Episode 18: Goodbye for Now

Review by Dale

August 23, 2000

In Kasted City, Vash awakens from a nightmare involving Knives berating him for his weakness, but he looks completely different. A young girl, Lina, addresses him as Alex and attempts to wake him. As a bus arrives and Nicholas exits, the rest of the town seems desperate to get out of the city. Nicholas learns that Lodo and "Vash the Stampede" (actually just a fat bandit) are terrorizing the city. Vash and Lina enter and tell the bar that the gang had her hostage and attempted to use her for perverse purposes, but she escaped after bonking their leader on the head. The short pudgy leader in question blows a hole in the bar, and demands that the girl come out or he will kill a hostage. Vash goes outside and attempts to reason with the leader, but it is demanded that he take off his clothes and bark like a dog. He complies and the bandits depart, but not before putting a bullet hole in Vash. In a hospital, Lina's grandmother attempts to take revenge herself, but is restrained by a doctor. Nicholas enters and punches Vash to wake him up. He knows Vash is undercover and learns why. Vash tells him that he is tired of the destruction that surrounds him, and he wants to hide to live in peace. Nicholas says that he's been looking for him since the Augusta incident and that Marlon was the one who revealed his location.

Back in her house, Lina thinks back to when she first met Vash. Vash was curled up in in a blanket in an alley. She took sympathy on him and took him home to her grandmother. Upon seeing all his scars, she assured him that she will keep him safe. In the hospital, Nicholas tells Vash of Carcasa City. The inhabitants vanished without a trace, but the name Knives was painted in red in the town square. He hears Lina's grandmother screaming that Lina has been kidnapped and decides to take action. He and Nicholas go to the hideout and discover 200 outlaws. As expected, their perfect aim is able to overcome the odds, and they save Lina. The town is now aware that Alex and Vash are one in the same, and demand that Vash leave. This isn't a problem since he planned on departing anyway. Lina cuts his hair back into the familiar spiked look, and Vash has flashbacks of Rem. Lina's grandmother tells Nicholas to take good care of "Alex", since he is a kind hearted man who puts others before himself. Everyone recalls the good times they had, and Vash finally says his tearful goodbyes and heads off with Nicholas.

This was as much of a change of pace as the last episode. Although slow, it had allot of character development for Vash. He was actually so depressed with his life that he was willing to throw it away and start from scratch. He finally realizes that ignoring the problem of Knives will just cause more deaths and picks up his gun again. It is great to see Nicholas back in action, and I hope he stays on for the rest of the series. I suspect that the next episode will be quite action packed.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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