Review by Chris

January 24, 2003

In the middle of a battle, Uso has a flashback of his mother Muller teaching him how to throw a knife at a target. He is then attacked by several Zoloats, but he destroys them with his beam rifle. Lupe and Katejina attack with their Gedlavs and Einerads, and Uso wants to get away from them so he can see his mother. He flies around Katejina and momentarily confuses her with his wings of light. He then unleashes several mini laser pods and draws Katejina and Lupe into a trap. Marbet and Oliver assist him in battle before retreating to the Reinforce Junior. Since the ship is damaged it has to land on the Moon's surface to hide from the Zanscare. Uso thanks Marbet for her help before returning to the White Ark. Elsewhere, the Motorad fleet hides in one of the canyons on the Moon's surface. Cronicle meets with Pippiniden and Duker to discuss testing the Motorad fleet's land roving abilities. Duker says they won't know for sure until they land on Earth, and Cronicle leaves Pippiniden in charge of conducting tests on the Moon. Uso acts as the White Ark's guard as it approaches the city of St. Joseph. He spots a light signal which is coming from Karrel's truck. He tells Uso and the others that their contact in the League Militaire factory wants them to use another entrance since the White Ark can't approach the city. Everyone transfers over to Karrel's truck and enters St. Joseph. After being cleared at the entrance they get on the highway and head for the factory. A black car sideswipes them and a woman jumps out of it. Uso takes control of the truck because he wants to chase her. The woman runs into an alley and is cornered by several men who begin to punch her. Uso jumps out of the truck and drop kicks one of them while Odelo, Flanders and Haro attack the others. Shakti runs out to help the woman and sees that it is Muller. Everyone boards the truck and quickly escapes. Uso sees that it really is his mother, and Muller asks him why he is in St. Joseph. They drive to Muller's apartment, and she explains that those men were Zanscare's secret police. Odelo tells Uso to stay behind and take a break while everyone else heads to the factory. Uso and Muller hug, and she apologizes for leaving him alone on Earth.

Muller explains to Uso that she had to leave him behind so that she could take the Victory Gundam's plans to the Moon. Though she had heard that the Victory Gundam's pilot was a kid, she was very surprised to see that it was Uso. He tells her it was tough at first and he was scared when the first docked in combat. He recalls that battle with Cronicle. He tells Muller that he hates not knowing what he's doing. He says that what Zanscare does goes too far. He remembers when Fuala had Oi Nyung executed back on Earth. Uso knows that the guillotine was used as a stage act centuries ago, and he wonders why people from the space colonies use it. He asks Muller what the purpose was of the Victory Gundam, and she tells him it was designed to destroy the guillotine. He wonders if that's a coincidence, and she says it isn't. He recalls his first battle with Duker's Gattarl squad when he took over a Core Fighter from Marbet and fought off the bikes by himself. Muller is amazed that Uso can pilot the Victory Gundam, but she says it's no coincidence. She tells him that on the night he was born she saw a light that indicated to her he would be a Newtype. He wonders if that's really possible, and she tells him it is because he's survived through so many battles. Uso recalls when he used his para glider to jump off a ruined building and take over Marbet's Core Fighter. He recalls forming up the Victory Gundam and single-handedly taking on a squad of attacking Tomliats and destroying them. Uso falls asleep on Muller's lap, and she holds him. She thinks he must be hurting a lot, but she is too. She thinks human being have great potential. She tells Uso she is sorry that he ended up becoming a guinea pig and testing the Victory Gundam. Muller then takes Uso to bed so that he can sleep.

Though we finally get to see Uso's mother, there's not too much going on in this episode. After a brief battle, Uso and the others head for the Moon and coincidentally run into Muller as she escapes from Zanscare. What really bugged me about this episode was that the second half was made up almost entirely of extended clips disguised as flashbacks. Instead of having some more interaction between Uso and his mother, what he get is just battle footage that has already been repeated several times before. The first half is fine, but it all falls apart in the second half. Perhaps Tomino and staff got a little lazy this time around and took the easy way out with clips.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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