"Utopia or Deuteranopia?" is the first episode of the third season.
Synopsis[]
Opening title[]
Trevor Goodchild (Series) has recently seized power in the nation of Bregna. The former leader, Clavius, has vanished under mysterious circumstances.
Act 1[]
Bregna's elected president, Clavius, has been kidnapped, leaving Chairman Trevor Goodchild as acting ruler during the kidnapping investigation. It is soon revealed that Trevor himself has kidnapped Clavius to seize power. Unbeknownst to the citizens of Bregna, Clavius was corrupt and insane, and offered protection to criminal rackets in return for money. Trevor keeps Clavius in a room accessed by a trapdoor in his bed. Curiously, and unexplained, by wearing a harness, Trevor can see Clavius and, with the key, open his stomach, which is a panel, and enter a long corridor that appears similar to the inside of a bowel to emerge in a room that contains a blue dress.
Aeon, an agent of the neighboring state Monica, has apparently been sent to Bregna to ensure that the transfer of power goes smoothly and that Clavius is not allowed to regain control.
Facing increasing pressure from Breen loyalists opposed to his rule, Trevor introduces a totalitarian surveillance program, declaring that nothing is secret and that "only an open society can be a just society," and stripping off his robe during a TV interview to demonstrate that he has nothing to hide. This proves to be a popular move, to the degree that in a later interview the reporter conducts the entire interview naked. Soon Trevor is able to arrest powerful loyalists with evidence from the new surveillance system.
Meanwhile, Gildemere searches for the truth behind Clavius's kidnapping. Gildemere's suspicions are confirmed when he notices that Trevor's suspenders match those worn by Clavius in a supposedly-faked video released by the loyalists. Gildemere is apprehended by Aeon, who pretends to cooperate with him to learn more about what happened to Clavius.
Aeon shows herself to a surveillance camera and goes directly to her next meeting with Gildemere, exposing his scheming to Trevor, who watches on a video monitor. Aware that they may be being watched, Gildemere tries to speak with Aeon in comically transparent code, but it does not fool Trevor, who is enraged by Aeon's flirting and does not yet understand that Aeon was sent to help him.
Act 2[]
Trevor runs out to the meeting place, where Aeon is waiting and watching for him. She deliberately leads him along on a chase through the city to a room where she has a meeting with another loyalist Trevor should know about. Aeon knocks Trevor out, gags him, and forces him to watch their meeting. She toys with him further by flirting with the loyalist officer.
Meanwhile Gildemere discovers Clavius hidden under Trevor's bed, also finding the key that opens Trevor's secret room. Gildemere rushes to Aeon and explains the situation to her, saying that he will release Clavius as soon as possible and entrusting the key to her as evidence. This would be disastrous to Aeon's plans, but she lets him go. While they talk, Trevor escapes.
Aeon goes to the room under Trevor's bed and, using a harness and the key Gildemere gave her, enters Trevor's secret room in Clavius. She discovers the blue dress. Trevor finds the door open and enters. Aeon criticizes Trevor's tastes and his decisions in ruling Bregna, advising Trevor to arrest Gildemere. Trevor offers her a chance to kill him, but Aeon is not interested. She gives the key back to Trevor and leaves.
Act 3[]
Gildemere goes to Clavius in order to release him. Aeon is watching carefully to make sure that Clavius isn't released. When Gildemere awakens Clavius, he realizes that Clavius is corrupt and insane, and he kills him by unplugging his life support system. Aeon, satisfied, emerges from hiding and says goodbye to Gildemere. He realizes that she was on Trevor's side the whole time and attacks her. Aeon knocks him out and wraps up his body.
Trevor finds Aeon stuffing a body into a trash disposal system. Thinking that it is Clavius, and perhaps sensing a chance to solidify his rule, he calls his soldiers to him, saying that he has found the terrorist who kidnapped Clavius. When Trevor unwraps Gildemere, he publicly denounces Trevor as the one who kidnapped Clavius and correctly identifies Aeon as a Monican agent sent to help Trevor. Gildemere takes the key from Trevor's pocket and announces to the cameras that it is his proof. Aeon tricks him to admit that he is the one who killed Clavius. She then takes the key and uses it to unlock her chastity belt. Many of her Breen contacts, both male and female, are in the crowd and reveal that they have copies of Aeon's key as well. Gildemere is arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Clavius.
Trivia[]
- Utopia is a society of ideal perfection.
- Deuteranopia is the most common form of color blindness affecting only males. Sufferers are unable to distinguish between colors in the green-yellow-red part of the visual light spectrum.
- Trevor's comments about an "open and just" society was an inversion of a transparent and honest government that is accountable to the citizens of the state.
- Aeon's meeting with the loyalist was mocking Trevor's need to monitor the state.
- Clavius' papers that Gildemere tries to decipher are a history of a coup in Haiti.
- Aeon says "No, not now" when Trevor discovers her disposing of Gildemere. She may have been willing to take the blame for disposing of Clavius to draw suspicion off of Trevor.
- The puzzling opening to the episode is referenced again when Trevor is watching surveillance videos of police raids. The one who's "going on vacation for ten years" is standing next to the cart from the episode opening.
- The fabric sample stolen from Trevor's pocket has "40-20-34" written on it. These are presumably Aeon's bust/waist/hip measurements.
- Some of the dialogue was altered for the new release.
The Key[]
An unanswered question is why Aeon's chastity belt key opens Trevor's secret room inside Clavius. Trevor probably used the same key for his secret room that he (and other Breen officers) had for having sex with Aeon because he intended it to be a place for rendezvouses with Aeon. Confusingly, Gildemere appears to be wrong in saying that Aeon switched the key while it was in her possession, since she had no reason to do so. Also, it is possible that she gave back Trevor a different key specifically made to open her belt, since chronologically Clavius is never opened with it. Another complicating factor is that Aeon asks "What is it?" with a poker face when Gildemere shows her the key. But note that Aeon was already wearing her chastity belt before Gildemere first gave her the Clavius key. Also, Aeon doesn't appear to have planned the confrontation at the garbage disposal, and looks genuinely surprised and distressed by Trevor's sudden appearance.
The Room[]
Where, exactly, Clavius is kept in Trevor's room that requires the harness to see or interface with him, how Trevor created a room in his belly that is vastly greater than Clavius' volume, and why it is accessed by the key to Aeon's chastity belt is left completely unexplained.
| Episodes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | • Pilot • | ||
| Season 2 | • Gravity • Mirror • Leisure • Tide • War • | ||
| Season 3 | • Utopia or Deuteranopia? • Isthmus Crypticus • Thanatophobia • A Last Time for Everything • The Demiurge • Reraizure • Chronophasia • Ether Drift Theory • The Purge • End Sinister • | ||