Review by Chris

August 7, 2000

As Jidan sits down for his lunch, Eledore and Michel return in the Hover Truck. Jidan tells them some mail came for them during their mission, and Eledore sends Michel to get it. Jidan tells Eledore that his good lunch comes from a lady friend of his named Maria from a nearby village. Michel returns with the mail, and Eledore eagerly reads a letter addressed to him. It turns out that the song he wrote is going to be recorded, and he's sure it's going to be a big hit. He wants to celebrate, so he and Michel borrow a bike for a 'recon mission' and head for a nearby village. Eledore tells Michel that the very next day he is going to request a discharge because he has no intention of dying in the field. When they arrive at the town, they storm into the bar expecting to find cute girls, but instead they find Zeon soldiers. As night approaches, Aina and Norris are informed that Federation soldiers have been captured in the village. Since the Apsalus is being secretly repaired, Norris has security increased. Soldiers spot a woman trying to take her sick baby to a doctor and start shooting at her. Aina asks Norris if they can help the woman, and he says they can't do anything until the Apsalus is repaired. Sanders tells Shiro that Eledore and Michel vanished at a nearby village. Shiro decides that he and Karen will investigate. Aina and Norris arrive at a hotel, and Aina hears the screams of Eledore and Michel being interrogated. She is disgusted and returns to the Apsalus. Eledore and Michel are thrown into the hotel's basement, and a woman named Maria brings them food. The Zeon guard wonders what the point would be since they are going to be executed in the morning. Maria gives them the food and tells them not to lose hope. She leaves with a hooded girl and gives Norris his room key. Shiro and Karen scope out the village, and he spots a Zaku in the trees. He tells Karen to return to his position, and she spots somebody on a bike. She attacks the hooded girl and sees that it is Kiki.

In their cell, Eledore begins to panic. He doesn't want to die now that his career is finally coming together. He doesn't think it's fair, and Michel becomes angry. He tells Eledore that he's self-centered and that the current situation is his fault because he does whatever he wants. He says that because of that he won't be able to write a goodbye letter to B.B. Eledore goes berserk and starts trashing the room. He then punches Michel and the two begin fighting. The guard sees they are fighting too roughly and goes inside to stop them. He tries to pull Michel off of Eledore, and Eledore knocks him out. They keep fighting for awhile before realizing that the guard is knocked out and the door is open. In another part of the village, repairs on the Apsalus are completed. Michel and Eledore hide in the trees when they see it take off, and Shiro sees from inside his Gundam that it is the mobile armor they fought earlier. He decides they will have to confuse the enemy, so he and Karen begin attacking the Zakus. Eledore and Michel run through the forest, and Michel spots a Zaku Tank. He says it is the only way for them to escape, but Eledore says he doesn't know how to pilot a mobile suit. As they get inside the cockpit, a Zeon armored car spots them and starts shooting. Michel tries to close the hatch, and Eledore tells him to leave it open. As Eledore tries to maneuver the tank, he gets shot in the leg. Michel tries to close the hatch, and Eledore gets shot in the arm as well. He lifts the Zaku Tank's construction arm and smashes the armored car. Nearby, Shiro and Karen finish destroying the Zakus. Karen performs field surgery on Eledore, and Shiro is surprised to hear she was a medical student. Jidan tells him that her husband used to be a field surgeon before he was killed. Maria shows up, and Shiro thanks her for everything she did. Eledore wakes up delirious about losing his arms and grabs Karen's breasts. Shiro slaps Michel for going out on his own and tells him to rest. Jidan hauls Eledore away to take him to a rear line hospital.

Though this was a pretty good episode, I don't see how it fits in to the main storyline of the series. Aina and Norris don't do much here aside from watching the brutality of their fellow soldiers. While some Zeon soldiers are good, this definitely shows that there are bad ones out there. It was also interesting to see Eledore and Michel beat each other up. Though it aided in their escape, that was totally accidental. Eledore mentioned earlier asking for a discharge, and this bearing on the incident with the Zaku Tank. It seems pretty clear that he intentionally wanted to be shot so that he could be pulled off of duty. There would be no other reason for him to do something stupid like keeping the hatch open. On another note, we get some background material on Karen. Who would have guessed that she was a medical student married to a surgeon that was killed in battle?

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Buy the DVD (eps 4-6) or the Collection (1-12, Movie) from DVD Empire

<<back to 08th MS Team episodes