue we get of the Proxy.

Re-l then goes back to the supermarket, at which Vincent and Pino just finished shopping. While Pino has fun with cans, Re-l’s as cold as usual. Vincent wants to stay for a while, though Re-l scolds him, for not being determined. Then, Pino gets cuter than ever when she tries to present her own assembled meal to her. It looks absolutely disgusting. Re-l immediately turns this down and leaves, with the excuse of keeping a lookout. I don’t think the Proxy was at this scene. Both characters acted natural and said things that an outsider wasn’t supposed to know. (Like Re-l who drinks a lot of Ginger Ale and Vincent’s goal to reach Mosk).

We then switch to Re-l, complaining about how Vincent and Pino bring her in a bad mood. Back to Vincent, he’s packing and runs into the Proxy, pretending to be Re-l, eating the pea soup from before. When he tells her to hurry, she tells him that she’s eating at the moment. Vincent gives her some ginger ale and then goes to get some water, along with Pino.

Back to Re-l, the Proxy gives her a visit, pretending to be Vincent. He brings her the same ginger ale as he just got from the real Vincent. He then suggests staying here for a while. When you see this, and don’t know about the Proxy, the scene turns hilarious: first, Re-l tells Vincent to pack things up and leave as soon as possible. Vincent packs, but then he sees Re-l, taking it easy. Then Vincent comes back to Re-l, and he is the one again to suggest staying and Re-l is the one to suggest leaving fast. Still, when you know about the Proxy, this scene makes perfect sense. The Proxy is lonely, and he hopes for the two of them to stay.

In any case, when the fake Vincent set up an incredibly fake speech, asking Re-l in a very sad tone whether she didn’t love him anymore, I began to suspect something. These feelings only got confirmed when the real Re-l pushed the fake Vincent off the roof of the supermarket, only for him to disappear into nothingness afterwards. The fact remains that the Proxy didn’t know about the two of them. He just thought that they were a couple with a child. He also thought they were still lovey-dovey, so that’s why he set up the act he did. He also let himself get pushed off, in order to try and test how Re-l would react to this.

Vincent meanwhile managed to get enough water. Then he runs into the fake Re-l. She sets up an angry voice, and she asks for the Autoreiv. Then she attempts to kill Pino and Vincent locks her in a storage room. When he hears her reasons, it appears that Pino wanted to kill her. Vincent doubts this, of course, though he still asks Pino in a very kind way. Out of her explanation, it seems that Vincent believes that this was because of the food that Pino made. He indeed reckons that Re-l over exaggerated a bit. Meanwhile the Re-l Proxy escapes the storage room. What follows is the fake Re-l, falling off the roof of the supermarket, right in front of Vincent’s eyes. He then sees a figure on top of the roof, and heads there. While he does, he notices that the storage room from before is open again.

When he gets to the top of the roof, the fake Re-l is gone, and the real Re-l appears behind him. She then asks him a few questions, which Vincent can’t answer and runs away. At this time, the Proxy must have captured Re-l. Pino, meanwhile, gets visited by the fake Vincent, carrying the real Re-l’s unconscious body. They head for the lake, and the fake Vincent drops the body of the real Re-l in the lake. It sinks, only to rise again. Pino then thinks that Re-l has died.

When the real Vincent, meanwhile checks up on the Centzon (the ship they came with) he notices that it’s gone. He then thinks that Re-l and Pino left without him and that he’s alone again. He then notices that something’s happening at the lake. Back to Pino, she totally manages to pawn the Proxy when she unmasks him. Then, the fake Vincent attempts to strangle Pino, but then he sees that she’s an Autoreiv, who can’t be strangled. Still, when he acted as Re-l, he did mention the fact that Pino was an Autoreiv. What’s up with that?

The real Vincent meanwhile arrives at the lake, and then he sees the fake Real, sinking into the lake. Vincent dives after her, and manages to save her. She then opens her eyes, and attempts to drown him.

Pino meanwhile managed to save the real Re-l from drowning. The two of them realize that both of them aren’t the Proxy, though Re-l realizes that something’s happening. What follows are Vincent and the Proxy, floating in the depths of the lake and finding out about the facts that they both are Proxy. The Proxy then tells Vincent about his loneliness. Everywhere he appeared, people fled. Nobody acknowledged him. He then killed everyone in the city, in the hope of disappearing, though it didn’t work. He hopes to eliminate himself, along with Vincent. He then tries to break Vincent’s mind, in tricking him to die along with him.

