Ha! I’m (very morbidly) pleased to know that somebody else has seen all the potential ominousness in Body Worlds that I have...
Don’t misunderstand me - - that traveling exhibit of artistically-arranged, plastinated corpses is a fascinating and highly-informative attraction which I’d recommend to anybody with the stomach to handle it. However, one can’t help but chuckle a bit about the huge difference that context makes. If the FBI found that much human anatomy rearranged into dramatic scenes down in somebody’s basement, they’d say, “We’ve one sick freak on our hands here.” (Cue a snappy pun, sunglasses and a Who song, and you'd have a CSI opening, actually). Place those exact same creations under the auspices of a respectable museum exhibit, though? Then it’s something arty and educational.
I doubt this show is ever going to explicitly explore that notion as it pertains to rest of the plot. Any parallels are up to your own interpretation, of course - - but they’re do seem to be a couple. Like, there’s the irony of these misanthropes being agents of justice in the context of this program when - - by the logic of the Psycho-Pass - - they probably aren’t actually that much worse than the perps they’re putting down.
Also, while they haven’t ever said that alcohol is a controlled substance in this world, it wouldn’t be too out of the question given the amount of thought policing that’s going on. As such, I couldn’t help but see Tsunemori’s little wine-cooking session to be the futurist equivalent of vice cops freely partaking in the very consumption they’re supposed to be policing. There's another parallel.
Lastly, there's this whole notion of a “middle man” murder enabler. It’s almost like you’ve got two or three people whose crime coefficients are suitably low when they're on their own in every other context. Put them together, though, and their potential for danger adds up to something over the legal limit. If that's the right read on the situation, it's a really clever dimension to this future world.
Let's just hope I'm not reading too much into things, too...
Watch this episode, "Return of the Psychotic Prince” here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk
