*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Machu plans to flee the colony with Shuji during the Clan Battle match, having Nyaan substitute for her while she gets the money they earned from Annqi. The Psycho Gundam unleashes its destructive power inside the colony, causing mass chaos and panic. Nyaan tries to flee with Shuji, but there’s a Zeknova event and he and the Red Gundam disappear. Chalia Bull saves Kycilia from being killed by Deux Murasame with his mobile armor then he captures the GQuuuuuuuX with Machu inside. Nyaan is brought on board a Zeon ship with Xavier to serve under Kycilia. Chalia decides he has to kill both Kycilia and Gihren at the same time.
Comments:
Wow, a whole lot happened all at once here! A lot of fighting, a lot of jockeying, and a whole lot of broken dreams.
For one thing, Machu’s got a heaping dose of reality when things didn’t quite work out for her. Not only was she unable to flee the colony with Shuji and the money she earned in Clan Battle, but she was taken into custody and labelled a terrorist. Knowing her, she’ll probably blame Shuji’s disappearance on Nyaan, and that’ll send them on a collision course at some point in the future. It’s going to be hard for her to trust anyone now that she’s a prisoner on board the White Ba—I mean, Sodon (that’s where she is in the end, right?), but you can bet that Chalia Bull has some work for her to do.
Nyaan, meanwhile, who tried to escape the colony with Shuji to the exclusion of Machu, finds herself without anything to hold onto. Her relationship with Machu is damaged, Shuji has disappeared in a flash of sparkly Newtype bullshit, and she’s also a wanted terrorist. The only thing she has now is the offer from Xavier and Kycilia to be a Zeon pilot. Something tells me her faction of Zeon is going to be in conflict with Chalia (and Machu’s?)’s.
Things didn’t work out for Gates Capa and Deux Murasame, either. The Psycho Gundam was more than formidable, but against Chalia and Xavier both it couldn’t fulfill its task of killing a Zabi. I didn’t give a crap about Gates, but Duex was enough of an interesting persona that you’d want her to stick around a little longer. The poor thing was obviously hideously manipulated and while she objected to the idea and said she chose to be a Newtype, you could clearly see how pitiful her existence was. I’m just a little surprised that Chalia Bull’s outdated mobile armor could do so much damage to a brand new monstrosity like the Psycho Gundam.
I loved the use of the Zeta Gundam BGM when the Psycho Gundam appeared and transformed. I hope the series continues to use music from the original series and its sequel as time goes on. It really puts you in the Universal Century mood.
Next week looks to finish off the Char section of the “Beginning” movie, where we’ll see how the first Zeknova event was initiated back during the war. I’m not sure there’s twenty-something minutes of that left, though.
