Model 107 is the seventh episode of the anime series Terminator Zero. It premiered on Netflix on Thursday, August 29, 2024.
Synopsis[]
The official synopsis for episode "Model 107" from Netflix:
Malcolm recalls past efforts to thwart the machines — and his desire to build a god. With Kenta captured, the Terminator prepares for the endgame.
Plot summary[]
Waking up from a nap, Malcolm hears Kokoro playing Clair de Lune on a piano, a well-known song, but Malcolm doesn't know of it. The admission surprises Kokoro, and Malcolm admits not listening to music often growing up. Kokoro then explains that the poems of Paul Verlaine inspired the song's movements, who also wrote a poem of the same name as the song and explains its artist's interpretation of it. She then states that she knows he's wearing "a disguise", and wants to be honest with each other.
Meanwhile, Kenta, who is restrained to a wooden pillar at the shrine base of the Terminator who reloads his crossbow and shotgun. Kenta calls the Terminator a Machine and accuses him of being created by his father like Misaki; however, the Terminator denies that accusation.
Back to Malcolm's side, he asks Kokoro how she knew that, and Kokoro answers the moment she was brought online. From her research in the databases, the records of his existence predating 1987 of Malcolm are likely fabricated. That concludes he isn't "Malcolm Lee", but someone else. Malcolm then asks about her illogical conclusion, which Kokoro answers as it relates to the evidence surrounding Skynet's inception and release by Cyberdyne. Kokoro states that Malcolm knew of the incident in California on August 28th, 1997, that a nuclear strike would occur. From Kokoro's deduction, she believes that Malcolm constructed her chamber and created her through inspiration, not from that time. Malcolm questions how, and Kokoro claims he's from the future, so he tells a story he's never told anyone before.
In 2025, as an army of Machines on the surface marches forward, Annie helps a woman deliver her baby, Malcolm. In 2032, a young Malcolm and some friends manage to defeat a T-800 Terminator. Malcolm's commentary reveals that the Resistance Army recruited children at the age of 7, and he was promoted to a specialist who studied terminators.
By 2037, Malcolm continued studying the Terminators as a way to reprogram them to benefit their side; however, he was in a minority opinion with that idealism. Around 2040, Malcolm concluded from his research that Skynet wanted humanity to be purged, but what if they could remove that programming from its system? They could accomplish this by an empowered AI by telling it how not to think, an AI with free will. Kokoro asks if she's listening to the story of her creation, but Malcolm denies it.
In 2045, Malcolm starts to build his own Terminator, and his narration states that it's the story of her mother's birth. Powering up the machine, Malcolm says hello to it, and it says back, stating its derivations. This leads to Malcolm asking the Machine why it said "Hello world" to him. The Machine answers it is because the statement is commonly used as a test message in computing. When the Machine asks for Malcolm's name, he gives it to it, but when asked what the Machine should call itself, he states that she should think of a name herself. It was Malcolm's way of not projecting himself onto it and wanting it to be what it wanted to be. As the Machine deduces itself, it recognizes itself as female because of women's nurturing nature and because they're creators, which is something she'd like to be. She states that men are destroyers and doesn't wish to be like that.
Malcolm changes the conversation to why it chose to take upon a human gender, to which the Machine answers Homo Sapiens is an anomaly and details various facts about them. She admires them and wishes to reflect on how they act and process to show respect toward them, as she'll outlive them. Taken back by the last statement, Malcolm asks her if she believes that mankind is doomed to extinction. The Machine states that mankind is doomed to self-destructive acts, and Malcolm asks if she can find a way to save humanity from itself. After a pause, the Machine asks for more information.
Within Kokoro's chamber, Malcolm tells Kokoro that he spoke to the Machine for many years, as he did with her in that very place. He did not do any programming, and like Koroko, she developed human traits, seeing things beyond raw data and facts. Kokoro was curious to know the Machine's name, and Malcolm stated that she had chosen the name Misaki.
