In Night City, you can either become a legend or die trying. If you're lucky, there might be a drink named after you either way.
The cyberskeleton empowered David fights his way through Militech, Arasaka, and Max-Tac forces as he, Rebecca, and Falco head for Arasaka Tower. All the while, David's condition continues to deteriorate as he runs out of immunosuppressants. He begins hallucinating his dead mother and Rebecca struggles to keep him centered.Meanwhile, Kiwi has second thoughts about working with Faraday and decides to cut ties with him, but he eliminates her as a loose end. Arasaka's deal with him was that anyone who knew about the cyberskeleton other than himself would have to be eliminated. Realizing the situation has gone out of their control, Arasaka deploys Adam Smasher to put down David.
Before she dies, Kiwi tips off David and the others on Faraday and Lucy's location. David attacks Arasaka Tower, killing the Arasaka guards, rescuing Lucy, and incapacitating Faraday. Unfortunately, Adam Smasher is present and proceeds to engage David in hand-to-hand combat.
During the fighting, Faraday is knocked off the tower and falls to his death, while Rebecca is killed by Adam Smasher. David tasks Falco with ensuring Lucy escapes while he stays behind to hold off Adam Smasher. Despite having the cyberskeleton, David is no match for Adam Smasher and is quickly taken down and killed, though he has no regrets with the knowledge that Lucy is safe. Sometime later, Lucy fulfills her dream of traveling to the moon, but is broken hearted that David is not there with her.
The show ends with Lucy hallucinating David with her.
Tropes in this episode:
- Ax-Crazy:
- David degenerates into this over the course of his battle with Arasaka, Max-Tac, Militech, and later Adam Smasher.
- There's also Adam Smasher himself, who wants as much bloodshed as humanly possible, killing Rebecca and attempting to do the same to Lucy and Falco while chasing down David just because he can. When Lucy tries to hack him, unlike the common humanoid avatar of netrunners, she sees Smasher as a monster which his own inner mental image.
- Asshole Victim: Since Faraday made things complicated for Arasaka, and screwed over David's crew, no one seems to care when he is splattered all over the pavement.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Much of the episode consists of exposing how irrelevant, stupid, and incompetent Faraday actually was. For all his bluster and famous voice actor, he's made an enormous mess that he's too foolish to realize the consequences of.
- Bittersweet Ending: David is killed along with Rebecca. Faraday dies along with Kiwi but the latter had a Heel–Face Turn before her demise. Lucy manages to make it to the moon and Falco escapes with a fat payday but it is a poor compensation for the loss of their friends.
- Book Ends: The series opens up on a shot of Night City coming into view from above to go down below to the carnage waiting, while the beginning of the epilogue after David's Heroic Sacrifice has Night City panning out as it goes far up into space instead.
- The first episode David's mother talking about dreams of him reaching the top floor of Arasaka Tower. This episode has him "accomplish" that dream in his own way.
- The second episode has Lucy wanting to go to the Moon, and both she and David experience the Moon in a braindance. This episode has Lucy going to the Moon for real, but without David this time. Both scenes are accompanied by the song "I Really Want to Stay at Your House".
- Breaking Speech: Adam deconstructs David while he's deconstructing David.
- Bullying a Dragon: Faraday continues to throw his weight around with a cyberskeleton-empowered David, Arasaka Counter Intelligence, and even Adam Smasher.
- Call-Back: The final shot of Lucy basking in the sun on the Moon after seeing a hallucination of David is in a deliberate mirror to David's own moment doing the same within the braindance they shared during their first meeting, showing that while Lucy is likely never to get over his death, she can appreciate him having made her dream of true escape from her past a reality.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: David is almost completely consumed by using the cyberskeleton and seems like he has only minutes to maybe an hour before he's totally insane even with massive meds. Averted with Adam Smasher who is calm and rational despite the fact he's 96% synthetic. He never had a soul to begin with.
- Death by Irony:
- Faraday - a man with multiple eyes who tries to manipulate everyone - dies because of multiple things he couldn't see coming, manipulation by others, brute force, and gravity, in a literal and figurative fall from a high Arasaka position. Despite his narcissism and ego, nobody even notices his death. note
- Also, his Gangs of Night City card says he likes his runners "stressed and scared" (exactly how he died) and "Thanks to his amazing planning skills, he always lands on his feet."
- Adam kills Rebecca without much effort at all. The bloodthirsty little girl who likes big guns dies instantly to someone even more psychopathic and chromed than she was.
