Cammie’s Isolation - Perspective Framing In Gen:LOCK’s “Training Daze”
Something I noticed upon third viewing of the episode and immediately wanted to talk about is the way Gen:LOCK’s fourth episode, “Training Daze”, cleverly makes use of subtle perspective framing to highlight Cammie and her isolation from the rest of the team. Not only that, but throughout these moments that otherwise don’t seem particularly important, she is constantly trying to break that isolation.
While the team is shown to struggle on the same level in some capacity in the day-to-day through the cut of them eating together, it’s chiefly Cammie’s difficulties that are given attention. Even in the first scene, she’s rudely woken up (seriously, that fall must’ve stung like a bitch) and then left behind to catch up on her own as the rest of the team moves on without her. This is initially funny, but while the repeated occurrence is played for laughs, it’s also one that’s completely pitiable, as it does get to the point where Cammie starts wearing her armor when she sleeps so that she won’t slow them down in the morning.
We’re shown Cammie’s reaction in particular when the team realizes Kazu’s making breakfast for himself, and it’s clearly disheartened. She’s not just feeling the separation herself; she can recognize that the team in its entirety is disjointed, and it disappoints her.
Likewise, when Kazu eventually does share with her and then the rest of the team, her response is one of surprise and genuine happiness. This change is small, reflected as a baby step in terms of the team’s care for each other and a recognition of shared struggles - a “hey, we’re all in this together” - but Cammie clearly appreciates it nonetheless.
As an aside, kudos to Gen:LOCK’s editing staff and writers, as this is very naturally shown as the training montage progresses.
The episode also pays careful attention to setting up Cammie’s inexperience and general nervousness in combat. She cowers often, fires blindly at Val/entina when she’s startled, and sits out of what we see of the hand-to-hand exercise completely. It couldn’t be more obvious that this is all new for her; she’s a cyber-analyst, not a soldier like Val/entina or Kazu.
This means, as well, that she can be seen looking to the rest of the group for her cues, both in training and out of it, but is still often left behind. The best examples of this are when Weller dismisses the team after a day of training, and again when everyone is in the Ether, which I’ll get to in a minute.
Cammie’s moment to shine in the episode is her conversation with Migas, where the audience can see where her true strength lies; in tech. She’s the first one to ‘mix’ - or, project a hologram of herself - from her Holon, for the simple reason that she sees Julian doing it all the time and wants to try it. In similar fashion, she shows a clear interest in improving the Holons, both for her own sake - I do believe she sees herself as a liability or, at least, hindrance in combat as a result of her inexperience compared to the others - and for the others, as indicated in her excitement when Migas tells her about his plans for Julian’s upgrades.
She may not be comfortable with fighting, but she can recognize where she’s having a difficulty that might be fixed, and she’s more willing to engage with the project outside simple combat in comparison to Kazu or Val/entina.
Worth mentioning here is the conversation itself, and the friendship I hope they develop between Migas and Cammie. He doesn’t brush her off, treat her like a kid or downplay her enthusiasm; instead, he takes her interest in stride and encourages it, offering a solution to her balance issues with her Holon and giving her the software to start working on a more comfortable design (implying he’d be willing to help her change the entire structure of her Holon). Likewise, Cammie listens to him as authority and trusts his answer.
This would definitely be A+ BROTP material and I am here for these adorkable nerds.
It becomes clear after this, however, that the rift between Team Gen:LOCK likely isn’t going to go away any time soon. When the group has downtime, Cammie jumps at the chance to have them all spend it together, suggesting they have some fun playing video games as a team. She’s immediately rebuffed, not once, but twice, and even when she does get them to agree, she ends up having to pull them all together, only to have them disperse anyways.
To his credit, Julian does stay behind, but Cammie is still clearly frustrated with the situation. She wants them to be a team, but as Miranda says earlier in the episode, “They have raw talent as individuals, but refuse to trust or communicate”.
All of this works beautifully, because it’s not especially emphasized, but it is there. Cammie’s isolation is built up over the course of the episode, so when she is fully on her own and in a dire situation, it comes to a head. We feel her fear because she’s been alone this whole time and here she is, cut off from the team in every sense and quite literally being ripped apart.
Subtlety in storytelling almost never fails to bring about some brilliance. Much as I want to wrap Cammie in a blanket and give her the strongest drink I own, I can also fully appreciate the time and care taken to set up and execute this wonderful narrative through-line.
If this is any indication of Gen:LOCK’s characterization going forward, count me as ecstatic.