Summary
“The Drowned Giant” delves into the ridiculousness of it all and how hubris can be humanity’s downfall. Also, it just has a cool giant in it.
This recap of Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots season 2, episode 8, “The Drowned Giant,” contains spoilers.
Finally, Tim Miller and David Fincher combined their talent for breathtaking animation and gift for storytelling with a beautifully rendered story about death, the passing of time, and hubris of it all as it comes full circle — welcome to Love, Death & Robots season 2, episode 8, “The Drowned Giant,” — the final chapter.
“The Drowned Giant” is exactly what it sounds like. The story begins with a rumor that something has washed up on the beach. And it’s big. A giant, what looks like an adolescent, is lying naked on his back and is dead. Presumably drowned (though, no one attempted CPR). He was youthful, frail (for a giant), and Billy Crystal, thank goodness, was nowhere in sight.
As more people began to gather, they inched closer. He had a pond-sized fist of water playing in his palm, noted a stoic observer. He walked away when a few jokesters began to climb the giant like he was their playground (no germophobes in this group).
The stoic man with glasses turns back, and what he sees is callous. Everyone is treating this giant boy as a circus attraction. Sliding down the chest, legs, and taking pictures with their heads in the deceased nostrils. It’s a distanced image; I’m sure if they saw a picture or video of themselves, they would question if they dissociated from that moment. Like that guardian photo of a couple of people relaxing by the waterfront and watching the twin towers fall. It’s an image you won’t soon forget.
The days pass. It takes a while to disable the body. The giant has started to decompose, no longer looking youthful but weathered. They want to start to cut by his tail and hip bones. So, only the torso remains. Pieces of the young man have gone all over town, including the femur above a butcher shop sign. Even the giant’s male appendage is now on display. Like in a glass jar you find in a coroner’s office, but much larger. Filled with water and 20% alcohol.
Most people mistook it for a whale penis, showing that everyone has forgotten the giant—ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and the ridiculousness of it all. As I mentioned above, it also shows the hubris of what can be the fall of humankind.