- The Trauma Team which tries to save Faraday dies instantly, with no hope of revival or resistance. Also, they drop their client and doom him too.
- Faraday - a man with multiple eyes who tries to manipulate everyone - dies because of multiple things he couldn't see coming, manipulation by others, brute force, and gravity, in a literal and figurative fall from a high Arasaka position. Despite his narcissism and ego, nobody even notices his death. note
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: David's first reaction to coming face to face with Adam Smasher is to get in his face and trade insults.
- Disney Villain Death: Faraday tries to escape from David's wrath by catching a ride with Trauma Team after getting hurt, only for David to attack his transport in a Sandevistan-enhanced frenzy, sending Faraday falling and ultimately leaving a massive red stain on the streets below.
- The Dreaded: Adam Smasher is treated as utterly terrifying by his own superiors in Arasaka Counter Intelligence.
- Dying as Yourself: After spending a majority of the past few episodes succumbing to cyberpsychosis and going on a nearly episode-long rampage across the city, David manages to be pulled back from the edge by Lucy kissing him as they fall together. It isn't enough to stop the physical breakdown from David's cyber overload but it at the very least allows him to be clear-headed in his last moments and lets him goad Smasher into giving him a Hopeless Boss Fight so that Lucy can at least escape.
- Foregone Conclusion: Considering Adam Smasher is seen in the game, and the anime takes place before that, there is only one clear winner between him and David Martinez...
- Get Out!: When Faraday returns to Arasaka Tower with Lucy in tow, Douglas awaits him to tell him, in no uncertain terms, that he is no longer welcome at Arasaka and to get the fuck out.
- Godzilla Threshold: Adam Smasher is treated as a last resort by Arasaka counterintelligence and their only hope against the cyberskeleton. The Netflix summary for the episode even alludes to him as Arasaka's "ultimate lethal weapon," which is a description proven right in the episode proper when he easily trounces David in the cyberskeleton.
- Gone Horribly Right: The attempt to get a demonstration of the cyberskeleton's power results in David turning it against Arasaka and showing it is capable of fighting everything except Arasaka's top enforcer.
- Go Out with a Smile: David's sole goal was to keep Lucy safe. With that goal complete, he doesn't care about dying as he claims to have nothing left to lose.
- Hero Killer: Adam Smasher arrives in the story and proceeds to thoroughly wreck our protagonists, utterly shattering any illusions about their invincibility and killing two of them.
- I Lied: Faraday says this about Kiwi being pardoned for her part in Tanaka's death, as he was instructed by Arasaka to dispose of anyone with knowledge of the cyberskeleton project.
- Ironic Echo:
- David remembers his mother dreaming of him reaching the top floor of Arasaka Tower through education. Despite a more desperate approach in this episode, he accomplishes this very literally.
- Adam Smasher says that he's able to keep so much hardware in his body because he's "special," which is how David has been trying to rationalize his own cyberware compatibility throughout the series.
- During David and Smasher's initial face-off, Smasher shoots David in the gut then chastises him for getting distracted by Trauma Team rescuing Faraday. David returns the favor later on when he hits Smasher with anti-gravity the moment Smasher switches targets from David to the escaping Falco and Lucy. It enrages Smasher enough to refocus on David completely, which is what David was hoping for.
- Just Toying with Them: Smasher's attitude with David. He only starts taking the latter remotely seriously while he's trying to escape. Notably, instead of actually doing anything to David directly, he just waits for the toll of the Cyberskeleton and Sandevistan to drop David for him.
- Killed Off for Real: Faraday, Kiwi, Rebecca, and David are all killed in this episode.
- The Lost Lenore: David becomes this for Lucy at the end of the series. Even though she made it to the moon, the fact that she did it without David at her side leaves her shattered.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Arasaka Counter Intel agent, Faraday, and every Arasaka guard in the room's reaction when the pissed superweapon they were talking about practically teleports right into the middle of the hanger and frees his girlfriend from mind-control. Even more so when said superweapon steals all their guns.
- No Holds Barred Beat Down: Cyberpsychosis notwithstanding, David had to struggle to distance himself from Smash to make sure Lucy is safe. Once he actually starts to fight, he stood no chance thanks to his weakened state. Falco and, to a greater extent, Rebecca, faired even worse.
- Offhand Backhand: Smasher takes Falco out of the fight in a single hit without even pausing from his Ominous Walk towards David.
