The Pacific Rim franchise is built on pilots using neural uplinks to drift (aka mentally connect) with each other once they’re compatible. As long as they sync up, they can control giant robots called Jaegers to fight alien kaiju that have invaded through a breach. However, while that property focuses on the human essence going into machines, Season 1 of Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots subverts this concept with a gory feminist twist.
In “Sonnie’s Edge,” Sonnie (Helen Sadler) takes part in a fight club in a dystopian, cyberpunk future. She enjoys the arena because it’s her outlet to get back at men after she was gang-raped and mutilated years ago. The fighters don’t engage in hand-to-hand combat, though. Instead, humans use neural uplinks. But the twist is, it’s not into machines, but monsters that have a kaiju-like feel.
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It flips the Pacific Rim trope on its head because mankind’s piloting the creatures, using their durability, agility and strength to tear each other apart as bio-weapons to earn winnings. Just like with Jaegers, the pilots are conscious and can interact with the public, even yelling and screaming at their opponents if they wish. It’s what happens with Sonnie when she fights a jerk piloting a massive tusked creature.
As for her monster, Sonnie’s controlling a dinosaur-like beast called Kharnivore. However, the fight doesn’t favor her, with the man constantly taunting her as he beats her up. Sonnie remains in a meditative state. Luckily, she uses Kharnivore’s sharp mouth to impale and behead the enemy to win. But it doesn’t please the pit boss, Dicko (Time Winters), who wanted her to throw the fight.
After the fight, Dicko’s right-hand woman, Jennifer (Hayley McLaughlin), comes over to have sex with Sonnie. She wants to embrace her lesbian side but, more so, feel love and warmth that she doesn’t get from Dicko. Shockingly, as things heat up, Jennifer shoots out claws and dices Sonnie’s brain and face. It was set up by Dicko to teach Sonnie a lesson, but there’s one more shock to come.
Sonnie’s body isn’t human, it’s a shell that stores her mind temporarily. Her voice comes over the speakers in her trailer to let the duo know. In the blink of an eye, Kharnivore’s tail emerges from the regeneration chamber, gutting Jennifer. It then grabs Dicko, bringing him face to face with Kharnivore, revealing Sonnie transferred her mind to the beast. It’s her real body, which is why she was out cold during her match.
It allows her to cut loose in a bloodier fashion in a male-dominated industry. She asks Dicko if he’s scared and the camera cuts to black just before she can ravage him, producing a stunning finale fans want more of in the second season.
Love Death + Robots Vol. 2 releases on Netflix May 14. Vol. 3 will be released in 2022.
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