Let You Down

"Let You Down" is the first episode of CD Projekt RED and Studio Trigger's series.

Characters
In order of appearance:
 * James Norris
 * David Martinez
 * Gloria Martinez
 * Lucy Kushinada
 * Katsuo Tanaka
 * Principal
 * Ripperdoc

Description

 * After a night of streaming illegal braindance, David wakes up to reality: a rundown apartment with a broken washing machine and an overworked mother.

Summary
Let You Down opens with a top-down view at night from the neon lit skyscrapers onto Corpo Plaza of Night City. NUSA military Lt. Col. James Norris is shown for a brief moment, before the scene switches into the middle of a crime scene with a voice-over conversation of the cops. Norris, who is heavily equipped with cyberware, goes cyberpsycho and shoots a cop through the window of his car, before he attacks the other NCPD officers, and activates his Sandevistan. MaxTac eventually can hack his system and is able to neutralise Norris.

The audience then realises, the shown action was actually a braindance, when the next scene introduces David Martinez, who just watched Norris' memory of this brutal event in his mother's apartment. He is then contacted by Doc, who admits he got this BD fresh from master editor Jimmy Kurosaki.

A new morning begins, and David can be seen staring at his wet school uniforms in the washing machine. In the living room he wakes up his mother, who is an emergency medical technician. They discuss the money he needed for a necessary update for his class. Gloria wants him to get the legal update from her money, but David is frustrated and insists, Doc helped him with that matter and there is nothing to worry about. Network News 54 interrupts their conversation with the breaking news about Lt. Col. James Norris' death and missing cyberware. David is excited to see his mother on TV, but she seems uneasy about something, interrupts the program and sends him to school. Before the scene switches to David on his way to school, Gloria gives someone with the name Maine a call, but nothing of this dialogue is revealed to the audience.

David can be seen wandering the crowded and rundown streets to the song "Who's Ready For Tomorrow". For a glimpse, he seems to see a girl with white hair, but within seconds, she is gone again and he continues walking. He finally arrives at Arasaka Academy, and is immediately chided by his AI teacher for not wearing his uniform. Katsuo Tanaka, a privileged student, verbally attacks him and talks badly about David's tech. David brags about "his ways" of getting the expensive wreath update, but the next meditation session goes horribly wrong and his illegal software damages the system.

In the next scene opens with Gloria and David in the principal's office. The situation is extremely embarrassing for Gloria. The principal questions Gloria's financial situation and calls out David's misbehaviour in class, with a hint to better leave Arasaka Academy. Gloria insists, that David has all the right to attend and she promises to pay for the repairs.

On their way home in their car, Gloria is angry with David and they discuss the situation further, to the point, where David sees no future for himself at Arasaka. Gloria is heartbroken, since she wants David to succeed in this life, so she works the extra hours for him. Their ride suddenly comes to an end, when an Animals gang vehicle pulls up next to their car and the gang members open fire. Gloria can't prevent the collision with another car. David finds himself buried under crashed car parts with fire all around him. In the distance, he can see his mother lying on the street. The Trauma Team arrives, but both of them are not clients of this service and are denied first aid, much to David's anger and helplessness.

The following scene shows, that David somehow managed it to get out and brought his mother to a run down hospital, where she received surgery. The surgeon gives David a bag with his mother's belongings, but his mother still needs to stay at the hospital. After arriving at the apartment, David must realise, the rent is past due and the apartment is locked. He breaks in through a window. To his surprise, the bag contains Norris' Sandevistan, the missing cyberware from the cyberpsycho incident that was shown earlier in the episode. He offers the cyberware implant to Doc, but the Ripperdoc wants it for only 10K, and David angrily leaves the call. David is curious and starts researching the implant.

The next scene opens with the next morning, David is on his way to school again. He has a luring vision of delightful dancing white hair of the girl he had spotted the other day, but this time the image turns into the disapproving face of Katsuo. In an alley, Katsuo bullies David again, and finally beats him up with his Strong Arms 400 with Martial Arts chipware. Wounded, David breaks down in the alley and the clinic informs him about his mother's demise. He takes the cremated remains of Gloria and walks the Night City streets in her EMT Jacket. While doing so, a variety of voice messages are reaching him - one is from the principal, who sent Gloria their payment details, he again mentions an institution transfer for David.

David returns home to the apartment with the ashes to the song "Let You Down". He offers the illegal cyberware again to Doc but he denies the old offer and now only would pay 6000 for it. David is devastated and unable to cope with the situation. A call from Katsuo mocks him and his mother's death. In his anger and grief, David's eyes suddenly focus the cyberware in the bag, and he sees his chance for revenge.

Soundtrack

 * "Who's Ready For Tomorrow" - written and performed by Rat Boy
 * "Health" - written by Jake Duzsik, John Famiglietti, Lars Stalfors; performed by Major Crimes
 * "Kevin" - written and performed by Antigama
 * "Let You Down" - By Dawid Podsiadło, Magdalena Laskowska
 * "This FFFire" - Franz Ferdinand (used in the credit roll)

Trivia

 * The episode is titled after Dawid Podsiadło's song "Let You Down" created for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
 * Katsuo's attack on David is a clear reference to Kenshirō's Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken attack from the Fist of the North Star franchise.