Upamanyu Biswas
Season 4, episode 2 of ‘Love Death + Robots,’ titled ‘Close Encounters of the Mini-Kind,’ delves into a first-contact-gone-wrong scenario, setting the stage for a human vs alien conflict that threatens the planet’s destruction. Much like ‘Night of the Mini Dead’ from season 3, the fourth season installment captures the amusement of watching a global apocalypse push humanity to the brink of survival. The familiar tilt-shift style direction adds to the comical aspects of the narrative as we watch a slew of mini-humans put up a resistance front against the invading alien forces who possess far superior technology. However, things take a twist by the end when the escalation of violence and back and forth leads to a massive blunder that costs both sides immensely, showcasing the silliness of the entire fight on a universal scale. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Do the Humans and Aliens Die?
At the end of ‘Close Encounters of the Mini-Kind,’ the battle for supremacy between humans and aliens reaches a do-or-die point for the former as they put up a desperate resistance against their technologically superior invaders. However, things go awry when a group of humans steal the deadly weapons from a downed tripod, using it for their own means. After repurposing those black hole guns for their own militia, the humans start constructing a counter-attack designed to take down the spaceships in orbit. While the plan seems sound from one angle, in practicality, it proves to be an unmitigated disaster when the chaos of the skirmishes leads to the weapon being discharged on the ground, opening up a giant black hole. Subsequently, the black hole swallows everything in its vicinity, growing in size while spelling death for the Earth and all its inhabitants.
When the fighting begins between humans and aliens, the latter is disproportionately advantaged because of the primitive weapons wielded by the humans that have no impact on the alien soldiers. As such, vast swathes of the human population are wiped out in an instant, leading to a massacre. However, humans eventually show resilience and their ability to think outside the box by stealing some of the hand-held weapons from alien aggressors. For a short period, it helps them turn the tide of the war, leveling the playing field slightly as the aliens also end up perishing in the conflict. Still, the momentum of the fight belongs to the aliens because of their superior numbers and ability to utilize much larger vehicles of weapons as the fighting and conflict scales upward.
It is evident that the episode tries to paint its situation in a comedic light. However, if we take it seriously for a moment, it shows how violence tends to escalate on both sides when the battle is stretched out. The more the humans resist being taken over, the more the aliens start using bigger weapons with more destructive capabilities. Ironically, when the aliens first arrive on the planet, they aim to spread peace and love rather than devastation. They are pushed into the conflict because a scared group of humans were unable to keep a check on their emotions and slaughtered the aliens before they had the chance to show their goodwill. This small, trivial act of violence sets the ball rolling for the two species as a fight for survival ensues. Tragically, neither comes out of the situation alive as the black hole swallows them whole.
Read More: Love Death Robots Season 4 Golgotha Ending Explained
