After getting the double whammy that is getting dumped by her girlfriend and her family heading out to buy milk, Suletta falls into a depression. Surprisingly, this doesn’t actually take up much of this episode. Much of the run time is dedicated to a bunch of other things, namely Miorine’s trip to Earth. You do get Earth House cheering Suletta up halfway through the episode with some food, and it is a pleasant enough scene, but that’s about it.
Having accidentally confessed his guilt about reporting Nika to Secelia, Martin finds himself doing the girl’s bidding. This is actually a very short-lived arrangement. The real reason Secelia humiliates Martin so that he gets fed up enough to admit that he still thinks he was in the right for reporting Nika (and as much as I don’t like Martin, I’m inclined to agreed). When Martin finally confesses, Secelia convinces him to come clean to his friends, which he does right when Earth House gets Suletta to cheer up. Everyone more or less forgives Martin, understanding he could only do so much at the time. Really, they’re more conflicted over finding out about Nika’s secret. I’m very curious what will happen when they reunite with Nika. Like, there’s no denying that she was in cahoots with a bunch of terrorists but Nika is also their friend and as Till points out, they can only judge her until she explains herself.
Speaking of Nika, she’s still locked up in that one room with El5n and Norea. She and El5n seem to be doing fine but Norea appears to suffering a mental breakdown. As funny as it is to imagine that Norea is losing her mind because she’s been stuck in that same room for days, the most likely culprit is Sophie’s death. Frankly, it’s kind of dumb that Grassley is paying her no mind. They know how out of control she is after she attacked Nika so leaving her alone is just a ticking time bomb waiting to blow up.
I’m kind of surprised to see Belmeria keep her mouth shut at first. I expected her to just immediately come clean about everything. That said, she does cooperate with Feng Jun’s investigation once the inspector reveals what is unfortunately the weakest twist I’ve seen in this show so far. As it turns out, the Space Assembly League have using assets they took from Ochs Earth to develop Gundams. Not only is is implied that they provided Dawn of Fold with Gundams, they also plan on using their weapons to stop Benerit by force. Feng Jung hopes that with Belmeria’s help, she can stop her superiors from starting a war. On paper, I like the idea that the League is just as bad as Benerit. However, this twist falls incredibly flat for me because the League has done squat this entire show. We know so little about the League so them being revealed to be corrupt doesn’t sting at all. The only way you could be shocked here is by virtue of the fact that the show is finally doing something with this faction.
Prospera’s secretary, Godoy (Yutaka Aoyama) somehow catches wind of Belmeria’s double crossing and he attempts to execute her. Feng Jun sacrifices herself so that Belmeria can escape with her partner Guston (Junichi Yanagita). Killing Feng Jung off here seems like a huge risk to me. She’s the only character from the League that we’re remotely familiar with so the show would have go out of its way setting up whoever takes her place in the investigation. Conversely, this does somewhat sell the gravity of the situation and how important Belmeria is at the moment.
Over at Earth, Miorine arrives to meet with Earthian leaders to cease the protests. Guel ends up leaving Miorine to handle the negotiation on her own as he recognizes Seethia’s friend Sedo (Natsumi Fujiwara) and he runs off to talk to the boy. The peace talk proves to be easier said than done as the Earthians are only interested in how Benerit will take responsibility for the people Benerit as either taken hostage or killed, something that Miorine was unaware of. Kind of silly that Miorine didn’t assume that Benerit was up to no good but whatever, this ends up not being the dumbest thing she does this episode.
Sedo asks Guel if there is any way for him to enroll in Asticassia and in the process, he brings up the “Prince”, a title Shaddiq received at Asticassia that Dawn of Fold uses to refer to him. This catches the attention of Guel’s bodyguard, Dominicus Commander Kenanji Avery (Yoji Ueda0, who correctly deduces Shaddiq’s connection to Dawn of Fold. I can’t help but find this hilarious. Like, I knew someone would figure out Shaddiq’s big secret but seriously? All it took was just one stupid kid? Anyway, this prompts Guel to return to Asticassia to gather evidence against Shaddiq.
Miorine eventually convinces the Earthian leaders to cease protests until at least the result of Benerit’s election but this ceasefire lasts about five minutes. Via the Aerial, Prospera hacks some of the Earthians’ weapons to fire upon the Spacians, causing confused soldiers to fire on each other and turn the local area into a warzone. Amidst the chaos, Prospera destroys one of the Space Assembly League’s secret Gundam facilities. I really like the hypocrisy expressed by Prospera here. She calls the League a bunch of “sinners” for against GUND’s ideals but she literally just used a Gundam to create a warzone. Even if it’s for the greater good, she is the last person who should be talking about how Gundams should be used. A lot of scrutiny gets thrown at Miorine; even Miorine herself says that Prospera’s actions are her fault. I’m sorry but it honestly does boggle the mind that Miorine did not see this coming. She’s well aware that Prospera can’t be trusted, it should’ve been really obvious to her that Prospera would be up to no good.
Suletta finds about the violence on the news and she makes the interesting realization that Eri must have pushed her away to protect her from Prospera. It’s possible; had Prospera needed Suletta, she would have absolutely made her do the dirty deed. By kicking her out of the Gundam, Eri might’ve done her sister a favor. Assuming this to be true, that does make me wonder where Eri’s loyalty lie. Her working with Prospera makes me think that she is on board with whatever her mother is doing but the implication that she wanted to protect Suletta does suggest that it’s a little more complicated than that.
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