Darker than Black season 2 – ep 01

Episode 01: “The Black Cat Doesn’t Have a Dream of the Star…”

SUMMARY: Flashback: Russia, 2 years ago. There’s a meteor shower, and it hits the spot where 2 kids (twins Shion and Suou Pavlichenko) and their father are camping out. It was this night, the night of the Tokyo Hell’s Gate explosion, that Shion became a contractor. At the present time (2 years later), April is hanging out at a bar in Russia, explaining the dangers of smoking to the bartender. A man clad in red coat and a black hat enters the bar. We meet August 7, a new MI6 character.

Shion’s eye got injured in the meteor shower incident, and apparently he’s become bitter and emotionless since he became a contractor. He still talks properly with Suou. Dr. Pavlichenko (their father) warns her not to stay in Shion’s room too long, since contractors don’t have a heart and she might get killed. The next day, Tanya (Suou’s cheerful friend who was confessed to by Nika earlier in the episode), is now acting strange.  Apparently, she’s become a contractor and Suou and her friends see an emotionless contractor firsthand. They runaway from her out of fear, except Suou, who follows where Tanya’s going. She remembers how a contractor suddenly changes their attitude  and knows a bit about them since her father is a researcher (and well, her twin brother is actually a contractor). She sees Tanya meet up with a group of military people to be taken into state custody.

Back in the lab/Pavlichenko residence, Shion tells his father that it’s time and that he’s paid for his remuneration (it appears the need to sit in a wheelchair is his remuneration). Shion gives Suou directions (through telepathy?) to escape their place which has now been invaded by the military, and tells her that they’ll meet again someday as long as Suou doesn’t lose the charm/necklace she got from his room. Apparently, April was pretending as Bella the research assistant. She quickly escapes the military people and talks on the radio with August 7 (I assume) and July. She’s told to prioritize the data on Shion and Dr. Pavlichenko.  July informs her that someone Asian wearing a mask is in Dr. Pavlichenko’s room while some people are eavesdropping on April and July’s radio frequency. August 7 realizes this and cuts off the radio line after telling April to proceed with plan C. The man confronting Dr. Pavlichenko is looking for the meteor core fragment and Shion. After the professor tells him that both are gone, he kills the professor. Shion overhears everything and sees a flash of light.

Upon entering the room, she finds her father dead. April appears too late. She introduces herself to Suou (who she thinks is Shion, they’re twins remember?) as someone from MI6. She is surprised to know that it’s actually Suou rather than Shion, but she takes Suou out of the house anyway to escape. They then encounter a military person who’s apparently a contractor with super speed and quick reflexes who fights with April, but he’s not good enough for her. And just when you thought the fight was over, a rogue Hei suddenly appears and catches April off guard. She was able to fight back a bit, but Hei is much better. We see July as he looks up and sees the sky has cleared up. After the ED song, we see that the rogue and tired looking Hei had defeated April.

~ end of episode

IMPRESSION: Yay~ It’s finally here! Been waiting for this sequel the most in this Fall 2009 line up. No OP song for the first episode, just some funky beat along with the title. Very nice ED rock ballad by abingdon boys school. Oh, and do finish the ED because the episode actually ends after it. And man, that fight scene between April and flash guy was pretty cool! (albeit short) I loved the BGM during that scene, especially when Hei appeared. That water-bubble-to-the-head attack by April was a nice move. The funky beats fit in quite well and added impact to the action scenes.

Ack. That’s just a wee bit of Hei awesomeness! No Yin and no Kirihara yet either. April gets killed by Hei. It seems that Hei is after the meteor core fragment, I wonder what he’s gonna do with it and Shion. He looks quite tired and a bit creepy with his new rogue image. Well, apparently, Shion anticipated the events and quickly escaped. Shion obviously has some sort of plan. I’m still hoping November 11 would magically be reincarnated, but yeah, I highly doubt that’s ever gonna happen in this series. I suppose they’d be going back to Tokyo or something at some point this season… Or maybe not? I dunno.

Hei’s bulletproof coat is so awesome, as always. Contractors are now out in the open 2 years after the Hell’s Gate incident in Tokyo. I highly doubt that cat was Mao since it seemed that Mao had died during season 1’s finale appearing along with the rest of the contractors who died in S1. Hmm… August 7… I wonder what kind of character he’ll be as part of MI6, and I wonder who’s gonna look after July now that April is gone. It’s kinda sad that he’s the only one left of the trio. Maybe July and August 7 will become buddies? Or he’d go to Kirihara? Heh. Moving on, that part with Tanya… it’s like its main purpose was just to illustrate to us how people’s lives and attitude can quickly change overnight the moment they become contractors. Maybe Tanya would have a future role someday, like Mai did in S1 where she appeared in an earlier episode then had a cameo in the finale.

I still don’t get it… I still have a bunch of questions. How do they become contractors, exactly? How did Shion become a contractor? Well, I think it has to something do with the meteor core fragment that hit him during the explosion, but I hope they’d explain it to us more in the upcoming episodes. We don’t know Shion’s power yet, though his remuneration is apparently having to use a wheelchair. Since he just finished paying for his remuneration, I wonder what he recently used his power for. Hmm. Anyway, we got some more pieces of the puzzle on how contractors are like.

Episode 2 preview… it’s looking good. A rough-looking Hei (he looks so tired from running away from the syndicate) and probably more on Shion and Suou, the “data” and how Hei’s been for the past 2 years… I hope. And I hope to see Yin and Kirihara soon too. ^^

:: Contractor Notes ::

• Sudden transformation. No signs to identify transformation a person’s transformation into a contractor, aside from personality and behavioral changes.
• State agency takes them in and erase all pertinent memories from those who’ve encountered one

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You might also want to check out my other related posts:

• Darker than Black season 2 – ep 02
  
• Extra: Darker than Black [ep 26/OVA]
• Darker than Black ep 25 [FINALE]
  
• Darker than Black – series overview
• Extra: Darker than Black – main cast interview
  
• Other Darker than Black entries