With another new episode of Lazarus releasing, the horrid narrative loop of Skinner’s search seems inescapable. Aside from a badly animated elevator fight sequence, there is no major action involved in the episode, and the story still has to find a headway to the central investigation. Anyway, previously the titular team was able to learn that hacker Dr. 909 and his stock trader buddy Sam Stephenson were profiteering off of Hapna stock before the ongoing crisis, and the intel gained by the hacker came from a certain pharmaceutical company known as Delta Medical. In the fifth episode, titled “Pretty Vacant,” the team sets a trap to lure Skinner out of hiding by using Delta Medical as bait, and I think at this point it can easily be guessed that no major breakthrough was made anyway.
Spoilers Ahead
How Did Team Lazarus Plan To Lure Skinner?
Following the narrative trend, the fifth episode begins with a monologue by another member of the titular team, this time of Axel, who remembers taking Hapna only once, and it had no effect on him. Funnily enough, taking the drug just for a single time actually aggravates the risk factor, and Axel wants to capture Skinner and deliver a much-deserved beatdown before getting the possible cure.
Back to the main narrative, as the discussion involving Delta Medical reveals, the company was conducting clinical medical trials of the drug, data from which was hacked by Dr. 909—which makes the team speculate whether the company was working in cahoots with Skinner to keep their findings a secret. Amidst the rest of the files hacked by 909, an image of a strange eye with a starry reflection is also seen, details of which remain a mystery.
Amidst the hacked files of Delta Medical, Eleina finds strange audio files uploaded to SoundCloud, and following Doug’s suggestion, she converts them into images, which reveal hidden details of the Hapna trial, indicating the sender wanted to maintain the anonymity of its recipient, i.e., Skinner. To investigate the company and find the link, Team Lazarus plans to infiltrate Delta Medicine headquarters. Axel, being Axel, straight up enters through the front door and gets into a fight with security in the elevator while trying to nab the company president, who has been holed up inside the building in fear of his predicament. However, contrary to the speculation of Team Lazarus members, the president or his company is not connected with Skinner in any way, nor were they aware of Hapna’s latent lethal properties. The president reveals that before moving to human trials, they tested Hapna on chimpanzees, and one of them recently died, with a starry pattern in its eyes is the image the team saw in those hacked files. Which means Skinner was not bluffing about Hapna’s killer potential, and humans will be next unless the team manages to find Skinner. Delta President Ahmed Rehman also reveals that they have been trying to synthesize a cure, but to no avail.
Hersch and Team Lazarus plan to use Delta Medical as bait by making the scientist/medical community aware that they have been able to create a cure for Hapna, which will help humanity to avert the crisis. Even though the update is obviously fake, it might make Skinner curious enough to visit the announcement conference either by being physically present or through digital presence by hacking into the conference arena control system. Saline solutions are kept inside vials as the so-called cure, with GPS trackers inside, which will allow the team to track if anyone manages to steal one of the vials. Eleina sets a trap for anyone trying to hack into the conference arena system. Knowing that a competent hacker, who must have been aiding Skinner all the while, can not resist breaking into a fortified system, Eleina ensures the digital interface of the systems in function during the conference appears as impenetrable as possible.
Was Eleina Able To Capture Popcorn Wizard?
One of the scientists, who is revealed to be a former student of one of Skinner’s colleagues, comes to the attention of the Lazarus team. All of a sudden, a hacker takes Eleina’s bait and starts tinkering with the digital interface of the conference arena, creating a mass panic. One of the scientists takes one of the vials and makes a run for it after injecting it into his system, only to learn the truth moments later as authorities nab him.
Eleina struggles to keep the hacker from taking control over the system and realizes the walkie-talkies used by the security team are being used to breach the installed cybersecurity. However, Eleina isn’t rattled at all, given this was her plan all along, as she begins to track the IP of the hacker by having a Trojan passed into their system. The hacker in question, an extremely ludicrous if not obnoxious woman who goes by the name Popcorn Wizard, is operating from outside the Islamabad Stock Exchange, Pakistan, from her RV. Using the bandwidth of the strong cyber interface of the stock exchange, Popcorn Wizard was trying to demystify the Hapna curr, but upon learning it was a bait, she ditches her laptop while making her escape. Hersch informs the local authorities in Pakistan, but their raid on the stock exchange obviously turns out to be a misdirection. Eleina was almost successful in her attempt to capture Popcorn Wizard, missing only due to Team Lazarus not being present at the location from where the hacker operated. However, before the episode comes to an end, Popcorn Wizard makes an anonymous call to Eleina, appreciating her skills, as she is the only one who was able to corner her like this.
The incredibly boring and random streak of Lazarus continues, and there is no telling when the makers will decide to drop something of interest that might take the plot forward. From characterization to narrative intrigue, everything is off-putting at this point for a weekly release anime, which is a major bummer.
