The Big O (1999–2003): Season 2, Episode 12 - The War of the Paradigm City - full transcript
W-Who are you?!
You aren't me...?
But this means I...
What's going on?!
My home...
My mom...
The Giants who formed this world
into its sensual existence...
...and now seem to
live in it in chains,
are in truth the causes of its life
and the sources of all activity,
but the chains are the cunning
of weak and lame minds,
which have power
to resist energy.
You can't slow me down!
What's out there?
Where is it?!
W-What's going on?!
Divine thunderbolts raining
down from the heavens...
Repairs to Block R-72 completed.
Very good.
Hurry up with the preparations for
reloading of the weaponry's ammunition!
This may very well
be our last task...
Not yet. We won't let 'em take
away our purpose in life just yet.
Hang in there!
Don't die on me!
Was this the catastrophe
40 years ago...?
Military Police HQ!
Requesting medical assistance!
What the--?
W-What's happening?!
Big Fau, action!
Time for the grand finale!
I can't waste any time here...
There are things that I need to do!
Gordon Rosewater...
You truly are the king of Paradigm City,
this city of deceptions.
Um...
Would you hurry up and dish up
that tomato stew for me?
I'm hungry.
Would you just--
Welcome home, my angel.
Y-You're--
"There's no place like home."
That was a line from your
favorite book, wasn't it, Agent 340?
Agent 12? Vera Ronstadt?
You're my mother?
You must be joking!
What is this city?
The thought of this ridiculous
room being here makes me laugh.
What's going on?
Look at this pathetic old man.
That Oedipus-wannabe son
of his even tried to kill him.
Isn't the tomato stew
done yet?
What a magnificent city this is!
Father, your manners are terrible.
Rain down your fireballs!
Burn down this city!
I'm the one true son of the king of
this world! The man who rebuilt it!
I'll remake this world myself.
But before then, all those who don't
deserve to exist should be eliminated!
Including all of you filthy,
foreign rats!
What are you doing?!
Who ordered you to fire at
a target you can't even see?!
The Paradigm Justice Department.
"Smash the foreign invasion and
praise the full restoration of Big Fau,
which will be the symbol
of the new order."
Wh-What are they saying?!
Cease fire immediately!
Do they think
we're nothing but--
Hey!
I'll soon have the true Memories
I have been searching for.
I was looking in the wrong place.
Those Memories are--
R-Roger...
Deep underground... A place where
we are assaulted by our primal fears.
And a place that
I must confront.
I rescued him from his Dome,
thinking that he might still...
...at least have some Memory fragments,
but it was a waste of time.
You called him "Father"...
He's your father, too.
In a foolish attempt
to revive the Memories...
...within his own genes and those
of those pathetic elder statesmen,
this man created tomatoes
via artificial cultivation.
We were the inferior stock that was
cast aside to produce a superior strain.
Th-This was my home...?
But even if the successful tomatoes could
remember what happened 40 years ago,
they couldn't remember
anything prior to that.
And sadly, they were killed at the very
instant they became aware of that fact.
By Who?
Oedipus, a man who believes
himself to be Gordon's only son.
Dad, I thank you from the bottom of
my heart for bringing me into this world.
What about our people?
What about the Union?
The Union is the symbol of the hatred
of a people who were forsaken...
...when this city was
constructed 40 years ago.
We, the breed who were abandoned
and cast out of the city,
are the ones who deserve
to control the power.
Revenge...? That's why you
want the Memories?
Our motives are just.
And to get them,
you'll even rewrite...
More...
...the Memories of the living?
Our means are just.
There can't possibly be any Memories
here at the bottom of the earth.
Now you are trying
to escape from sanity, too.
No. I'm quite sane.
Insofar as I know that I can't
trust myself, that is.
The Union is a place that I believe in
as little as I believe in Heaven.
Anyway, I lost the right to
go there a long time ago.
So did you, Agent 12.
You've been a very bad girl,
my dear little angel!
It makes your mother so sad that hurting
you is the only way to make you listen!
I'm not giving up my policy
of not carrying a gun, Angel.
Roger...!
I'm here to pick you up.
Let's go home.
You, too, sir.
Using violence against women
also goes against my policies.
If at all possible, I'd appreciate it
if you wouldn't resist any further.
You're a botched attempt at
artificial cultivation, just like us!
Even if that's the case, it doesn't
change the fact that I am who I am.
The manner in which
you were given life...
...has nothing to do with the way
you live that life as a human being.
Do you think that everyone can
think the same way you do,
you conceited Dominus?
We'll rain down thunderbolts and burn this city
to make them atone for what they've done!
You're wrong.
How is she wrong?
Negotiator, you aren't one
of my beloved tomatoes.
And neither
is this young lady.
This book isn't something
that I wrote.
It's a story that a dream
commanded me to write down.
No one ever had memories of the world
prior to 40 years ago, myself included.
But Memories themselves have
existed in unexpected forms.
More of your senile ramblings!
My compatriots and I will make
you remember the shame...
...you inflicted on us by destroying
this world you've built!
The Union has
no real substance.
It is a tiny gathering of people
scattered across the wasteland.
