Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045 Season 1 Episode 7 Recap – Pie in the sky

Bank Visit

Batou goes back to Fukuoka, Japan, after a long time. The city has gotten an influx of tourists and robot workers. Major and the rest will be a week late because of a terrorist strike, so Batou decides to go for a walk.

He goes into a bank to deposit his earnings. Senior citizens are finding it hard to work with their systems, so there’s a delay in the queue. Batou thinks it looks like a nursing home of how many there are. Beside him, an old woman is complaining about her money plummeting from the dollar-yen rate.

The lights turn off, and a bank robbery ensues, with two armed men ferrying the old people out. Batou hides behind one of the pillars while the perps scramble for the vaults.

Batou confronts the two men, who are amateurs. He quickly subdues them as they cower in fear. He unmasks both men and finds out they’re both seniors.

The security guard comes in and hostages the old lady. He’s in on the job. Batou gives back their guns and talks to him as the others steal the money. They panic as they’re running out of time.

Bank Heist

Batou laughs at their incompetence. The guard asks Batou to open the safe since he’s a cyborg, and he kicks the vault open, revealing millions in cash inside. But Batou tells them the money isn’t usable; they’re all tagged with serial numbers, and they’ll only get arrested if they use it.

He tells them there’s still time to run, as long as the older woman is okay. The guard isn’t satisfied as he wants to get back at the bank manager.

In a sudden twist, the old woman takes his shotgun and points it at them. The woman asks Batou if he knows how to use the money without getting caught. She’s more aggressive than the men.

The lights come up, and the police sirens ring, so she threatens everyone to do something.

Outside the building, the policemen face their first bank robbery in decades.

Batou comes out and surrenders, saying he’s a hostage with a bomb attached to him. The Tachikoma see Batou in trouble, and they tell the operative Purin, and Batou acts as a negotiator with the police.

We learn that all the seniors are desperate because their saved-up money has gone down in value. The old woman wants to go to Switzerland to die, as euthanasia is legal there, and she needs three million yen in total. The Global Simultaneous Default destroyed their hopes of a decent retirement, and all financial systems are on halt.

Counter Heist

The old man asks why Batou is helping them as he reveals he’s with the police.

The guard tells him that the branch manager lost the men’s money in cryptocurrency. Batou confirms this from the records and sees there are many other victims.

Batou asks them for money so he can get back at them. The woman gives him all her life’s savings, and Batou takes out his bag and seeds all his earnings from the previous years into crypto. They short-sell the branch manager’s account before the police come in and rescue them.

They pretend they’re all hostages and claim that the robbers have run off. The seniors get back their money that evening, and the branch manager gets arrested for his crimes.

The old woman forgoes her trip to Switzerland and goes to Hawaii instead. Batou meets the members of PSS9 at the airport.

Our Thoughts:

A great self-contained episode that reads like a pulp sci-fi short story with many twists and turns. I also love the social commentary here, and the art style is growing on me. I rate this 4 out of 5.