Random Curiosity

Summary:

Although Saji tries to convince Louise that they build their future by understanding each other, she refuses to listen. Andrei then tries to get involved in the fight, but Setsuna knocks him out again. This gives Louise the opening to catch the 00 Raiser and attack it with her electrified wire grapplers, and to make matters worse, some of the Gaga units are headed their way. To prevent the 00 Raiser from getting away, Louise has the Regnant physically restrain it without regard for what happens to herself, and even though the 00 Raiser is able to destroy some of the Gaga units, one of them crashes into the Regnant. Meanwhile, inside the Innovator ship, Tieria tells Ribbons that they’re not Innovators but rather Innovades - artificial beings created to bring about the appearance of the true Innovators. Ribbons, however, suggests that Innovades can evolve and that he personally has surpassed both Innovades and true Innovators. Before Tieria can shoot him, Ribbons shoots Tieria multiple times, killing him.

Over on the Ptolemaios, Billy dismisses the Automatons that he brought with him and claims that he’s doing all this to achieve a permanent peace. In terms of the Innovators, he feels that being led by superior beings is the correct and logical choice, and when Sumeragi points out the loss of freedom, Billy notes that complete freedom means the abandonment of morality, and that’ll just lead to ruin. In a social structure with order, people enjoy limited freedom and are comfortable being protected in a cage, and this is what peace means for him. Billy accuses Celestial Being of messing things up, but Sumeragi feels that a future that’s not created by themselves is meaningless. While this is going on, outside the ship, the battle is going poorly for the Gundam Meisters. Lyle is losing to Ali Al-Saachez, Allelujah and Soma are being pounded by the Gaga forces, the 0 Gundam has run out of particles for its weapons, and Lasse is coughing up blood.

Setsuna, however, has managed to save Louise from the Regnant wreckage, and he instructs Saji to take her unconscious body to a safe place. Shortly after Saji and Louise leave the 00 Raiser, it gets attacked by Hiling and Revive’s mobile suits. Not paying attention to this, Saji takes Louise to a safe place somewhere on the Innovator ship, and he wakes her up. When Louise realizes that it’s him though, she tries to strangle him to death. In doing so, she notices the ring that he’s still wearing around his neck, and that triggers memories in her of their past together. This builds up to the point where Louise is overcome with pain, and she collapses. Setsuna meanwhile is having trouble with the Trans-Am coordination of Hiling and Revive, and he’s forced to use the 00 Raiser’s own Trans-Am. This allows him to sense everything that’s going on across the battlefield, and he can hear Saji crying out for the now unconscious Louise.

Setsuna can also hear Sumeragi tell Billy that she’s fighting so that they can create a future on their own will. Feeling that Sumeragi doesn’t understand, Billy looks ready to shoot her, but Setsuna’s attention is then turned to each of the other spots on the battlefield. All of his friends are in trouble, and refusing to let them die, Setsuna activates the 00 Raiser’s Trans-Am Burst. This causes the 00 Raiser to expel a tremendous amount of GN particles, covering the entire battlefield. Setsuna himself remembers how Lockon told him to change, and he feels that they’re changing to create the future. Nearby, Revive thinks that all this is thanks to the Gundam, but he suddenly hears Regene’s voice tell him that it’s not just that. Regene explains that the quantum brain waves of a pure Innovator synchronizes with the Twin Drives, increasing the purity of the GN particles and enhancing people’s consciousness. Regene, whose dead body is still back where Ribbons left it, thinks that Setsuna has achieved a complete evolution.

As a result of this, the tide of battle begins turning. Lyle starts winning against Ali Al-Saachez, and Hallelujah motivates Allelujah to turn on Trans-Am and destroy the Gaga units coming at him and Marie. Sumeragi uses the ability to communicate telepathically to apologize to Billy because she had known his feelings and yet still depending on him too much. She then approaches him, and he finds himself unable to continue pointing his gun at her. When she hugs him, Billy finally confesses that he’s loved her for a long time. Soma meanwhile finds herself able to communicate telepathically with Andrei, and although she can’t forgive him, she acknowledges that Sergei wouldn’t be happy if she continued to hate him. When she questions why he killed his own father, Andrei claims that it was Sergei having to face the consequences of betraying the military, and he’s still sore over how his father let his mother die.

