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The speculation between Owen and Hige backs up my suspicion that Hei is not only an unusual case as a Contractor but may also be a character whose physical being is out of the ordinary. I wouldn't rule out the idea that he's another 'body hopper' like the Contractor in this arc but suffice to say I enjoyed this part of the series for the details about the mechanic of it all being tossed in. This was as far as my original viewing of the show went though, so it'll be 'watching' rather than 're-watching' after this point.

Normally I don't like comedy of this type because it's formulaic, irritating and often passes itself off as a lame excuse for lousy animation quality. The first time around I watched this around the time I was reading a lot of Raymond Chandler so the genre it was making nods to was fresh in my mind.

Even now it seems to be an affectionate homage to the whole film noir thing - in the same way that Gai's fourth wall-tapping narration draws you in, these two episodes are so intentionally crammed with cliches and moments of knowing pastiche, it seems like a two episode-long tribute to where the writers must have got some of their inspiration from. On that level I loved it, which made up for the fillerish-ness of the story itself.

Of course, I'm still convinced that even when it's goofing off like this the story is still drip-feeding the viewer details that may be important later on so I can't call these two episodes a waste of time.