Random Curiosity

Summary:

Suzaku had set up the call between Nunnally and Lelouch knowing that if Lelouch hadn’t gotten his memories back, then he wouldn’t recognize her. This is the predicament Lelouch finds himself in because he feels that he can’t lie to Nunnally. Luckily for him, Rolo appears on the rooftop and activates his Geass power to cover just Suzaku. In the few precious seconds he has to talk with Nunnally unhindered, Lelouch tells her that they have to pretend to be strangers for now, but he promises to come get her. He’s barely able to tell Nunnally that he loves her before Rolo’s Geass wears off, and from that point on, he pretends to be just a student. This succeeds in making Suzaku think that Lelouch’s memory hasn’t returned, and so he ends the call. Nunnally is currently at Britannia’s California base ready to leave with her escort for Japan, and Upson - the man in charge of her safety - doesn’t heed Guilford’s warnings about Zero. While they are talking with Lloyd - who is there with the Lancelot - Nunnally thinks privately to herself about Suzaku lying, and she wonders what happened between him and her brother.

Over in the Chinese Federation capital of Luoyang, the young empress is talking with Kaguya about the outside world since she’s never left her castle before. Kaguya, however, has to leave because she claims her husband is waiting. Meanwhile C.C. is asking Lelouch if he intends to fight Nunnally or if he’ll leave her alone. Lelouch would never do the former but he can’t do the latter either because he knows that she’ll just be used as a political tool again. Refusing to let that happen, he declares that he’ll create a world where Nunnally can live happily - that’s why he wants to destroy Britannia. He then changes the subject to V.V., so C.C. reveals that V.V. is the first like-minded person for the Emperor of Britannia and that the two had been sworn together. At that moment, V.V. is with the Emperor at the Sword of Akasha temple talking about how their contract is to kill God. V.V. then asks the Emperor why he didn’t tell Nunnally about Zero’s true identity or about Geass, and the Emperor’s answer is that it was unnecessary. Hearing this, V.V. calls the Emperor young, and the Emperor smiles and refers to V.V. as his older brother.

Back in Tokyo, Suzaku heads to the Chinese Consulate General only to find out from Li Xingke that the Black Knights are already gone. Suzaku quickly realizes that they might be going after Nunnally, and indeed, that is what the Black Knights are up to. High above the Pacific Ocean, they launch a Knightmare attack on Nunnally’s transport and its escorts, and Zero tells everyone that their objective is to capture the new Governor-General. Led by Toudou and Kallen, the Black Knights successfully land on top of the aircraft, and Zero boards the main one. Reinforcements, however, soon arrive for the Britannian side in the form of Guilford and the remaining Glaston Knights in new Knightmares equipped with Float Units, and coming up behind them is Lloyd and Cecile in the Avalon. By now, Zero has reached the garden room where Nunnally is, and since she doesn’t know his true identity, she thinks that he’s there to kill her like he did with Clovis and Euphemia. She wants him to wait off on that because she feels that he’s wrong, but Zero says that it’s Britannia that is wrong, and he tries to tell her that she’s being used. Nunnally surprises him by revealing that she personally wished for this because she intends to continue what Euphemia started with the Japanese Special Administrative Region. She wants Zero to participate, and the way she asks him reminds him heavily of Euphemia.

In the fight outside, Toudou and Kallen work together to take down one of the Glaston Knights, but more Britannian reinforcements soon arrive. This time, it’s Suzaku, Anya, and Zino, and though the latter two are in their Knightmares, Suzaku still has to get his from Lloyd. Once onboard the Lancelot Conquista, Suzaku prepares to launch and prioritizes Nunnally’s rescue. Since he’s in a hurry, he uses the Lancelot’s new backpack-mounted Hadron cannon against Kallen, and it destroys the Guren Nishiki’s right arm. The blast sends the Guren falling off the aircraft, and since Kallen can’t eject, she thinks that it’s over for her. To Kallen’s surprise though, Laksharta and the rest of the Black Knights appear on their submarine, and they launch a flight pack for the Guren. After Kallen has connected the Guren to this, Laksharta also sends up a new armor-piercing bombardment right arm, and once the Guren has that too, Kallen rejoins the battle. Not only can the Guren now employ a shield against normal weapons fire, it can also fire a devastating long-range blast from its palm that has the same effect as its old arm. This destroys Guilford’s Vincent and kills his remaining men, and Guilford is forced to eject.

Realizing the threat Kallen poses, Suzaku and the other Knights of Rounds go after her, but she is more than able to handle them all at once. She uses a wide-range blast from the Guren’s palm against the Tristan and the Mordred, and for the Lancelot, she launches a set of Gefjun Net missiles. While Suzaku is fighting her, he gets a message from Cecile who has finally found where Nunnally is on the main transport, but there’s less than a minute until that transport crashes. At the same time, C.C. and Kaguya tell Kallen to go save Zero, but she has no idea where he is. Lelouch is at that moment conflicted about what to do with Nunnally, and his thoughts are interrupted when Suzaku bursts into the garden room in the Lancelot. Lelouch rushes towards Nunnally, but the winds generated by the Lancelot keep him away from her, and he is stunned to hear Nunnally calling out to Suzaku since Suzaku was the one who sold him off to the Emperor. Suzaku quickly reaches Nunnally and flies her out of the transport right as it crashes into the ocean. Thrown into the air by the ensuing explosion, Lelouch cries out for Nunnally as the Guren catches him, and Nunnally hears his voice.

Preview

Damn, the Guren got really overpowered, this week. I guess since the Lancelot got some upgrades, the Guren had to get more powerful too, but compared to everything else, it’s now god-like. Actually, now that I think about it, the Guren does share some similarities with God Gundam. In any case, overpowered or not, all the new weapons and effects used made the fight pretty exciting to watch. I’m curious now to see what the Knightmares of the other Knights of Rounds can do, and how they compare to the Guren. I would guess that the Knight of One could probably still kick everyone’s asses if he’s as powerful as suggested.

One of the other things I found particularly interesting in this episode was how the Emperor of Britannia refers to V.V. as his older brother. Given how old C.C. is, it wouldn’t surprise me if V.V. is just as old, but I didn’t think he was directly related to the Emperor. The two were also talking about killing god again as part of their contract, whatever that actually means. A shot of Jupiter was shown again at that point, making me once again wonder what they keep hinting at.

As for Lelouch, he’s lucky that Rolo came to help him up there on the school rooftop. However, I wonder if Rolo is aware of who Nunnally really is. His whole relationship with Lelouch hinges on how Lelouch treats him like a little brother, and so if he finds out that Lelouch actually only cares for Nunnally, then there’s no more reason for him to do Lelouch’s bidding. That seems like the kind of thing that’ll follow Murphy’s Law and go bad at the worst possible time for Lelouch unless he decides that Rolo has outlived his usefulness and kills him off (and that seems unlikely). Speaking of worst possible times, it must be pretty devastating for Lelouch to have Nunnally so close, only to have her see Suzaku as her savior and be taken away by him. That’s just one more reason for him to hate Suzaku, as if he didn’t have enough already. And if the episode title for next week is any indicator, it looks like that might have had such an impact on him that he’s considering throwing away his Zero mask.

Edit: Oh, I nearly forgot to mention, the PV for the OP aired earlier this week. It’s a fun watch and even has one Orange Range band member using a power that’s similar to Rolo’s Geass.