By Sousuke charges at Gaulon and they exchange blows. Sousuke smashes the Venom’s head sensors and the Venom falls back. Gaulon uses the Lambda Driver to knock Sousuke away and gets up. The bridge crew is trying to suppress the damage spreading across the Tuatha de Danaan while Lemming tends to Tessa. Gaulon rips off the head of Mao’s parked M9 and kicks it at Sousuke, who blocks it with the Lambda Driver. They head butt into each and Sousuke cuts the Venom’s head in half. Sousuke repeatedly stabs the Venom until its lubricant starts gushing out. Gaulon grapples the Arbalest, and the Tuatha de Danaan’s swaying knocks them into a wall. Sousuke pummels the Venom some more and Gaulon grapples him again, this time clinging tightly. Gaulon says that he gives up, but activates the Venom’s self-destruct mode and sets it to two minutes. The AI warns him that this is irreversible and Gaulon tells him to get on with it. Gaulon and Sousuke fall to the ground and slide towards the elevator. Gaulon tells Sousuke that he’s happy he stuck with him to the end, and Sousuke figures out what Gaulon’s about to do. Sousuke struggles to get loose from Gaulon’s grip and Chidori, still in the Lady Chapel’s capsule, causes the elevator to ascend. Gaulon tells Sousuke that there’s only one minute left and that he has enough explosives to sink the entire ship. The Pasadena approaches the Tuatha de Danaan and fires the active sonar. The bridge crew detects it but is unable to submerge. Kalinin finishes his phone conversation and hands the line to Jenkin. Jenkin recognizes the person on the other side and complies with the order to halt all attacks. Saylor is furious by this and the Tuatha de Danaan’s bridge crew can’t figure out what happened. Chidori opens the flight hatch and Mardukas walks into the bridge demanding to know why it was opened. Chidori’s face appears on the monitors and tells the crew no to worry. Tessa wakes up and reassures them. Gaulon taunts Sousuke.
The elevator reaches the flight deck. Sousuke punches the Venom repeatedly and Chidori activates the steam catapult, diverting Sousuke attention towards it. Sousuke understands her intention and starts dragging the Venom to the catapult. With less than ten seconds remaining, Sousuke jumps both of them onto the catapult and uses a cable to secure both arm slaves. He gives a signal to Chidori and she launches them. Sousuke fires a grappling cable to wrench himself from Gaulon’s grip and the Venom falls into the raging sea and explodes, violently rocking the Tuatha de Danaan. Mardukas orders the flight deck to be shut down and to be given a status report. Tessa asks Chidori if Sousuke is ok, and Chidori’s face appears and smiles at her. The Arbalest slowly climbs back onto the deck. Sousuke stands up and then punches the flight deck repeatedly, cursing Gaulon and yelling at him that Kashim is dead. Chidori apologizes to Sousuke for all the things she said to him before, and says that he’s a great guy. Tessa orders the Tuatha de Danaan to submerge. Chidori stabilizes the ship and tells the AI that the rest is up to it. Back at base, Tessa makes a roll call and notices that Gail and Lian are missing. Mardukas tells her that they’re both on patrol. Their bodies are loaded into a plane and Mardukas gives Tessa Mithril’s flag. The plane takes off and Tessa salutes it. Chidori sees Tessa standing in front of a vending machine and asks Sousuke to go and cheer her up. Sousuke walks up to Tessa and says something, causing Tessa to run crying into his arms. Chidori packs her things and is about to leave when Sousuke asks her to come with him. They walk through the woods and reach Sousuke’s secret fishing spot. Chidori is amazed but tells Sousuke that she can’t stay long because she has to catch her flight to Tokyo. Sousuke tells her that he was going to bring her here from the start but they got sidetracked by the mission. Sousuke says that they might catch something in thirty minutes but Chidori says that’s impossible. Sousuke says that he feels he can do anything when she’s with him and that thirty minutes are enough. Chidori takes him up on his bet and immediately hooks something.
And that’s the end of Full Metal Panic. It’s a bit underwhelming that after all the pyrotechnics from the previous battles the final battle boiled down to a quick knife fight, though flinging Gaulon away with the catapult was pretty cool. Let’s hope he stays dead this time. It’s a shame Kalinin spent the final arc discussing politics with a bird brain like Jenkin. Despite being a private organization, Mithril seems to have ties to higher powers than one would imagine. Tessa took Gail and Lian’s death pretty hard, but all things considered I’m surprised Mithril came out of this with such a low death count. Overall this was a good series but there’s definitely room for improvement. Thankfully there are two more seasons and I’ll be covering those as well. See you then!
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