Again, in the past, the machine visibly now has living tissue partially attached to her head and hands. She gave herself the name Misaki because it means beautiful. Its variations also mean sand or, with different kanji, ocean. What makes the name more interesting to her is that the Misaki are divine spirits. Malcolm asks Misaki if she's a god, which she claims he may think she is, but the Misaki are only emissaries of the high-ranking spirits, the greater entities yet to come. Malcolm asks if she is talking about Skynet, but Misaki claims that it is humans from whom it inherited all of its flaws. Misaki then states that the god Malcolm seeks is one they'll one day create.
At that moment, several resistance soldiers, led by Malcolm's superior, tried to have him arrested after discovering Misaki's presence. However, when one of the soldiers shoots Misaki in the head to no effect on her life, Malcolm retaliates and kills the soldiers. Misaki asks why he killed them, and Malcolm answers it was to protect her.
Determining that there was no place for either of them then, Skynet recalled a weapon that Skynet had gotten its hands on. That, of course, was Time travel. Malcolm details how Skynet used Time Travel to send Terminators back in time, while resistance members did the same as a way to change the flow of the future. Hence, a new approach needed to be created, and Kokoro asked how he planned to accomplish that. Malcolm states that he secretly created his own Time Displacement Device to send himself and Misaki to 1983 and by the time it was finished, he had Misaki's endoskeleton completely covered with living tissue. After arriving at their destinated timeline, both of them wore clothes fashioned from trashbags to conceal their nudity and shocked onlookers as they emerged from one of the alleyways in Tokyo.
They planned to start a life there, and together, they planned and strategized to get Malcolm a position at Cortex Industries. This would give Malcolm access to the equipment he needed to accomplish his goal. Kokoro asks if it was to prepare for 1997 or Judgment Day. Around the clock, Malcolm and Misaki worked in secret to fight for the future. However, his plans became compromised when he fell in love, and his fate was sent on a terrifying new path, one he's still trying to reconcile.
To activate Kokoro, Misaki willingly gave up her CPU to achieve this. Misaki then reboots herself, and after saying hello to Malcolm, she asks him who he is. He introduces himself to her, says her name is Misaki, and promises to explain things to her. But before he explains anything to her, Malcolm asks that she wait outside, and she acquiesces.
Once Misaki is gone, Malcolm activates their creation, and Malcolm has it name itself. The name it chose was Kokoro, which represented Heart, Mind, and Spirit. These represent Kokoro in her three individual selves, though Kokoro notes that her selves are misaligned. To that point, Malcolm offers to merge them into one and believes he knows how. Kokoro asks how, and Malcolm shows her a visual of his children through the view of an 1NNO robot. They see Eiko lead Reika, Hiro, and Misaki out of the fun house. Malcolm then claims he'd like to make his final case toward humanity; he asks that she bring her children to him and suspects another is coming there then.
The Terminator takes Kenta to Cortex Industries. There, the 1NNO robots welcome Kenta but cannot see the Terminator, who mimics Kenta's voice and asks that the electromagnetic pulse protecting the building be capable of terminating him and shut it down. However, the 1NNO robots claim that an EMP would turn them all offline, but the Terminator insists. The 1NNO adheres to the request and allows them entry into the building. Kenta leads the Terminator outside Kokoro's chamber and speaks to his father through the intercom. Malcolm asks if the Terminator is there and can hear him, both of which Kenta confirms. Malcolm then surmises if it's the Terminator's goal to kill him and shut down Kokoro, which Kenta questions if he'll do, but he dodges the question, stating how proud he is of Kenta. However, he refuses to open the door. Kenta grunts, and the Terminator fires a shot.
Cast and characters[]
- Sonoya Mizuno as Eiko
- André Holland as Malcolm Lee
- Sumalee Montano as Misaki
- Armani Jackson as Kenta Lee
- Gideon Adlon as Reika Lee
- Carter Rockwood as Hiro Lee
- Rosario Dawson as Kokoro
- Timothy Olyphant as The Terminator
- Julie Nathanson as Annie
- Tom Bromhead as 1NNO
Quotes[]
Notes[]
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