In particular, Andrei points to how his father never said anything, either to make an excuse or to apologize. Andrei feels that his father didn’t even try to understand his feelings, and that’s why he killed him. Soma responds to this by wondering why Andrei never tried to understand his father if he himself wanted to be understood, and she believes that Sergei surely had Andrei in his thoughts. Andrei, however, questions why his father didn’t say anything back then, and he feels that they have to talk to understand each other. Soma can do nothing but listen as Andrei yells in frustration. At around this same time, the GN particles cause Louise to open her eyes again, and she has returned to normal. As she and Saji embrace one another, Louise asks about the warm light around them, so Saji tells her that it’s the light of Setsuna’s heart - the light that illuminates the future.

By this point, Setsuna is done with Hiling and Revive and enters the Innovator ship so that he can get to Veda. Inside Veda’s room, Ribbons is trying to figure out what these GN particles are that are disturbing his own quantum brain waves. Regene suddenly tells Ribbons telepathically that he’s been waiting for this time, and moments later, Veda rejects the link with Ribbons. Regene refuses to let things happen according to Ribbons’ wishes, and he alerts Ribbons to how Tieria is still alive. In fact, Tieria’s consciousness triggers the Seraphim Gundam to detach from the Seravee, and it activates its Trial Field which cuts off and halts all the Gaga units linked to Veda. It also shuts down Revive and Hiling’s mobile suits as well as the Automatons inside the Ptolemaios that Sumeragi and Billy were trying to hold off. Given this lull in the fighting, Allelujah is able to check up on Marie and finds her okay.

The only fight still going on is the one between Lyle and Ali Al-Saachez, but because the Arche Gundam is in bad condition, Ali is forced to abandon it. Lyle chases him on foot into a nearby corridor and forces him to surrender. Lyle wants to shoot his enemy, but he then remembers how Anew talked about understanding each other, so he starts lowering his gun. Ali uses the opportunity to try to shoot Lyle, however Lyle is still quicker on the draw and finishes Ali off. As he returns to the Cherudim, Lyle comments on how, thanks to Anew, he feels that a world where people understand each other is not impossible. Thus, even if he’s alienated from the world and takes the blame, Lyle is determined to fight as a Gundam Meister of Celestial Being. Setsuna meanwhile reaches Veda’s room and finds Tieria’s dead body. He vows to avenge Tieria, however Tieria’s voice suddenly starts speaking to him.

Tieria explains that his consciousness has been completely linked with Veda, and he’s glad to have been an Innovade because he was able to save everyone. Being connected with Veda allowed Tieria to learn everything, and he decides to explain Aeolia Schenberg’s plan. Tieria notes that, although their armed intervention actions were filled with contradictions, it stimulated the unification of the world. A mankind that holds onto the sources of strife could not be allowed to advance into outer space, and a mankind that does not change cannot inherit the future. Thus, in order to prepare for the dialogue with the different wills, they need to understand each other. Understanding this, Setsuna returns to the 00 Raiser and flies back towards the Ptolemaios, but he never makes it because Ribbons suddenly reappears in his own mobile suit. After taking out the Seraphim Gundam, Ribbons takes credit for Setsuna’s powers.

Preview

I thought this was an exciting episode overall, but certain parts of it felt forced or at least poorly set up. It was mainly with how they showed all of the characters in such bad situations that really the only thing that could save them was a miracle. And so halfway through the episode, I was already expecting Setsuna to pull off some sort of god mode miracle, and lo and behold, a Trans-Am Burst later, everything magically turned around and pretty much everyone made it out okay, even Louise who looked dead at one point. The exception was Tieria who lost his body but it sounded like he was pretty content being one with Veda. My point is that they really shouldn’t have tried to solve everyone’s problems with just one miracle solution - that just makes it seem like the writers got lazy. I guess the general idea that they’re trying to show with all this is that understanding each other can lead to peace, and it’s demonstrated by how the particles/telepathic communication allow Billy and Sumeragi to make up and allow Soma to help Andrei come to terms about his father. It’s not a bad theme to end on, but they need to be careful about overemphasizing and overusing it.

Speaking of Billy, I really, really hope he dies next week. He doesn’t deserve to end up with Sumeragi, and it pains me to think that a good ending for her might involve him. I’m glad to see though that at least Ali is dead for good. I still think Setsuna should have gotten the honor of shooting him, but oh well - Setsuna did more than his share this episode. I also have to say that Ribbons’ mecha is rather ugly and not very intimidating at all. I bet it has Trans-Am mode and maybe a transformation or two, but I still don’t see how it’s going to be much of a challenge for the 00 Raiser. And where the hell is Graham in all this? I’m hoping he comes in next week in the finale and steals all of the time that’s probably being allocated to Marina. She’s been sidelined so much that I’m really dreading how they’re going to probably work her back in through her song. In any case, there’s only so much they can fit into one episode, so I hope Ribbons goes down relatively quickly and we can get some decent closure for all the characters in the finale.