The new season of Cyberpunk 2077 animated series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 has been released. The new series is available to stream now, on Netflix. Today, we take a look at Episode Four.

Synopsis –

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 pulls you back into Night City, where lives become entangled to the extreme. Weak, a washed-up cyberpunk legend, is now forced to live without chrome as he searches for a sense of purpose in a world that’s passed him by. Meanwhile, the deadly nomad D sets out on a path to revenge that brings him close to corpo secrets never meant to be found. Across this ten-episode standalone series, uncover a story of family, obsession, legacy — and how your lens reflects the stories of the people around you.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Netflix anime poster featuring an ensemble of futuristic characters against a vibrant pink background.

The first season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners debuted on Netflix in September of 2022, to rave reviews, instantly building a devoted fanbase. It has been a long wait for those fans since the finale of the ten episode season aired nearly four years ago. That wait, however, is over. Season 2 is not a continuation of the story from the first season (and the few surviving characters), but instead focuses on a new cast of characters.

The full 10 episode season was dropped in one go onto Netflix. It would be madness (or perhaps cyberpsychosis) to try to encompass the full 10 episode season in one post, so much as we did with The Ghost in the Shell series, we are going to cover one episode per week as if it were on a weekly release schedule – after all, it’s not like everyone is gonna binge it all in one day? Right?!

Episode One introduced us to the main cast of characters, and it was a wider cast than season one. Episode Two brought some of the characters together, giving us a bit more idea of what the plot of the season was going to be, and how the characters fit in with each other, and then Episode Three deepened those connections, and revealed what, or who, the Arasaka chip was.

Episode Four opens without a pre-credits sequence. D is unconscious, facedown back at Roman’s place. D didn’t have nightmares for once, which he is very happy about. He seems to have lost the ability to hack, though. Roman tells D he needs to remove the chip, that it isn’t safe, but D isn’t ready to let go. Roman can’t see the entity, it is only D that can see and hear her. The entity reappears, and D is angry that she tried to hijack his body. They use the TV to channel Capri’s voice, and she explains she is a personality construct, born of a number of human beings, and needs a human being, an ‘operating system’, in order to function.

Anime-style blond character in a futuristic city, holding a device beside a large digital billboard.

D allows Capri to remain his co-pilot, as long as she continues sharing her power.

Avida’s husband is told that Talia is at risk of cyberpsychosis, despite her apparent resistance.

D tells Roman he doesn’t need to continue following him, but Roman says he wants to scroll D.

They gain access to an Arasaka facility, with cyborg guards frozen. There is one human inside, and D tries to question him whilst Roman films. He asks about Arasska and Maelstrom’s attack on the nomad clan. He tortures the man via mind hacking, and then Capri helps him finish the job. D tries to access the files on the operation, but there are no lists to be found. D, it turns out, along with David from season one, is part of an Arasaka ‘project’ which was discontinued. Roman talks D down from killing him. Roman notices Talia is also in the file.

Avida’s husband, Kiril, is talking to his boss, who questions him on Talia’s condition. The boss says he finds it odd that Arasaka is not trying to retrieve the chip and keep control of the ‘project’, but that it offers an advantage to their corp, Kang Tao.

Avida tells King that Talia has gone again. He promises to find her, and very quickly does at the Maelstrom hideout, who seem to have ditched Talia permanently. King takes her to eat and chat. King tries to achieve a rapport, he thought he was immune to going cyberpsycho, and so does Talia. She wants to go full chrome because she has a degenerative disease which makes her weak, and she’ll likely die young otherwise. King explains to her the dangers and guilt associated with cyberpsychosis.

D catches Capri looking up at the sky, apparently for satellites. Roman realises he can see some flashes of Capri using his video camera. Talia invites Roman over, and he tells D that she was on the same list as him and David.

D goes with Roman to meet Talia at the diner, who’s still there with King – Talia introduces Roman to King as her boyfriend. King thinks this is hilarious. In a fit of rage, D punches King, and then thrusts the chip into Talia. Capri seems overjoyed to have been connected with Talia, and suggests that she might be who she was looking for the whole time.

Animated close-up of a gloved hand holding a small futuristic robotic device.

This was a pretty key episode, with a lot revealed, and the four main characters being brought together at the end of it. We were led to believe season 2 would be separate to season 1, but the story has been linked back to David Martinez from season 1 – he had a high tolerance to cyberware, it has already been suggested that Talia does too, and Capri was surprised she couldn’t take over D’s body. All 3 are on the Arasaka file related to their ‘project’.

Quite how this relates to Capri is yet to be fully revealed, but it seems like she was created specifically to merge with… either Talia specifically, or just someone on the list in general. Though it seems D wasn’t the first choice, as she seems to have jumped ship to Talia. I had thought it was weird that season 2 was leaning so heavily into cyberpsychosis since that had played such a big part in season 1, but we now know why, and ultimately I like the fact the two seasons do have a connection rather than just being two completely random, separate stories.

Anime-style pink-haired woman in a black outfit facing shadowy masked figures in the background

The next episode promises to be very interesting. What is Capri going to do now they are connected with Talia, and are the four of them going to now form a team to try to deal with it? We still don’t really know what the deal was with the fire at the nomad camp, unless it was purely a way to push D into going into the city and getting mixed up with the Arasaka project. King was telling Talia that the worst thing about cyberpsychosis is losing your sense of self, and she may well be about to experience that with Capri taking hold.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is directed by Kai Ikarashi, with character designs  by Ichigo Kanno and a story written by Bartosz Sztybor of CD PROJEKT RED and Masahiko Otsuka. There are 10 episodes in total, and they were released all at once on Netflix on Tuesday 20th October.

You can watch a trailer for the series below –


CYBERSTOPIA – Discord

Cyberstopia now has a Discord server! Please join us and build a community for cyberpunk and dystopia discussion. We have sections for all the latest news, channels for discussion of The Ghost in the Shell series, as well as upcoming shows like Edgrerunners 2, Blade Runner 2099, and Neuromancer, as well as an author section with a number of cyberpunk authors talking about their work, giving updates on your current projects, etc… It’s a great place to hang out.
https://discord.gg/purcXCnXzE

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