Vincent then surfaces, only to see the fake Re-l standing before him. She yells at him, and he realizes that she’s the fake one. This scene repeats for a while. During this, the fake Vincent also shows the bodies of all of the former citizens he killed, stored in the middle of the lake. I think this all happens in the head of the Proxy, as Vincent then sees the same scene of Re-l standing on the shore. He decides to go extreme by strangling her. Though then Pino comes to her. This makes Vincent think that he really killed the real Re-l, while in fact, they’re just standing on the other side of the lake, watching the two Vincents talk to each other. Re-l noted exceptionally well that the fake Vincent didn’t have a reflection in the water.

Then, both of the Vincents sink again transforming into Ergo Proxy. What happened in the bottom of the lake is unknown. Did Vincent kill the shape shifter Proxy or not? Then, the real Vincent surfaces yet again, the same scene happens though this time, the fake Re-l is the real Re-l. We then switch to the ship again, where the episode started. Apparently, Vincent caught a cold after being in the lake for so long (you’d wonder why Re-l didn’t, as she also was dumped into the lake). The Proxy probably cut the ropes which were holding the Centzon at its place, so it drifted off. Vincent then managed to recover it. Vincent then relates himself to the Proxy. They were both lonely, though Pino and Re-l managed to save him. They managed to give his life meaning. We also see Re-l smile for one of the first times in the series.

Episode 15

-Vincent has to participate in a quiz show for his life. Most likely when they arrived at MCQ’s dome, Vincent and co were captured immediately. The host MCQ is a Proxy and has locked Re-l and Pino up. If Vincent wins, he and his friends live and MCQ dies, but if MCQ wins, Vincent will die instead.

-Two very subtle hints that MCQ is a Proxy. He asks Vincent a question: “Ra, an Egyptian god is rumoured to have eyes like us” -meaning him and Vincent having blue Proxy eyes. Also at the end of the preview for episode 16, the game host’s eyes glow blue with energy.

-MCQ knows that Vincent is Ergo Proxy. You also see that MCQ has won 25 times, which means he’s managed to kill 25 Proxies. It is unknown if there are still people in his dome or not. Probably not, since his audience exists out of Autoreivs.

-The quiz reveals important plot points and facts like the Boomerang Star, Proxy Project and Proxy One. It seems Proxy One and Ergo Proxy are known among the Proxies. Kazkis, the Bookstore Proxy from episode 11 and MCQ seemed to know who Ergo is as well.

-People on forums have pointed out that Vincent seems to look stupid, since he can’t answer simple questions in the beginning of the quiz. But realize why: Vincent isn’t a human who went to school and learned all those things. He is a Proxy and I don’t think Proxies really know about all that stuff (except for MCQ).

-Meanwhile MCQ has managed to hack into the satellites and is broadcasting his quiz show to all the domes including Romdeau. Raul, Daedalus and Donov Mayer are able to see the quiz which is not good because: everyone knows Vincent is a Proxy now, Donov knows Re-l isn’t really dead, and Raul sees Vincent with Pino which infuriates him.

-MCQ says he has an announcement at the end of the show for everyone. In the preview for episode 16 he reveals the coordinates of where Proxy One is. Proxy One is in Mosk (waiting for Vincent).

Episode 17

-In this episode you find out what became of the humans who couldn’t make it aboard the Boomerang Star and had to stay on Earth. Re-l, Vincent, and Pino come across the weird cave dwelling creatures. Re-l realizes from the cave drawings that the creatures give live birth. This means that the creatures were descendents of the original humans, who through live birth, became mutated by Earth's unliveable atmosphere. The cave creatures had to stay in the caves because they were so accustomed to the toxic gas inside, that they would die if they went outside. Yet, in the caves they were slowly dying as well from the gas. Some of the creatures tried to make it outside, but to no avail.

-Before his brief removal from Director-General of the Citizen Security Bureau, Raul is manipulated by the phantom appearances of a smirking Vincent Law. Whether this image is merely a sign of his mental degradation, or Proxy One's own handiwork - is unknown. During this incident, he manages to break into the sealed off thermonuclear ICBM salvos, and launches one particular missile called "Rapture" towards the coordinates given by the Proxy host of the Quiz Show in episode 15. Believing that Vincent Law is there, the missile is intended to destroy him once and for all. However the Quiz Host did say this was the location of Proxy One, although Raul was unaware of the difference between either the carbon copy - Vincent Law, or his original persona - Proxy One.

-It is revealed that Pino’s daddy was Raul, although there were some subtle hints given in the first three episodes.

Episode 18

-Raul encounters Real Mayer, the second clone of Monad. Note the ball of red string Real is holding. The ball of thread is related to Ariadne from Greek mythology. There are many other things linked to ancient Greece in the series and I would include this one too.

