WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Season 1, Episode 3 of ID: Invaded, "Sniped."
In ID: Invaded’s third episode, we see a little more about the inner workings of the id wells -- the surreal, digital worlds that help homicide cases to be solved. However, these details only lead to more questions on the technology's limitations in the anime. We find Hondomachi still hospitalized at the start of the episode, and unable to participate in the investigation of a new killer, The Pyrotechnician, who blew up a few floors of a building by masking the explosion with fireworks.
Reflecting on her interaction with the serial killer, The Perforator, Hondomachi asks Matsuoka if she can enter her own id well. However, she learns this is impossible due to the id well’s "survival instinct." This is called the "fall into dogma." If she were to enter, she would end up aimlessly wandering her id well and retrieving her would be impossible.
The pink-haired detective, Sakaido, enters the well from the cognition particles left at the scene of the crime by the Pyrotechnician. He enters an enclosed tower with a waterfall surrounding him, seeming to rise above. A hidden sniper begins shooting the innocent people who are also in the well. The bullets seem to be coming from multiple points from the waterfall. Shortly after, Sakaido finds Kaeru, dead, and recalls who he is. Sakaido is shot, extracted, and reinserted into the id well. The limitations of entering and re-entering id wells have yet to be discussed -- or if there even is a limit. The most pressing question, perhaps, is whether or not doing so takes a toll on the participant’s mind outside of their persona inside the well itself.
The Pyrotechnician is taken into custody in a cell across from Sakaido. With the conversation that occurs between Sakaido and the Pyrotechnician, one can argue that Sakaido led the Pyrotechnician to his suicide. In Episode 1, Matsuoka informed Hondomachi that only those who have killed before can enter id wells. And, in Episode 2, Sakaido mentions a "five-peat" to Inspector Momoki, insinuating that he would be unable to enter id wells if he were to "stop." If that’s the case, is persuading serial killers to end their lives the method Sakaido implements to retain his ability to enter id wells? If so, why not do this with the Perforator?
It seems there is still more to learn about id wells and the mysterious detective, Sakaido.
ID: Invaded is available for streaming from FunimationNOW, with new episodes releasing Sunday.