schmendeler said:
The worst to me was her basically manipulating Sato into killing a dude for her because she knew he cared for her. She's a virus.
Agreed, although I liked this in terms of her character development.
She knew what she was asking Sato to do and yet still recoiled from him as a result of it. I think it shows the disconnect between who she is and who she views herself to be. It also emphasizes the murkiness of who is "good" between the characters. We know Sato is a killer, and yet we like him - at least he recognizes what/who he is. But he's also shown to still care for his family - regardless of how his mother/father may view him. Similarly, Jake is crossing all sorts of ethical lines for his career and friends, hiring prostitutes when he's supposed to be working, etc. Other than Katagiri (and potentially Emi), there are a lot of morally gray characters, or at least likable "bad" characters and flawed "good" ones.I think with Samantha, it gets back to a point of contention that thread about "dumb characters in cool shows". Just because she's dislikable doesn't mean she's poorly written.
So far, all of her actions seem to fall in line with who she is. Someone that likes to pretend she cares about others, but in reality is mostly concerned about herself. Given her actions both w/Sato and in the past, it seems like she struggles to take ownership of her ****tiest actions. She also seems to get hyperfocused on her goals - getting away from her Mormon mission, finding Polina, opening her club - without really considering the full consequences, even if she is warned about them. The only thing that's arguably not aligned to her character was her decision to trust the host and take all her money to exchange for Polina - something I'm fine to contribute to her frazzled mental state due to the whole smoking meth incident. In that regard I like her inclusion because she adds to the reality of the world. She adds depth as her morality and/or perception of that provides a good foil to Jake and Sato.