"According to an Athenian version of the legend, Minos attacked Athens after his son was killed there. The Athenians asked for terms, and were required to sacrifice seven young men and seven maidens to the Minotaur every seven or nine years. One year, the sacrificial party included Theseus, the son of King Aegeus, who volunteered to come and kill the Minotaur. Ariadne fell in love at first sight, and helped him by giving him a sword and a ball of thread, so that he could find his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth."

I think Minos is Proxy One, Theseus is Ergo Proxy and Ariadne is Re-L/Monad. In fact, Real does use the ball of string as it is meant to be used - she drops the end and thus Daedalus finds her, while she also comments that she's done what he asked for (ie used the string to show him where she was).

-Raul’s missile Rapture reaches Mosk and decimates the dome. Proxy One is indeed there and suppresses its effect to the point that the damage appears to have happened long ago, merely by "hand waving" the flames away. Then Vincent and Re-l arrive. Proxy One is seen standing in the ruins, tears running down his face.

Episode 19

The case is like this: we have a Proxy, in yet another dome. This one has created his own world: Smile World. It’s a world in which everyone keeps smiling continuously. But now, Vincent is approaching. In a last desperate attempt, he contacts Pino in a dream, in order to find out his weakness. Instead, she opens up his eyes with her smile.

Pino starts out in the local garbage dump. Smile World is full of all sorts of fun attractions, though the unpopular ones get discarded. In the garbage dump, Pino meets up with two discarded cartoons: Al and Pull. They’re incredibly happy and carefree, even though they’ve been considered trash. An interesting note is that they’re actually Autoreivs. They then begin to make a wish, in order to get out of trouble: meet the creator of the world: Will B. Good, aka, the Proxy.

Something very interesting is a poster, advertising a movie about the end of the world, in which Vincent in Ergo Proxy-mode is destroying a huge number of buildings. What if these prophecies actually have some truth into them? What if Vincent is destined to destroy the world? In any case, every Proxy seems to know Vincent, and his reputation.

Then, a strange cricket appears. He’s very serious and goal-oriented, in contrast with the carefree Al and Pull. His name is Rogi, and he tries to get Pino to dump her new-found friends and take her to Will B. Good. This doesn’t really work. The foursome escapes from the garbage dump, which gets filled with water afterwards. Rogi gets annoyed by the care freeness of Al and Pure, as they seem to have changed their goals yet again: go to Will B. Good and find out the reason they were created. Interesting questions, coming from them. Their personality seems to clash with that of Rogi’s. He just can’t accept that there are people who live for the moment.

Rogi then begins to ask Pino about Vince’s weaknesses, and she indeed reveals that she’s with some kind of Proxy. What happens afterwards is that Pino, Al and Pull discover the surface, and they get to see the amusement park of the Smile World. As they’ve got no tickets, they’re in trouble and some dogs with very large heads appear. Pino has great fun evading them in one of the attractions. While she does this, everyone begins to notice that she has an incredibly sincere and real smile. Something everyone in Smile World is lacking.

Later, the foursome have been captured after all. Pino also mentions Raul for a moment while Al and Pull change their goals yet again: become real customers and have real smiles. They then get interrogated by the same guards as before. For some reason, the reason for the dogs to have such big heads is that they were wearing masks. In any case, the interrogators are so impressed by Pino’s smile that they forget their initial reasons.

Rogi then loses his patience and sends them directly to Will B. Good. Will reveals that it’s extremely difficult to give people a constant smile. That’s why he needs total control, in order to protect this perfect smile. It’s ironic that all these smiles are fake. Each citizen of Smile World is ignorant about everything happening outside of the dome. That’s why they can remain “happy”.

Will then starts asking Pino about Vincent’s weaknesses, and his treasure. He does this by putting up a fake smile. Pino knows Vince values his pendants, but she stays loyal to him and doesn’t tell Will anything. Will’s creations recognize the fakeness of his smile, after having seen Pino, and they turn against him. Will then resorts to his last option: beg Pino to stop Vincent. If Vincent and he meet, they’ll have to fight. When they fight, Will will lose, and everyone in Smile World will die. Including the friends Pino made. Pino then wakes up, and she manages to convince Vincent to stay away from Will.

It’s a happy end, isn’t it? On the other hand, the citizens of Smile World still have all of their freedom taken away. They still know nothing. They still keep smiling forever, with a fake smile unless Will has learned something from Pino. It’s interesting to wonder what he’ll be doing afterwards. I don’t think we’ll ever get to see what happens with Smile World after this episode.

