After the Straggle Laser and sublight missles fail, the Wulgaru start to wail on the Earth forces. An impatient Jiart sorties hoping to draw Izuru out, and Dorgana fights with Ange. When Suzukaze runs out of options, she grudgingly lets Izuru sortie, allowing Asagi and Tamaki to refuel. Theoria and Daneel launch, and she orders the Wulgar to retreat. The Straggle Lasers recharge and fire at the gate again, but are destroyed by Dorgana. Simon orders the Star Rose evacuated in preparation to ram it into the gate.
We’d be lying if we said there wasn’t a part of us that believed the battle would end this week, allowing the finale to be all aftermath/epilogue. That didn’t happen, as the battle rages on, but we have to hand it to this episode for successfully sustaining the heated action. At the end of last week the humans were down, but not out. There was some hope non-energy weapons would be able to penetrate the gate’s armor, but that hope fizzled out as well. Then, just when the six hours needed to recharge the lasers passes and they re-fire, they’re extinguished in an instant. The Rabbits and Theoria do their part, but ultimately that gate will have to be closed using the only projectile big enough to do any damage: Star Rose itself.
As soon as Star Rose accompanied the battle fleet, it became “Chekhov’s Star Rose”, a weapon whose mere presence assured it would ultimately be used. Simon seems poised to pilot the thing to the target, saving Amane from sacrificing herself. But before it gets there, there’s still a lot of battle yet to be fought. Much was made of the fact that Izuru’s next sortie would be his last, and here he is sortieing. Simon looks poised to go out with a bang as well. Predictions about who will live or die aside, that gate’s gotta come down; its just a matter of how and how quickly mankind secures victory, allowing the rest of the finale to deal with the aftermath.
Rating:7 (Very Good)
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