Random Curiosity

Summary:

Continuing with their mission, the Gundam Thrones strike an AEU base in Italy while Setsuna and company have been told to wait for orders. The Union president and military leadership agree that these new Gundams clearly have a different type of military intervention than the previous ones, and the president wonders if them doing the joint exercise incurred the Gundams’ wrath. These attacks have strengthened the cooperation between the three superpowers, though some leaders in the AEU question if it’s enough to defeat the Gundams. Alejandro meanwhile informs Wang Liu Mei that he knows nothing about the new Gundams other than what Veda tells him, and he claims that his personal opinion is that their operations are a little too much. When she asks him if he thinks this is all part of the master plan, he suggests that it appropriate to think so since they’ve got Gundams.

On the Ptolemaios, Ian explains to the others that the Thrones use the same technology as the other Gundams with the exception of their GN Drives. There is specifically a difference in the reactor core that limits how much time it can be active, making it only a pseudo-GN Drive. Allelujah thinks that these Gundams were built with technology stolen from Celestial Being, and because the design data for these GN Drives exists only in Veda, that means someone hacked into it. Since the production of one of these drives takes a long time, the group suspects that there’s a traitor in their organization. When asked by Ian about what they’ll do, Sumeragi thinks that if the world is convinced that they’re friends with the Trinity siblings, then accomplishing their mission will be dangerous right now. Tieria meanwhile has been running a check on Veda and discovers that part of the data has been tampered with. However, much to his shock, he’s denied access to it. As for Wang Liu Mei, she thinks that the Trinity siblings’ way of doing things is definitely reckless, however she’s willing to be accept it if it leads to the world changing.

Around this time, Graham and Daryl are paying their last respects to Howard Mason at his grave. After Daryl mentions how Howard had said that it was thanks to Graham that he was able to become a Flag Fighter and how Howard had looked forward to being able to fly with him, Graham swears that he’ll defeat the Gundams with a Flag. Meanwhile, in America, Kinue meets with a Union pilot and pays him to tell her what he saw in the Taklamakan Desert. It turns out that this pilot had overheard Nena talking while he was waiting to be rescued after his Realdo was shot down. He was thus able to conclude that one of the pilots was a young girl, and she had told her Haro to report to some place called Laguna. The pilot never reported what he saw to the military, and Kinue is willing to pay him more to keep quiet for a while longer. However, shortly after he and Kinue part ways, the pilot is cornered in an alley and shot by someone.

In Northern Spain, Louise and her parents are attending a wedding reception, though Louise isn’t paying much attention to her surroundings and is instead on the phone with Saji. Shortly after the call suddenly gets cut off, Louise spots the three Gundam Thrones in the sky. The Trinity siblings are headed towards their next mission point, but Nena is feeling restless from all the work and spots the wedding reception below. She gets pissed off because those people are all so carefree while she has to work, so she decides to blow them up. Her first shot kills almost everyone there except for Louise, and the second shot hits the building behind Louise. Nena ends up telling her brothers that she hit the wrong switch, and all she gets is a mild scolding from Johann. As for Louise, she survived the attack, but she’s badly injured and stuck under a slab of debris. News of the attack on civilians quickly reaches the Ptolemaios, and since there’s nothing about this in Veda’s mission data, it means that this was wasn’t warranted.

Unable to contact Louise, Saji checks with his school and finds out that she’s been hospitalized. It’s not until he reads a news report on how a resort in Spain was attacked by Gundams that he realizes what really happened. Meanwhile, at Union’s Illinois base, Graham finds an injured Billy working on a Flag. Billy feels that he needs to be there to make adjustments on the custom Flags, especially now that Eifman is gone. He also thinks that the true purpose behind the attack on the OverFlags base was to kill Eifman. Billy knows that Eifman was studying the special particles from the Gundam, and he thinks that Celestial Being found out somehow, causing them to eliminate Eifman under the guise of military intervention. Right as the two are talking about how there could be a traitor in the military, the base alarms go off because Gundams have entered Iowa skies. Graham realizes that the target is a munitions plant, but this is one that has civilians working in it, and he decides to go out in his Flag.

Graham immediately engages in battle with the Throne Eins and manages to overpower it with dual beam sabers. He then has his Flag pick up the Eins’ own dropped beam saber and uses it to cut off the Gundam’s right arm. After the Eins retreats, Graham coughs up blood and is frustrated with how his body can’t endure the g-forces. When word of this latest attack and its 800+ civilian casualties reaches Lockon and Setsuna, Lockon feels that this is no different from indiscriminate terrorism. Setsuna decides that he has to do something and heads for the Exia. Up in space, Sumeragi is thinking about how Veda - a quantum processing system - is the key to their plan, so if it’s been hacked, then they’d have to go forward without it, and that’d be impossible. She then gets a message from Billy telling her about Eifman’s death, and shortly thereafter, Christina calls her with news of an emergency.

By now, Saji has flown to Spain to go see Louise, and he finds her awake on her hospital bed. He’s glad to see that she’s doing okay, and he reveals that he’s bought her a present: the ring that she had wanted. Saji is also ready to tell Louise that he loves her, but before he can say those words, she cuts him off by apologizing. Although she finds the ring pretty and is glad he bought it for her, she can’t wear it anymore because she lost her left hand in the attack. Saji is shocked beyond words as Louise starts to cry, and it’s made worse when the nurse tells him that Louise lost her parents and relatives. He is left to wander the hospital corridors in disbelief, and he eventually starts crying too. The culprits of all this are meanwhile flying over an ocean when they suddenly come under attack. The source of the attack is the Exia, and Setsuna is ready to challenge all three Gundam Thrones.

Preview:

I’m impressed by how powerful the scene between Louise and Saji was. No left hand means that Louise can’t wear a wedding band, and so not only did the attack kill her parents and relatives, it took away one of the ways she could show her love for Saji. This is a personal tragedy aspect that this series hasn’t touched on much up until now (except maybe a little with Setsuna), and I’m very curious what direction they go with it. Saji and Louise have thus far been a few steps removed from the Gundams even as they suffer the consequences, and I wonder if this is the tipping point that causes Saji to join the military or something.

As for Nena, she showed the inhumane things that she’s capable of, though I can’t help but think that this is likely the product of how she was raised. In that regard, the person who let her pilot a Gundam is as much to blame as she is, and I bet that person is probably Alejandro. With the number of episodes left in this first series, it wouldn’t surprise me if we ended with Alejandro revealing himself to be the true bad guy. Anyway, the more immediate concern is Setsuna facing all three Gundam Thrones, and since I don’t even think he can handle one of them right now, I doubt he’s going to accomplish much next episode with the attack.

On a side note, a CODE GEASS R2 commercial aired this week, and it previewed the new OP.