By In Hokkaido, the three TAs continue to walk, completely unresponsive to any communication. Yonetani and other crew follow them, noticing that some of the pilots are having panic seizures and remarking that their heart won’t be able to take much more. Attempts to override the TAs to get them to stop fail as the TA’s artificial intelligence reprograms its system. Two of the TAs collapse; the pilots having passed out. The final TA, piloted by Major Taniguchi continues on, approaching the test ground boundaries at great speed. Meanwhile, Yushiro and Miharu run through the woods, eventually stopping to rest. Miharu questions Yushiro on how he knows of the path where they are going. The two get up and continue. A jeep pursues the berserk A but gets stuck in the mud. Hirokawa meets with the JSSDF team about the incident. Hayakawa is upset that other TAs were being tested without their knowledge. Hirokawa tells them that the TA has the ability to operate for 36 consecutive hours, shocking them all as a pilot is typically unable to endure more than an hour at a time. The JSSDF consents to assisting, feeling that they’d be forced to anyway. Misuzu heads through the woods and is found by Ataka, who pulls her under a tree branch as a recon helicopter flies by, looking for Yushiro. Misuzu refuses to head home as recommended by Ataka and continues on. The helicopter is able to spot Yushiro and Misuzu using infrared technology. Miharu asks Yushiro why his brothers are hunting for him and he tells her he is a test subject, being used by them simply as a means to an end. This causes Miharu to claim that he’s just like her.
The JSSDF arrive in Hokkaido along with Hirokawa. They find a number of advanced TAs waiting for them. Hirokawa claims that several companies have been testing TAs on this site. Takayama and Kitazawa are ordered to pilot two of the units. The two units, Sat 5 and Sat 6 pursue the berserk TA with the command vehicle keeping a close watch. They soon reach the berserk TA, which is running through a small stream. The berserk TA quickly subdues Sat 5, then attacks Sat 6. Yushiro and Miharu hide from the helicopter and shortly after it passes Ataka and Misuzu catch up to them. They follow Yushiro and Miharu as they continue to run. The helicopter spots the four of them on infrared. Takayama is injected with a compound to help him regain consciousness. He attacks the berserk TA, which surpassing anything the JSSDF has seen before. Hirokawa tells them that the pilot has been biologically enhanced. As the berserk TA closes in on Sat 5, a chemical is emitted that freezes both of the TAs. Yushiro, Miharu, Misuzu and Ataka continue to run, but are soon surrounded by Special Forces soldiers. Hayakawa orders transporters to recover Sats 5 and 6, but the berserk TA starts to thaw and the pilot starts breathing again.
After several good episodes in a row, this episode is somewhat of a let down. As mentioned in my prior review, I did not care for the berserk TA storyline, which much of this episode consists of. The Yushiro and Miharu story continues where the previous episode left off, but by the end of the episode they are captured, making one wonder what was the point of them running off into the woods together. It gave us more foreshadowing of the fact that they may have had past lives involving one another, but plot wise there wasn’t much good to it. It seems that the episode is simply building to a scenario where Yushiro will be heading out to stop the berserk TA, leaving this episode as little more than set up to that eventuality.
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