Random Curiosity

Summary:

The angry mobs running through the city blame Simon for the moon falling, and they even tear down the Kamina statue. As he takes a shackled Simon away, Rossiu explains that, to these citizens, Simon right now is the same as Lord Genome was in the old days. Thus, they can’t do anything except judge him in the same way. Rossiu and his officers then lead Simon to a bare room to wait until the trial which he claims they are holding because they are a country ruled by law. What’s more, Rossiu says that they have always advanced forward with someone’s sacrifice. He feels that Kamina’s death led them to becoming stronger, causing Simon to question if this means that Rossiu was glad that Kamina died. When Rossiu responds by saying that this is how he feels from looking at the results, Simon gets angry and has to be restrained by the accompanying officers. Rossiu then takes Simon’s core drill and notes how ironic it is that the source of Simon’s power is the cause of mankind’s disaster. Still under restraint, Simon says that Rossiu doesn’t understand Kamina’s feelings and compares him to the priest of his old village, but Rossiu feels that it is Simon who doesn’t understand.

The next day, Kiyal is surprised to learn from Dayakka that Simon really was arrested and uses the chance to complain about Rossiu and how her sister Kinon has changed. Dayakka feels that it’s okay for her to say that here in their private hospital room, but she shouldn’t do so outside where the angry mobs are still marching. Across town, Leeron is trying to figure out how to contain the Mugan’s exploding body, and it is Attenborough’s spinning his seat that gives him an idea. Rossiu meanwhile gets a report about the 36 underground cities in the world that could withstand a collision with the moon. These can accommodate 640,000 people, but that still leaves 360,000 people and the question of what to do about the residents of Kamina City. One of Rossiu’s men then finds an interesting piece of information in the biocomputer’s database that he brings to Rossiu’s attention, and it is from this that Rossiu heads under the government building to a previously unknown location that houses something of Lord Genome’s.

Later, at Simon’s trial, Rossiu hands down a death sentence, but Kittan immediately protests because it was absurd to have Barinbou as Simon’s lawyer while Rossiu’s subordinate Kimbley was the prosecutor and Rossiu himself was the judge. Kittan thus thinks it wasn’t a fair trial, but Rossiu points out that someone has to take responsibility and only Simon can do it. Dayakka then speaks out about the bigger picture and what they’ll do about the moon, so Rossiu starts talking about advancing the evacuation plan. As everyone starts arguing about Rossiu being the new commander-in-chief, Simon wonders to himself what Kamina would do in a time like this, but his thought is cut short when he suddenly notices that Nia has appeared in front of him. She reveals that the Anti-Spiral’s want absolute despair, so the spiral life forms have no hope to live. Simon immediately questions what she’s talking about and why she’s doing this, but without directly responding and instead saying that they have two more weeks, Nia approaches Simon and places her hands around his face, allowing Simon to notice that she’s still wearing the engagement ring he gave her.

Soon after Nia disappears through a portal, an alarm starts going off because a huge Mugan has been detected at Rittner. It quickly destroys the settlement and then starts moving towards Kamina City, so Simon tries to get Rossiu to let him pilot the Gurren Lagann because he feels that only it can combat their enemy. When Kimbley accuses him of wanting to clean up his tarnished image with this, Simon claims that he just wants to protect the city. Rossiu then points out that Simon has been condemned to death, so he wouldn’t hand over the Gurren Lagann because of the chance Simon might escape. Simon responds to this by stating that he’d allow them to put a bomb with him on the Gurren Lagann to kill him with if he tried to run. Seeing Simon’s determination, Rossiu decides to let him go through with it, but Simon later finds that Kinon is sitting in the Gurren’s cockpit accompanied by several large bombs wired to the detonator on her belt. Though Simon objects to endangering Kinon, Rossiu explains that this is to ensure that Simon returns alive, and Kinon reveals that she volunteered. As the Gurren Lagann then flies toward the enemy and engages them, Rossiu makes a public announcement broadcast throughout the city about Simon’s death sentence.

Rossiu also tells the citizens that the government will be executing a large-scale evacuation plan where everyone takes refuge in one of the 36 huge shelters. For the residents of Kamina City who don’t have a shelter, they now have the huge Space Daigan, the Arc-Gurren. Rossiu then asks the people to believe in the government and vows that they will definitely survive, causing everyone in the streets to cheer for him. Simon meanwhile continues taking on all the Mugans at once, but he can’t shake their formation or keep them from heading towards the city until Kinon points out that the large green one might controlling the others. This prompts him to dive the Gurren Lagann underground and emerges again with the green Mugan as his target. However, before he can reach it, an image of Nia appears and says goodbye to him, and one of the other Mugans appears and knocks the Gurren Lagann back. Now being circled by the fleet of Mugans, Simon has no choice but to turn the Giga-Drill to maximum, resulting in a huge explosion that destroys their enemies. This explosion also leaves the Gurren Lagann in really bad shape, and when Simon regains consciousness, he sees that the green Mugan survived.

With the Gurren Lagann unable to move, it is Gimmy and Darry’s Grapal squad that shows up with some new toys. Through a combination of the Spiral Bomber to destroy the Mugan and the Tornado Shield that prevents each tiny piece from falling to the ground and blowing up, the Grapal squad finishes the battle. As he watches the explosion, Simon apologizes to Kinon and finally admits that the Nia that he’s seen isn’t the Nia that he knows. In the aftermath, Simon hands over his core drill to Rossiu who announces that the Gurren Lagann will be scrapped. Arriving on the scene in time to see Simon get taken aboard a prison transport and flown away, Kittan also sees how his sister’s life was in danger and how much she likes Rossiu. He tries to hit Rossiu in anger, but Rossiu dodges all of his punches, and Kinon herself steps in to slap him. Before walking off and leaving him in shock, she explains that she volunteered for it and says that he doesn’t understand anything about Rossiu. Meanwhile, Simon arrives in prison to await his execution and finds a familiar face in a nearby cell: Viral.

Preview

As much as I dislike Rossiu more and more after seeing this episode for what he said about Kamina, seizing power, sentencing Simon to death, it does appear that his way of doing things might just work. I’m not entirely convinced that living underground again can save them from the moon crashing onto the planet, but if they can, then Rossiu’s plan could save everyone. Even if that doesn’t work, there’s still the Arc-Gurren which might just represent the next step forward towards space. Still, I’m a little more inclined to believe that the Anti-Spirals will do something to mess this plan up so that Simon has to come save the day again, but we’ll have to wait and see.
On the topic of Nia, despite Simon admitting that this isn’t the Nia he knows, the ring on her finger may be the best evidence yet that she can still be redeemed or that her old self can still be brought back. At this point, I’m more curious about when that’ll happen - in other words, will Simon get her back before he ventures out to space or is saving Nia part of what motivates him for the rest of the show. Next week’s episode, however, seems to be about Simon and Viral in prison, and it also looks like Kittan will get more screen-time after what I thought was a pretty good subplot between him, Rossiu, and Kinon this episode.