Lazarus episode 7 dives deep into Skinner's motivations

Lazarus, created by Shinichirou Watanabe, is one of the most popular anime airing in the Spring 2025 season. The story’s dystopian setting and fascinating cast have drawn several eyes towards it, while Studio Mappa’s animation greatly enhances the viewing experience.

Lazarus episode 7, titled Almost Blue, sees the end of the world approaching closer while offering deeper insight into Dr. Skinner’s mind and motivations. This is a comparatively relaxed installment of the series that allows fans to bond more with its characters and sets the stage for the coming episodes.

Lazarus is set in the year 2052, where a drug called Hapna, developed by Dr. Skinner, puts the entire world at risk of death. To find the missing scientist and develop a vaccine, a special task force called Lazarus is created, composed of the main characters.

Up till episode 6, the anime mainly focuses on the cast chasing down different leads connected to Skinner, providing little exposition to the man himself. While episode 7 also shows Team Lazarus following another potential link to the supposed villain, it provides subtle hints about Skinner’s goal.

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Lazarus episode 7 recap

The seventh episode of Lazarus starts with the main characters setting up a barbeque and guessing each other’s ages. Their break was soon ruined by Axel, who attempted to cook the meat using a flamethrower. After this, they got news of the ice in the Arctic breaking apart, signaling the destruction of the North Pole.

Due to this, a past video of Skinner went viral, where he attempted to warn others about the ice in the North Pole melting three years in the future. Due to his predictions, some people began believing Skinner was a prophet or a god.

Following this, Hersch returned, and the group brainstormed ideas on tracking Skinner since they were back to square one. To decide, they looked back at Skinner’s old video, where he spoke on how he served as the seventh trumpeter. Doug explained how this was a reference to the Book of Revelation, where God was enraged by humanity and brought disaster down on them.

The seventh trumpeter marked the end of the calamities, where the final judgment was delivered. Right as he finished speaking, the analysis of Naga’s memory drive was completed. Upon exploring the results, Lazarus found that it contained coordinates pointing to four locations, all islands submerging under the ocean.

Since Skinner had oddly bought these lands right before they sank, each character set out to explore a different island. Using different modes of transport, they went to the sunken islands, diving into the ocean to search for clues.

Though they found nothing, Christine expressed how she had forgotten how blue the sky and the water were and that Skinner may have wished for them to find those places. Eleina responded that the only beautiful places in the world were those without humans.

After a relaxing vacation and a day of enjoying nature, Axel spoke to his guide, who was a former resident of the island and suffered from a condition where he couldn’t feel pain. Sensing a link, Axel got on a call with the rest of his team, revealing how Skinner had bought the island in the past and saved its residents from poverty.

Doug then asked Eleina to track where the money Skinner spent on the other islands went. She revealed how Skinner had visited the island 15 years ago for gene drive donations and helped the residents start a new life by purchasing the land. He had done so for the three other islands as well.

Doug suspected that the condition where people couldn’t feel pain, Analgesia, was the origin of Hapna, and Skinner had used the donated genes to develop the drug. When looking up the Hague Institute, where the genes were studied, Eleina discovered that Hersch, who made Team Lazarus, was also part of Skinner’s group.

The episode ends with Christine returning from her outing, only to run into a past acquaintance who calls her Alexandra. Concluding on a cliffhanger, a timer reveals that only 14 days remain before the world descends into darkness.

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Skinner’s motivations in Lazarus (speculative)

There have always been suspicions that Dr. Skinner may not be the personification of the devil that others make him out to be, and Lazarus episode 7 confirms this. Right from the beginning, Skinner’s desperate attempts to warn humanity about its impending doom fell on deaf ears, forcing him to make a desperate choice to protect the Earth.

As Axel, Christine, and the others went to their respective islands, they experienced the beauty that Skinner had seen in places where humans were not present. This even made Christine tear up, as she questioned whether Skinner really was wrong.

Additionally, Hersch, who was a previous associate of Skinner, had revealed how the scientist was honest to a fault and sincere. Therefore, Skinner developing Hapna may have been his last attempt at preventing an even greater disaster or making humanity see the error in their ways.

It is yet to be confirmed whether Hapna does kill its users, but it may have been Skinner’s last form of resistance to protect the world and nature. In the Bible, the seventh trumpeter is not associated with destruction but rather a sign of repentance and divine intervention.

Therefore, Skinner’s actions may certainly be drastic and end in tragedy, but he seems to have a layered reason and justifications behind them rather than simply being evil for the sake of it.