Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045 Season 1 Episode 5 Recap – Patrick Huge

Going In

Aramaki goes on the move to get GHOST out of a bind.

Meanwhile, GHOST starts its operation to infiltrate the house of Patrick Huge. Guard dog robots are stationed all over the premises. They find his deceased wife by the pool, she has been dead for two months. The mystery deepens.

Ishikawa tries to get their drone further, but there are anti-drone sensors there as well. Motoko decides on a stealth entry. She plans to keep Huge alive to ensure their safety.

They get into the base via slackline, wary of the robot dogs. Saito is stationed far away with a sniper for support.

Meanwhile, the Tachikoma units are slowly moving in with Togusa in tow.

GHOST enters a home similar to what they practiced in the simulations. Motoko and Batou go to the lower floors while the others scan the second.

Below, there are plenty of robot servants as well as a computer that’s managing assets. Huge remains busy at work. At their rendezvous point, they find no one, but a man wearing a robe slowly walks in.

Huge

Clown is grunting heavily. His cyberbrain gets hacked and he starts to shoot at the major. Ishikawa subdues him. He’s compromised, so they lock him in place.

GHOST disables their cyberbrain and proceeds to arrest Huge but the android servants emerge to defend him.

Motoko tries to subdue Huge, but he evades both their gunfire and their hand-to-hand attacks just as easily. His moves are almost supernatural as he dodges everything they throw at him.

Outside, Saito reports that the robot dogs are moving.

Patrick Huge remains elusive as they fight. Motoko manages to destroy some of his fingers and restrains him once and for all, but the robot dogs barge in from the windows and GHOST is overwhelmed.

Ishikawa throws an EMP to restrain some of them as they shoot the rest. Three of them slip through but Motoko shoots them down.

Patrick Huge escapes to a closet that they’ve never seen before. He blasts out of the room with a gigantic armored suit. Batou curses Smith as their trouble escalates, he must have known about this.

Armored Suit

Huge blasts everyone outside the mansion as the GHOST operatives try to fight with their guns. Saitou provides support by shooting at its joints but the suit has Reactive Armor that adapts to firepower. The suit calls in the robot dogs to find the sniper. Saitou shoots a final shot that the armor simply evades.

Tachikoma finds Saito and one of them goes to help. Saito activates the CQB skills he learned from training and shoots down the robot dogs after him. Tachikoma finishes off the rest.

The major is in a pinch, so she uses a cyberbrain attack to get inside. She tackles the armored suit from behind but gets wrestled. She’s about to get stomped when Togusa arrives with a Tachikoma.

Motoko asks Batou to send a malware to the suit. Two Tachikomas restrain the suit while Saito takes aim. The armored suit falls and Patrick Huge’s body emerges. Motoko connects with it via cyberbrain.

After a catastrophic exchange, Motoko commands Saito to shoot Huge’s head. She realizes that he’s not human after all.

The Delta force squad arrives with Smith. Smith calls what happened here the worst possible outcome. He asks the major how deeply he got into Huge’s brain.

Smith gets a call from Director Byron telling him to call off the operation and stand by. An aircraft arrives carrying Aramaki. Here to save GHOST.

Our Thoughts

I like the action sequences and the escalating stakes of the fight inside. I don’t like how convenient Aramaki’s rescue is. Couldn’t he just send a call or email? Rule of cool, I guess. I rate this episode a 3/5.