Pino is shown to have grown during the episode. She can see lies, she’s loyal to her friends and she smiles like a real kid. She’s becoming more humanlike with the Cogito virus influencing her. Also as a robot she is capable of having a dream that Will B. Good sent her.

Episode 20

This episode is about a mysterious Proxy called Swan who invades Vincent’s dreams. Swan is most likely another attempt by Proxy One to destroy Vincent's love/dependence on Re-l (Re-l representing to Proxy One Vincent's desire to become human since Re-l is Monad made human) and force Vincent Law back into being Proxy One's agent of death, Ergo Proxy.

Swan looks very much like a female version of Proxy One. Throughout the series, Proxy One has been manipulating events and people. Proxy One had a great hatred toward Monad since Monad took away his "instrument of death against the progenitors". Monad, because she loved Ergo Proxy, took his memories at the expense of her own sanity. This made Ergo Proxy useless to Proxy One and in spiteful revenge Proxy One has tormented Vincent in many ways forcing him to slowly return to being Ergo. Swan is another attempt at this.

Proxy One probably follows Vincent and Re-l after they left Mosk and messes with Vincent’s mind like episode 11. During this dream Vincent’s fears are shown to us.

-Vincent’s scared that Re-l will turn him in once they reach Romdeau and betray him. Proxy One wants Vincent not to trust Re-l.

-Vincent’s also scared of becoming ‘someone else’ once he gets his memories back. He watches his ‘other self’, Ergo, through Re-l’s eyes. He’s afraid Ergo will hurt Re-l. Proxy One is warning to stay away from Re-l.

-During the dream Swan asked Vincent to imagine the life he wished he had. Vincent was head of the Security Bureau with Raul his underling. Re-l was his girlfriend and Daedalus was her brother. However this is a wish never to come true. Proxy One/Swan probably wanted to see what Vincent/Ergo wished for the most. I don’t think it pleased him.

-Proxy One wants the human side of Ergo gone. Swan lets Vincent think in his dream that he’s not real and just a figment of Re-l’s imagination, a split personality of Re-l. Swan even says that Ergo is the real one and that Vincent should eliminate himself from Re-l’s mind. To do this he must kill Re-l in his dream. (Proxy One wants Re-l gone too.) But Vincent is unable to do it. This is the moment he realizes that everything is a dream.

-Then Swan brings out Ergo Proxy's pendant, given to Proxy One when Ergo Proxy gave up Romdeau to Proxy One and went to Mosk, and says angrily, "How cruel. I never took it off, this charm of yours. I hate men who stink of another woman (Re-l). I'm sure she (Monad/Real) feels the same way.” This is when the dream ends and Vincent wakes up, feeling creeped out. It doesn’t help when Re-l asks if she can have Vincent’s pendant, which is exactly what happened in Vincent’s dream.

After the dream, Proxy One returned to Romdeau, just before Vincent and Re-l do.

Episode 22

-Ergo Proxy entrusted Donov Mayer and the talking Greek statues (the Central Administration Bureau network) to take care of Romdeau. They had sworn to Ergo to keep the secret that he was the one who created Romdeau. That is why Donov remained mute for the entire series and never answered Re-l’s questions. After his death the statues were free of their oath and able to tell the truth to Re-l. The statues are Autoreivs by the way.

-Look at Pino’s drawings. She used to only be able to copy others with drawings, but now she’s making up things herself and drawing them. More proof of how the Cogito keeps changing her. Pino’s become a “real” human child by now.

-Kristeva finds Raul dead, trying to grab the drawing of him and Pino. She interprets this as her new mission: look after Pino for her dead master. She sets out to find Pino. By now Kristeva has also gotten infected with the Cogito. You can see it because she has red eyes.

-Deadalus admits to having thrown away all the remaining FP bullets. Now no one can kill Ergo or Proxy One. Daedalus doesn’t care; he only wants Real beside him. Re-l is the only one with an FP bullet now, but she decides not to use it.

Episode 23

-Are there any survivors at Romdeau and the other domes? Yes, you can see some humans fleeing the dome at the beginning of episode 21. They will probably survive the air outside, because the sun is shining again and the Earth is starting to recover. I wonder what the space humans will do with them.

-Daedalus and Monad flying toward the sun links back to the original Greek myth about Daedalus and Icarus. In ancient Greece, Daedalus was a famous architect, inventor and master craftsman. Daedalus and his son Icarus were locked up by king Minos. The two escaped and Daedalus realized they had to get away from Minos. However, as Minos controlled the sea around the area, Daedalus realized that the only way out was by air. To escape, Daedalus made wings for himself and Icarus, fashioned with feathers held together by wax.

