Marco Amoretti is a former United States Navy officer that has become a serial killer. He has arrived in Japan and starts carving up women by creating t-shirt like skinbg patterns. Two American CIA officers of Japanese descent are dispatched to help Section Nine track down Amoretti and eliminate him. They are condescending and vaguely racist.
Ishikawa hacks the CIA database and discovers that Marco's serial killing antics were the result of him being dispatched as part of a secret operation to break the enemy's resolve in South America by conducing terror tactics like the kind he was. Batou, who witnessed the atrocities committed by Amoretti, makes it his mission to take him down.
In the end, Batou chooses to arrest Amoretti rather than kill him. The CIA take him into custody and bring him home.
Tropes in this episode include:
- CIA Evil, FBI Good: The GSG-9 styled Section 9 act as stand ins for the FBI, with the American Empire CIA being seen and treated as especially loathsome: they were behind the terror attacks Amoretti was hired to commit, play up Japanese stereotypes, mock Section 9, are unapologetic for their actions, and are upset when Amoretti is captured rather than killed, fully intending his death to cover up their crimes. Their Smug Snake attitude is enough that Togusa snaps and attacks them.
- Didn't Think This Through: It never occurred to the CIA operatives that Batou wouldn't have the same level of PTSD that Amoretti did, allowing him to act as a law enforcement agent first and foremost, even when getting flashbacks to a war he knows is long over.
- Dismembering the Body: The episode deals with the reemergence of a war criminal Batou encountered during World War IV: an American Empire Navy SEAL who was ordered to partially skin civilian victims in a T-shirt shape as a terror tactic. He cracked as a result of committing these acts and is now a Serial Killer using the T-shirt skinning as part of his M.O.
- Escort Distraction: In order for Section 9 to break into the CIA's online archives undetected, the Major gets a CIA liaison officer out of net dive room by informing him that Niihama Prefectural Police have found evidence of a murder and they need to watch it.
- Gorn: A notable amount, which is why the episode received all those Content Warnings.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: An unsympathetic portrayal of one since Amoretti was a monster beforehand.
- Shout-Out: To Strange Days with the victim Forced to Watch their own murder via virtuality.
- Western Terrorists: Amoretti is halfway between this and a Serial Killer.
