Buried Pain Grows Poison Trees
Directed by Shaun O'Neil
Written by Evan Narcisse
Written by Evan Narcisse
The morality of both sides continues to be questioned. Sinclair is back and is determined to expose the cruelties of both the Union and the Polity. The Gen:LOCK team debates the morality of the Polity's preemptive strike on the Union. Dr. Jha is captured by the Union and is told the awful truth about Holcroft.
Tropes:
- Broken Pedestal: Sinclair loses all faith in the Polity after seeing one of their teams execute a group of Union soldiers they were initially supposed to capture.
- Extinct in the Future: Implied; Cammie admires a holographic elephant and Yaz makes a bitter remark about elephants in the past tense, suggesting they've gone extinct in the few short years since her flashback in the previous episode, for which a real elephant was briefly present.
- Friends with Benefits: The hinted-at relationship between Miranda and Jodie in Season 1 is finally clarified: they are, at Miranda's insistence, "just fucking", while Jodie openly wishes it were something more.
- Gender Bender: Kazu's avatar starts developing a more feminine form, and as a result of this Kazu's relationship with Val is somewhat strained. He wants Cammie to fix it by checking his code, but according to her there's nothing wrong with the code and the problem is psychological.
- Hotter and Sexier: Three episodes into the show's second season, Gen:Lock debuts its first display of sex and nudity, with every inch of Miranda's and Jodie's bodies getting at least a little screentime. While largely gratuitous, it at least provides some silent context for the effects of the war, revealing both of them to be far more scarred than we ever could have known in their normal state of being in full military uniform.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Kazu upon learning that his subconscious is what's altering his avatar's gender, responds that he needs beer, all the beer.
- Innocently Insensitive: Cammie's statements about the Union after mind-sharing with Yaz could be seen as this, as she doesn't have the experiences that Yaz had. Cammie talks about how there could be an afterlife and that it would be amazing, offending Yaz, who was raised in the cult and saw the effects it had on her family and her community.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Jodie and Miranda are having some "adult fun" when Chase mixes into her room to talk about how the Polity technically struck first. Moment Killer indeed.
- The Neutral Zone: Sinclair is shown once again and it seems he's in territory that does not belong to either the Union or Polity. He also loathes both sides of the conflict, believing that both sides are terrible.
- Sexbot: Migas is seen at a strip club with a gynoid giving him a lap dance.
- Sexposition: In a way, the sex scene and its aftermath shows Miranda's personality (and a bit of Chase's) through how she behaves
. - Trans Relationship Troubles: Played with. While Val, who is genderfluid and currently a man, isn't having trouble with relationships, Kazu, a supposedly cis man's connection with them is strained as his avatar is randomly developing female sexual characteristics. Cammie tells him his subconscious is responsible.
