The Purge

The Purge
Season 3
Episode 9
Aired on	October 3, 1995
Written by	Eric Singer
Story by	Peter Chung
Directed by	Peter Chung
Episode Chronology
Previous	Ether Drift Theory
Next	End Sinister
Source

"The Purge" is the ninth episode of the third season. It examines questions of morality and free will.

Synopsis

Opening title

Aeon is on the trail of the ill-mannered criminal brute, Bambara.

Act 1

Aeon Flux chases the criminal Bambara through a train and an industrial site while making a series of moral choices. Trevor Goodchild finally takes Bambara down with tranquilizers and implants him with a robotic conscience called a custodian. When he awakens Bambara befriends a one-armed boy, to whom he donates one of his arms.

Aeon notices another secret agent tracking Bambara. The agent, Judy, works for a group of "counter-insurgents" opposed to Trevor's custodian program. The group's leader tells Aeon that she can have Bambara, but asks her to bring the custodian to them by implanting it in herself.

Act 2

Aeon goes undercover at the Breen food distribution center where Bambara eats. She takes the booth next to Bambara, tranquilizes him, and removes the custodian. She struggles with custodian as it tries to reimplant itself in her, while Bambara resumes his rampage. The struggle catches the attention of a Breen agent who takes down Aeon with a tranquilizer gun. A bomb that Bambara placed earlier on the train explodes, killing the counter-insurgent leader.

Act 3

Aeon awakens in Trevor's presence. There is a custodian implantation mark on her navel but she does not feel different. In front of a theater audience, with two young "hostesses" using levers to move props around, Trevor challenges her to determine whether she acts with her own will. Just as he offers her the choice to leave, Bambara crashes into the theater bent on revenge for the loss of his arm. As he prepares to shoot Trevor, Aeon throws a lever that she believes will drop a weight on him, but the weight remains in place. Trevor is revealed to be a shell for a custodian that begins malfunctioning, much to Bambara's astonishment. The audience boos and throws levers that open a trap door under Bambara.

Aeon shrugs at this turn of events and walks through the exit. Outside she encounters a custodian going through the same lever throwing motion that she used moments earlier.

Gallery

The custodian enters her navel.

Aeon struggling against the custodian.

Aeon struggling against the custodian.

Aeon opens her belly button.