Perhaps it never existed
in the first place.
That... That's impossible!
Don't you hear that rumble?!
That's the sound of the fires of wrath
unleashed by my compatriots!
They never existed.
Paradigm City, a grand,
ostentatious stage.
And above it, looking down
on the folly of human blunders...
...were not gods, but only
this abandoned equipment.
This is a comedy...!
That which I was searching for...
The true Memories, they were--
How is this possible?
How could there be something
like that above Paradigm City...?
Wh-What's this?
Memories are found
within people.
Those is any other form
are nothing but fakes.
But everyone has lost them,
yourself included.
I made a terrible mistake.
Wha--?
Just because they are within us doesn't
mean they are part of our consciousness.
Young lady.
You are a Memory.
The marks on your
back prove it.
What? What are
you saying?
That you yourself
are a Memory.
Stop it!
They prove that you aren't human,
but rather a Memory itself--
Enough!
Stop it! Stop it!
You're telling me
that I'm not human?
If Memories are intangible, then
there's no need to procure them!
What are you trying to do?
We can't let anyone
else have them, either.
Do you mean
to wake the dead...
...who hunger for Memories
from their sleep, my daughter?
This is the den of a monster that
hungers for Memories, all right...
Big O!
Roger Smith...
How is that possible?
Long ago, I hired you--
No, a Roger Smith who had Memories,
to conduct negotiations for me.
I said that if it turns out that this world
really is an enormous stage,
then we humans are merely
playing out roles on it.
We don't need
to have Memories.
But why shouldn't there be those
who could change those roles?
I wanted him to negotiate with
the being who directs this world.
I... had Memories?
Impossible!
That can't be!
I-I'm his... I'm...
Damn it...
I'm not one of those
defective tomatoes!
What was that?
My poor daughter
has been...
...taken captive by a monster
that hungers for Memories.
A bird whose wings have been plucked
will shed all its feathers...
...and revert back to that beast it once
was before it evolved into a bird.
That's the message she
told me to give to you.
Why are you telling me this?
Continue your negotiations,
Negotiator.
So, you're the only
true Dominus, are you?
Sorry, but I just can't bring myself
to accept that as the truth, Negotiator!
This city is cursed...
And I curse you,
Roger Smith!
Big Fau...
Alex Rosewater.
People don't want a world
in which gods quarrel.
One god is enough!
You know who you are.
As for me, I haven't the
slightest idea who I am.
But there's one thing
that I do know!
Even if everyone else
forgives you for the sins...
...you've committed to obtain
your power, I wont!
I'm getting tired
of all your talk!
- SHOWTIME!
- SHOWTIME!
You aren't me...?
But this means I...
What's going on?!
My home...
My mom...
The Giants who formed this world
into its sensual existence...
...and now seem to
live in it in chains,
are in truth the causes of its life
and the sources of all activity,
but the chains are the cunning
of weak and lame minds,
which have power
to resist energy.
You can't slow me down!
What's out there?
Where is it?!
W-What's going on?!
Divine thunderbolts raining
down from the heavens...
Repairs to Block R-72 completed.
Very good.
Hurry up with the preparations for
reloading of the weaponry's ammunition!
This may very well
be our last task...
Not yet. We won't let 'em take
away our purpose in life just yet.
Hang in there!
Don't die on me!
Was this the catastrophe
40 years ago...?
Military Police HQ!
Requesting medical assistance!
What the--?
W-What's happening?!
Big Fau, action!
Time for the grand finale!
I can't waste any time here...
There are things that I need to do!
Gordon Rosewater...
You truly are the king of Paradigm City,
this city of deceptions.
Um...
Would you hurry up and dish up
that tomato stew for me?
I'm hungry.
Would you just--
Welcome home, my angel.
Y-You're--
"There's no place like home."
That was a line from your
favorite book, wasn't it, Agent 340?
Agent 12? Vera Ronstadt?
You're my mother?
You must be joking!
What is this city?
The thought of this ridiculous
room being here makes me laugh.
What's going on?
Look at this pathetic old man.
That Oedipus-wannabe son
of his even tried to kill him.
Isn't the tomato stew
done yet?
What a magnificent city this is!
Father, your manners are terrible.
Rain down your fireballs!
Burn down this city!
I'm the one true son of the king of
this world! The man who rebuilt it!
I'll remake this world myself.
But before then, all those who don't
deserve to exist should be eliminated!
Including all of you filthy,
foreign rats!
What are you doing?!
Who ordered you to fire at
a target you can't even see?!
The Paradigm Justice Department.
"Smash the foreign invasion and
praise the full restoration of Big Fau,
which will be the symbol
of the new order."
Wh-What are they saying?!
Cease fire immediately!
Do they think
we're nothing but--
Hey!
I'll soon have the true Memories
I have been searching for.
I was looking in the wrong place.
Those Memories are--
R-Roger...
Deep underground... A place where
we are assaulted by our primal fears.
And a place that
I must confront.
I rescued him from his Dome,
thinking that he might still...
...at least have some Memory fragments,
but it was a waste of time.
You called him "Father"...
He's your father, too.