Daedalus warned his son not too fly too close to the sun, as it would melt his wings, and not too close to the sea, as it would dampen them and make it hard to fly. They successfully flew from the city Crete, but Icarus grew too careless because of the thrill of flying and flew too close to the sun. The wax holding his wings together melted and he plummeted to his death, drowning in the sea.

The Daedalus in Ergo Proxy lies on the ground and warns Monad not to fly towards the sunlight, begging her to come back. Monad flies toward the sun anyway and disintegrates. Then Daedalus dies in the wreckage of Romdeau.

Other stuff

More on Pino and her name

Pino was purchased by Raul Creed and his wife as a replacement for a real child they did not have enough social privileges to be awarded (children in Romdeau are created in a lab and only a few of the upper citizens can get one). However, when Ergo Proxy starts, Raul Creed has been promoted high enough and the couple is awarded a baby. This makes Pino redundant and no longer wanted.

Vincent Law is called upon to examine Pino due to a claim by the mother that Pino is corrupted with the Cogito Virus. Vincent sees the new baby carriage and recognizes that Creed's wife is looking for an excuse to return Pino for a refund and instead buy a "housekeeper autoreiv that can also provide for educational and development needs." Creed's wife becomes defensive and angry when Vincent says he cannot authorize a return on a non-infected Autoreiv - but Vincent does not back down despite the threats of the wife using her husband's new authority against Vincent. Later in the mall, Pino does become infected by the Cogito virus, thanks to Monad.

Throughout the series Pino develops human artistic talents from music to drawing, and she learns to create rather than imitate. That is her journey from machine to human - her Pinocchio journey. Also, her name, Pino, is an abbreviated version of Pinocchio.

“Cogito, Ergo Sum”

Most of the Ergo Proxy series is an examination of what it means to be human. The phrase "Cogito, Ergo Sum" (I think, therefore I am) is the basis of the entire series. The Cogito virus is named such because it causes the machines to be self aware and exhibit all the foibles and strengths of human emotion. This accounts for the different behaviours/reactions when the machines become human - they become as unique and distinct as a human. Also this is where Ergo Proxy’s name came from.

Raison d’être

French for Reason of being or Reason to live, this plays a prominent role in the Ergo Proxy series as well.

In the domed city of Romdeau, humans and cybernetic constructs known as Autoreivs coexist to fulfill their purpose, or Raison d’être. Citizens are selected for whatever tasks best suit them, ranging from menial tasks to high paid government work, while their Autoreivs serve as companions or function as employment assets that supply whatever needs their masters requires of them. No one ventures beyond the dome into the bleak wastelands of the outside world, and Romdeau functions peacefully as the perfect model for obedient society.

The show examines how one would react when losing their raison d’être, how people without a raison d’être/purpose to live search for one, and the aimlessness of citizens and Autoreivs who have no raison d’être.

Vincent, Re-l and Pino search for a raison d’être during their journey. The Autoreivs infected with Cogito also search for a reason to live, having gained souls. Some can’t handle it and become aggressive. Daedalus’ raison d’être was Monad and Re-l. You can see how he goes nuts when he loses both of them. Iggy’s raison d’être was Re-l. He loses it when Re-l abandons him and tells him to go back to Romdeau. The statue Autoreivs in Donov’s throne room keep talking about raison d’être and how important it is for the city.

About Re-l

(This was a nice quote about Re-l that I found somewhere.)

It’s funny when fandom calls Re-l a bitch because she’s everything but.

She lives in a society where every errant thought is called a sin. You cannot think for yourself, lest you burden yourself or others. You cannot question. You must listen, be silent, and obey. Romdeau is a city of sheep with a dying and selfish shepherd leading the flock.

Do you expect her to keep quiet, to live like a walking corpse?

Re-l speaks. She thinks. She learns. She loves and she laughs and she hates and she breaks apart like a true human should be allowed to. She is flawed and perfect in tandem, torn between a world of gods and a world of humans, both imperfect.

She wants to be loved. She does not want to be adored or put on a pedestal like Daedalus does. She wants the love that is promised to her, because an old man calls her family and treats her like a commodity, like bait, because that’s all she is to him. She wants to be heard, so she speaks out and questions, and yells. She investigates because she wants to know. She wants to be. She is no less important than Vincent and goes through the same story as him, just evolving in different ways.

Re-l strikes against the grain. She is caustic, angry, demanding, and outwardly LOUD in everything she does. She wears black and makeup to draw attention to herself, to make a statement. She refuses to back down. She will not falter. And she will not be silent.

PART 1 HERE