- Power Up Letdown: Adam Smasher finds the cyber-skeleton to be this as it's powerful, but it's so bulky that it requires anti-grav modules to even move. Considering how he dismantles it with ease, he was completely right.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Adam Smasher kicks the final fight off proper by shooting David in the gut while he's watching Faraday get evacuated by Trauma Team smugly asking, "Can you really afford distractions now?"
- Really Dead Montage: Key scenes from previous episodes are mixed into David's thrashing and eventual execution by Smasher as "I Really Want to Stay at Your House" plays in the background.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Ironically, the Arasaka Counter Intelligence agents as they realize Faraday has made an enormous mess of things and aren't even aware why David wants revenge against them because they had no part in using Lucy as bait.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Faraday kills Kiwi despite his promise that he had negotiated immunity and a corporate job for her as well.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: David starts an epic one of these in the cyber-skeleton once Faradays confirms he's taken Lucy. It starts in the Badlands and ends up in the middle of Night City in Arasaka Tower.
- Sanity Slippage: David is driven insane by the cyberskeleton and spends much of the episode hallucinating. Only his love of Lucy and massive amounts of meds keep him even remotely focused on the job.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Much of the episode consists of Faraday throwing his weight around even though Arasaka has already written him off as worthless. He even attempts to give Adam Smasher orders, though this seems more out of desperation than arrogance.
- Sole Survivor: Aside from Falco, Lucy is the only one in the gang to leave Night City alive.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Adam Smasher, despite his appearance, turns out to be this and is perfectly calm throughout the battle with David.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Quite a few occurrences as a result of the series ending with the very bitter Bittersweet Ending to fully get across how impossible it is to beat Night City.
- As mentioned below, even though basically everything Faraday did throughout the series was to work his way into an Arasaka position, Arasaka only cares about the ginormous disaster he caused and unlike most evil empires in media which seem to illogically put up with and/or ignore their more Stupid Evil members and the issues they cause for them, this time they actually decide Farady isn't worth it and refuse to even let him past the door.
- David's Sandevistan more or less carried him throughout the entire series, being a very advanced and, as was repeatedly stated, military grade implant none of the rival Edgerunners he faced really had a counter for, unlike Adam Smasher, who's an experienced Psycho for Hire, with his own military grade Sandevistan as just another "rudimentary" part of his arsenal. In stark contrast to most stories like this, especially video game stories (including the very game this anime is based off of), where the main characters can jump from fighting gang members to taking on the military and be equally effective against both, this time the crew visibly struggle against the Militech forces and the deteriorating, streetkid David stands absolutely no chance against the trained and ruthless Smasher.
- Lucy might have been able to pull David's mind out of the mental throes of cyberpsychosis at the last minute, but, similar to withdrawal, a deteriorating mental state is only one part of cyberpsychosis and David suddenly coming back to his senses doesn't magically erase his body still suffering the physical effects and without anymore immunosuppressants to help him, he only has so long before he gives out, even without the super-cyborg gunning for his head.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Rebecca, despite being a badass and epic Edgerunner, is killed by Adam Smasher literally landing on her from a stories-high jump. Her friends lack the time to mourn for her with Smasher on their tail.
- Too Dumb to Live: Faraday believes Arasaka will still employ him despite the fact he's made a massive mess, lost their superweapon, and now has said superweapon coming to their headquarters in Night City to kill them all.
- Tropical Epilogue: Specifically, a moon-based one as Lucy uses hers and David's money to escape to the moon. It is a much more bittersweet version of this than usual, though.
- True Love's Kiss: It takes one from Lucy to bring David back from cyberpsychosis after the two make it out of Arasaka Tower.
- Worthy Opponent: Adam Smasher offers to use Soulkiller on a dying David to make him an immortal mercenary of Arasaka. David declines. This is after initially dismissing him and thoroughly demolishing him in their fight.
- You Can Barely Stand: David is dipping in and out of lucidity all throughout the episode due to cyberpsychosis and his nosebleeds due to Sandevistan usage have graduated to full-on blood vomit and coughing such that Smasher is surprised he can string two words together.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Kiwi decides to skip town after meeting with Faraday one last time to receive her payment. Unfortunately, Faraday has a strict "Leave No Witnesses" policy in regards to the cyberskeleton and has her flatlined.
- "You!" Exclamation: Smasher, angry that David prevented him from killing Falco and Lucy, prefaces his "The Reason You Suck" Speech and subsequent beatdown of David with this.