In a foolish attempt
to revive the Memories...
...within his own genes and those
of those pathetic elder statesmen,
this man created tomatoes
via artificial cultivation.
We were the inferior stock that was
cast aside to produce a superior strain.
Th-This was my home...?
But even if the successful tomatoes could
remember what happened 40 years ago,
they couldn't remember
anything prior to that.
And sadly, they were killed at the very
instant they became aware of that fact.
By Who?
Oedipus, a man who believes
himself to be Gordon's only son.
Dad, I thank you from the bottom of
my heart for bringing me into this world.
What about our people?
What about the Union?
The Union is the symbol of the hatred
of a people who were forsaken...
...when this city was
constructed 40 years ago.
We, the breed who were abandoned
and cast out of the city,
are the ones who deserve
to control the power.
Revenge...? That's why you
want the Memories?
Our motives are just.
And to get them,
you'll even rewrite...
More...
...the Memories of the living?
Our means are just.
There can't possibly be any Memories
here at the bottom of the earth.
Now you are trying
to escape from sanity, too.
No. I'm quite sane.
Insofar as I know that I can't
trust myself, that is.
The Union is a place that I believe in
as little as I believe in Heaven.
Anyway, I lost the right to
go there a long time ago.
So did you, Agent 12.
You've been a very bad girl,
my dear little angel!
It makes your mother so sad that hurting
you is the only way to make you listen!
I'm not giving up my policy
of not carrying a gun, Angel.
Roger...!
I'm here to pick you up.
Let's go home.
You, too, sir.
Using violence against women
also goes against my policies.
If at all possible, I'd appreciate it
if you wouldn't resist any further.
You're a botched attempt at
artificial cultivation, just like us!
Even if that's the case, it doesn't
change the fact that I am who I am.
The manner in which
you were given life...
...has nothing to do with the way
you live that life as a human being.
Do you think that everyone can
think the same way you do,
you conceited Dominus?
We'll rain down thunderbolts and burn this city
to make them atone for what they've done!
You're wrong.
How is she wrong?
Negotiator, you aren't one
of my beloved tomatoes.
And neither
is this young lady.
This book isn't something
that I wrote.
It's a story that a dream
commanded me to write down.
No one ever had memories of the world
prior to 40 years ago, myself included.
But Memories themselves have
existed in unexpected forms.
More of your senile ramblings!
My compatriots and I will make
you remember the shame...
...you inflicted on us by destroying
this world you've built!
The Union has
no real substance.
It is a tiny gathering of people
scattered across the wasteland.
Perhaps it never existed
in the first place.
That... That's impossible!
Don't you hear that rumble?!
That's the sound of the fires of wrath
unleashed by my compatriots!
They never existed.
Paradigm City, a grand,
ostentatious stage.
And above it, looking down
on the folly of human blunders...
...were not gods, but only
this abandoned equipment.
This is a comedy...!
That which I was searching for...
The true Memories, they were--
How is this possible?
How could there be something
like that above Paradigm City...?
Wh-What's this?
Memories are found
within people.
Those is any other form
are nothing but fakes.
But everyone has lost them,
yourself included.
I made a terrible mistake.
Wha--?
Just because they are within us doesn't
mean they are part of our consciousness.
Young lady.
You are a Memory.
The marks on your
back prove it.
What? What are
you saying?
That you yourself
are a Memory.
Stop it!
They prove that you aren't human,
but rather a Memory itself--
Enough!
Stop it! Stop it!
You're telling me
that I'm not human?
If Memories are intangible, then
there's no need to procure them!
What are you trying to do?
We can't let anyone
else have them, either.
Do you mean
to wake the dead...
...who hunger for Memories
from their sleep, my daughter?
This is the den of a monster that
hungers for Memories, all right...
Big O!
Roger Smith...
How is that possible?
Long ago, I hired you--
No, a Roger Smith who had Memories,
to conduct negotiations for me.
I said that if it turns out that this world
really is an enormous stage,
then we humans are merely
playing out roles on it.
We don't need
to have Memories.
But why shouldn't there be those
who could change those roles?
I wanted him to negotiate with
the being who directs this world.
I... had Memories?
Impossible!
That can't be!
I-I'm his... I'm...
Damn it...
I'm not one of those
defective tomatoes!
What was that?
My poor daughter
has been...
...taken captive by a monster
that hungers for Memories.
A bird whose wings have been plucked
will shed all its feathers...
...and revert back to that beast it once
was before it evolved into a bird.
That's the message she
told me to give to you.
Why are you telling me this?
Continue your negotiations,
Negotiator.
So, you're the only
true Dominus, are you?
Sorry, but I just can't bring myself
to accept that as the truth, Negotiator!
This city is cursed...
And I curse you,
Roger Smith!
Big Fau...
Alex Rosewater.
People don't want a world
in which gods quarrel.
One god is enough!
You know who you are.
As for me, I haven't the
slightest idea who I am.
But there's one thing
that I do know!
Even if everyone else
forgives you for the sins...
...you've committed to obtain
your power, I wont!
I'm getting tired
of all your talk!
- SHOWTIME!
- SHOWTIME!