WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Deep Insanity: The Lost Child Episode 9, "take 09," now streaming on Funimation.
Deep Insanity: The Lost Child finally got an episode that slowed down and provided some much-needed explanations, but the explanation of Vera Rustamova's abilities may have come too little too late to save the series, which only has three episodes left to wrap up Hayden, Nadia and their mysterious employer, as well as the assassination of the so-called 'Child of God' El-Ceec -- an incredibly difficult task considering how much is still unknown.
However, an episode focusing on Vera was necessary moving forward, and this episode did just what was needed in the time it had -- it not only explored Vera's relationship with her own squad, but also revealed her abilities as someone who can wind back time. Although no explanation was offered as to why she has this ability, Vera tells the audience that she has been repeating this mission to assassinate El-Cee for over 900 days, only to meet with failure each time. She can attend meetings with her bosses and know exactly which words they're going to say, even counting down until she will get a call. Her ability to rewind provides an explanation as to why certain characters acted the way they did.
Daniel Shigure was originally a regular soldier down in Asylum who became skilled in sniper work, so in a certain repeat, Vera changed her actions to make him a Sleeper in her squad instead. Because her looping doesn't always erase everything, Daniel retained much of his sniper skills, explaining how he's able to handle a weapon at all when Vera sent him into Asylum in Episode 1. The other members of the Sleeper Squad have pictures taken of them in places they don't remember because those pictures were from a different loop.
Vera learned that no matter how she tried to change things, the squad would die. Leslie Blanc would die. The assassination would fail. She bets everything on her looping, but when a man from Asylum calls her out on it and says this is her 'last take,' that is new and extremely ominous.
While less disturbing than having her secret known, the behavior of the Sleeper Squad changes as well. Daniel, having found the copy of Vera's good luck charm and Leslie's notebook that details how he discovered Vera's secret, decides that the best thing to do is to have Vera engage with the team with a simple meal. The squad takes part in a rare comedic sequence of Vera accidentally agreeing and then desperately trying to get out of it, only for the team hacker to shut down all her excuses.
Daniel takes advantage of buying groceries to go and get some unrevealed answers from the Exiles in Asylum, but the squad is able to convene for a barbecue complete with fireworks. For a while, it seems Vera will still bail on her promise, but she eventually shows up, hating the idea of getting attached to those who have died so often in her plot but also realizing that, for some reason, this take has changed beyond her control. Little does she know that Daniel has Leslie's journal and is using it to his full advantage.
However, Vera is not a fool; she knows after so many reiterations of the same plan that Daniel is the one acting differently. Since this take is already so different from the others and might be, according to the Asylum man, her last chance to assassinate El-Cee, she cuts him from the Sleeper Squad altogether. For Vera, it's a decision that makes sense. He is the rogue element in this take, the one teasing her with lines that Leslie once told her, word for word. He knows too much, and Vera is afraid of people knowing her at all, to the point where she has become the withdrawn, short-spoken leader the squad barely knows.
However, armed with Leslie's knowledge. Daniel is the only one who might be Vera's match. As the last chance to assassinate El-Cee approaches, the confrontation between Vera and Daniel is inevitable, and who the Sleeper Squad chooses to side with will change the course of everything Vera has worked so hard for.
