Random Curiosity

Summary:

Before Saji can fire at Louise’s GN-XIII, the Ptolemaios veers out of the way and launches a set of missiles. One of the missiles hits and destroys Louise’s suit’s right arm, and she’s protected from another missile by Andrei who subsequently orders her to get away. Back on the Ptolemaios, Ian doesn’t mind that Saji wasn’t able to fire, and Saji continues to struggle with his emotions. Outside, the 00 Gundam is losing the battle against Mr. Bushido’s custom Ahead, leaving Setsuna no choice but to activate the Trans-Am system. With it on, he’s able to slice off the custom Ahead’s left arm, but right as Setsuna goes in for the killing blow, the Trans-Am system shuts off because of an overload. Mr. Bushido takes this opportunity to point his custom Ahead’s beam saber beside the head of the 00 Gundam as if he were planning on cutting it off, but because he feels that his opponent’s unit wasn’t perfect, he declares that it’s not worth it and leaves. When the other A-LAWS mobile suits then try to attack the disabled 00 Gundam, the Seravee and the Cherudim Gundams come to its rescue.

It is at this point that Sumeragi, having regained consciousness, orders the retreat of the Gundams along with the firing of a special smoke torpedo. This in turn causes Kati to order a retreat of her forces as well. Unfortunately for the Celestial Being group, they then realize that they can’t find the Arios, so Sumeragi sends the Seravee and the Cherudim out to search for it. The Arios had crashed earlier along with Soma’s custom Ahead into a forest, and when Allelujah regains consciousness, he immediately goes to check on Soma. When she sees him, she tries to kill him, but her proximity to him causes a painful reaction inside of her. It culminates in her remembering her past with Allelujah after he calls her by her real full name: Marie Parfacy. Though she faints soon afterward, she first calls Allelujah by his name as well. Meanwhile, both Sergei and the A-LAWS forces are out searching for Soma, but the latter group is forced to abort their search because their job is to focus on Celestial Being. Onboard the Ptolemaios, Ian scolds Setsuna for using the Trans-Am system and gets to work with repairs. Saji helps Ian out and admits to Setsuna that he’ll do anything until the Katharon people can get away safely.

Back in the forest, Marie wakes up inside a tent that Allelujah had set up. He reports that both of their mobile suits’ systems are down and that they can’t repair it themselves, so they have to wait to be rescued. Allelujah then asks Marie why she was Soma Peries, so she suggests that a different personality was planted in her which restored her lost senses. The super-human organization had sent her off to the military as a super-soldier in an attempt to continue the organization’s own existence. Still, Marie credits that for being able to see Allelujah, and he in turn admits that he didn’t think he’d be able to exchange words with her. Marie then asks Allelujah what happened after he fled from the organization, so he explains that he and a bunch of others were escaping from being disposed. He had stopped in front of Marie’s room on the way out, but he had decided to continue on without going in. Allelujah had initially regretted not taking her with him, but he’s glad now that he didn’t. He and the others had left the colony via a stolen transport, but with no place to go, they drifted in space and ran out of food and oxygen. That led to Hallelujah taking over and killing the others.

Marie admits that she knew that there was another personality inside of him, but Allelujah makes no excuses and declares that Hallelujah is himself. He feels that his fate was cursed, and he became a Gundam Meister to change the world because, as a super-soldier, all he can do is fight. This discussion prompts Allelujah to ask Marie about having Soma’s memories, and since she admits to having them as well as Soma’s personality, he thinks that she knows about what he did. He’s still distraught over how he killed everyone when he destroyed the superhuman organization’s facilities with the Kyrios, but Marie doesn’t blame him because she also killed him - Hallelujah - once before. Allelujah tries to make the distinction between Marie and Soma, but Marie feels that they are one and the same, and she apologizes to him. Since Allelujah is unsure about what to do, Marie holds his hand and tells him that just him being there makes her happy. He was the only one who reacted to the quantum brain waves she sent out when she couldn’t move or use any of her senses, and it was because of him that she was able to be thankful for being alive.

Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of a Federation mobile suit: Sergei’s. Sergei recognizes Allelujah’s voice from their previous encounter years ago, and as a result of this, he draws his gun and tries to separate Allelujah and Marie. Meanwhile, the Katharon survivors arrive at another secret base and learn that the Federation has finally embarked on the Middle East. Its military has entered the attacked Azadistan, and they’ve established an interim government with plans to reorganize the entire Middle East. Marina is shocked when she hears that Azadistan no longer exists. Back in the forest, Marie tries to explain to Sergei that she’s no longer Soma Peries, and Allelujah refuses to turn her over because he knows that she’d just be treated as a super-soldier by the Federation and A-LAWS. Sergei, however, points out that if Marie stayed with Allelujah, she’d get involved in fighting anyway because Allelujah belongs to Celestial Being. He refuses to believe in someone who he considers to be a terrorist, and he still harbors a grudge over all the comrades he’s lost to them. With Sergei ready to shoot him, Allelujah actually asks Sergei to do so, but he also wants Sergei to swear that Marie will never be involved in fighting again because he just wants her to be happy.

Agreeing to this, Sergei fires his gun, and Marie jumps in front of Allelujah at the last moment to prevent him from getting hit. She is unhurt though because Sergei had actually fired his gun into the air, and he then declares that Soma Peries died with honor in battle. As he turns to leave, Sergei also remembers to thank Allelujah for helping out in the rescue operation five years ago at the low orbit station. Marie in turn uses this chance to thank Sergei for using her only against the Gundams and for not making her participate in other operations. She also reveals that the Soma Peries inside of her had wanted to become his daughter, and Sergei is content just to hear those words. When Marie then runs and hugs Sergei one last time, he urges her to live on happily with Allelujah. The two part ways with a salute, and Marie can’t help but cry as she watches him fly off in his mobile suit. Wiping away her tears, Allelujah thanks her for being alive and for giving him something to live for. Lockon meanwhile spots Sergei’s GN-XIII, but to his surprise, Sergei transmits the location of the Arios via optical communication, and the two mobile suits pass each other without incident. By the time Lockon flies over where Allelujah and Marie are standing, the two are kissing.

The crew of the Ptolemaios are happy to hear that Allelujah has been found, and even Setsuna is relieved. When Saji catches him smiling, Setsuna explains that anyone would smile when there’s something happy. The crew, however, is surprised to learn that Allelujah is bringing a girl back with him. The news eventually reaches Tieria, who is out on a cliff overlooking the ocean, but he then gets approached by someone who looks just like him. This person explains that it’s because their DNA is the same, and he introduces himself as an Innovator, Regene Regetta.

Preview

Well that was a pretty quick conclusion to the Allelujah and Marie stuff. I probably shouldn’t call it a conclusion since there’s likely (or hopefully) more to it down the road, but my point is that I was surprised how easily things were resolved between them. That’s also not to say that this was rushed or poorly done - in fact, despite feeling that some parts were a bit slow and overly dramatic, I enjoyed the episode. I had merely thought something like this could drag on for the better part of the series as one of several important subplots, yet in the course of one episode, Soma became Marie, and Marie and Allelujah became a couple. Perhaps with so many characters to develop, they couldn’t afford to spend any more time on this.

As for Sergei, I rather liked the parting scene between him and Soma/Marie (helped along by the Tommy heavenly6 insert song titled Unlimited Sky), and what he did only reinforces my notion that he’s too kind, but it looks like he won’t get killed because of it. Actually, I was half-expecting Sergei to get killed by Lockon in an ultimate twist of irony and fate, but fortunately it didn’t turn out that way. I’m curious to see now what happens to his character and to Marie’s character. There’s a good chance one or both of them will just fade into the background while other characters take center stage, especially since, as cool as it would be to see Allelujah and Marie fighting alongside each other, Allelujah probably won’t want her to do any more piloting. Anyway, it looks like we’re already moving on to Tieria’s back-story next, and, as the OP and ED have hinted, it’s connected with Ribbons and the Innovators. I’m sure this shot from the preview will get a lot of attention.