In my Episode 2 post, I brought up that the show did not use all the flashback “footage” from the Beginning movie. Turns out, the missing stuff got repurposed for Episode 8. Maybe it’ll make sense when I finish the show and look back on the whole picture but right now, I don’t get placing this segment here. It offers some worldbuilding but it doesn’t have any direct bearing on the present-day scenes that play afterwards so it comes across more as padding than anything integral.
As for what happens in the flashback, you basically get to see the final battle between Zeon and the Federation in earnest, set on a key military base called Solomon. Char plants several explosives on the asteroid the base is situated in order to deal a crippling defeat to the Federation. In secret however, Char also plots to use the explosives to kill Kycilia, whom Char has some beef with. In the middle of his plan however, Char gets intercepted by a lone Federation pilot, whom Char identifies via his Newtype abilities to be someone close to him named Artesia. The inevitable Zeknova then triggers and Char and the Red Gundam disappear as a result. This version of the event elaborates that Char communicates with an unseen character before disappearing. Kycilia is meanwhile informed that a test subject of hers, codenamed the “Rose of Sharon” has also gone missing following the Zeknova. Honestly, this segment is where I felt the most lost during the Beginning movie and it’s still a bit confusing on a rewatch via this episode. Maybe GQuuuuuuX will explain these later but stuff such as Char’s grudge towards Kycilia and the identity of Artesia is all pretty confusing to someone who hasn’t dived into UC Gundam.
Back in the present, we see Nyaan arrive in Granada, a lunar city on the far side of the Moon. Kycilia wants Nyaan to trigger a Zeknova, presumably for a special project of hers codenamed Yomagn’tho. In exchange, Kycilia provides Nyaan with a full scholarship at Zeon’s most prestigious school, which also provides Nayan with full residency. It seems too good of an offer to me but given Nyaan’s background, I get that she accepts it. Xavier then introduces Nyaan her new mobile suit, the Gundam GFreD, which was developed alongside the GQuuuuuuX. Given that Hideakki Anno helped write this series, the green and purple paintjob on the GFreD is pretty cheeky.
Xavier also introduces Nyaan to an old buddy of his, Miguel Serveto (Taku Yashiro). Nyaan learns from the two of them that the previous two candidates of the GFreD died under mysterious circumstances. Miguel offers Nyaan some cake as a sort of welcome present. In a vacuum, this would be a nice gesture considering how bad Nyaan’s life in Side 6 was. That said, Nyaan puts two and two together and deduces that Miguel put poison in the cake and he gave them to the previous candidates to kill them. Miguel then admits to Nyaan and Xavier that he’s a double agent working for Gihren and his plan has been to prevent the GFred’s pilot from becoming a “Diablo”. The scene doesn’t explicitly say what exactly a Diablo is though it likely has something to do with Newtypes as Miguel accuses Nyaan of already being one when the GFreD reacts to Nyaan’s abilities. I kind of like the intrigue brewing in this plot but the drama with Miguel sadly falls flat here. It’s the same problem as with a lot of side characters in this show. They get introduced and shortly after, they get killed off before you can actually get invested in them.
Nyaan instinctively commands the GFreD to attack Miguel in self-defense. I kind of like how unnecessarily extreme Miguel’s death is. Because Miguel is a footnote, Xavier gets over his death rather quickly. The incident convinces Kycilia even more that Nyaan is exactly what she needs for her plans. Kycilia also murders her attendant Atharv (Kōki Uchiyama), having randomly figured out that he’s another double agent sent by Gihren. So there’s another wasted character to add to the growing list. I suppose Atharv serves a purpose informing the viewer that Yomagn’tho is doomsday weapon but I think that was obvious from the get go. As Nyaan settles in a dorm room, she learns from Xavier that the GQuuuuuuX has escaped from Sodon to Earth, leading Nyaan to assume that it’s been commandeered again by Machu. That I admit is pretty exciting. I’m curious how Machu escapes and how she’ll react now that she finally gets to go to Earth.
Xenodude Scribbles 
The relationship of Char, Artesia and the Zabis is technically a spoiler for the original Gundam series, but it’s also absolutely fundamental franchise lore, more or less the Gundam equivalent of “Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father”.
Char Aznable’s real name is Casval Deikun and he’s the son of Zeon Zum Deikun, the original founder of the Zeon ideology of Spacenoid nationalism. Artesia is Char’s sister, Zeon Zum Deikun’s daughter. Deikun died under suspicious circumstances when Casval and Artesia were children, and they were given false identities and raised on Earth to protect them from the Zabis. His death enabled Degwin Zabi (Gihren and Kycilia’s father) to seize dictatorial power and turn the ideology into the pretext for an all-out war against the Earth–the One Year War. Char fought for Zeon in the OYW (wearing a mask to hide his identity) but at the same time he sought to assassinate the Zabis to avenge his father. Meanwhile Artesia became a Federation mobile suit pilot going by the name Sayla Mass (you’ve seen her if you’ve watched even a few episodes of the original Gundam–she’s one of Amuro’s comrades on the White Base, the blonde one).
LikeLike