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Gundam 00 Season 2 Ep. 19: Shadow of the Innovators

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Summary

A Katharon member runs into the European safe house to warn everyone that they’ve been discovered, but he gets shot in the back by a Federation operative. A boy picks up his gun, and Marina jumps over to shield him as the Federation operatives take aim. Klaus mows them down with a machine gun and tells Marina and the others to escape. Marina, Shirin and the children run to an underground tunnel built during the World Wars of the 20th century. Shirin gives Marina a gun, but Marina refuses to take it, saying that she’d never be able to look at the children straight in the eye if she used a gun. On the Ptolemaios 2, Sumeragi warns everyone to prepare for incoming enemy reinforcements. Setsuna and Saji charge ahead in the 00 Raiser and destroy several suits while Saji searches for the Ahead Smultron. Revive takes aim and fires the Gadessa‘s GN mega launcher at them, but Setsuna dodges. Tieria then moves in to engage Revive while Saji continues his search. Enemy reinforcements head for the ship, and Soma fires GN missiles at them. She then disengages from the Archer Arios and destroys GN-XIIIs and Aheads while searching for Andrei. The Cherudim Gundam comes under fire from multiple directions, so Lockon has Haro switch the shield bits to assault mode. Ribbons decides to leave the 00 Gundam to Hiling and wonders why it launched since Setsuna’s wound should be fatal by now. Saji tells Setsuna he can’t find Louise’s suit, but he picks up two meteorites moving toward the ship. Hiling attacks with her beam saber claws, but the 00 Raiser vanishes and reappears elsewhere to blow off the Garazzo‘s arms. Because of the wide spread of GN particles, Hallelujah emerges and slams the Arios Gundam‘s nose into an Ahead to destroy it. Lasse prepares to fire GN missiles at the meteorites, but he hears Saji’s voice telling him to stop. Seeing the large Os in space, Louise hears Saji’s voice. Andrei tries to attack and is knocked aside by Setsuna. Saji calls out to Louise, and Setsuna grabs Louise’s Ahead Smultron. Mileina reports that the 00 Raiser is producing seven times the normal amount of GN particles.

Saji keeps calling out to Louise, and they both share a vision of being in a space station looking down at Earth. He mentions that they looked down at Earth in the same way five years earlier. Saji says it was then that he decided to work in space, and he hoped to share this view again with Louise. Louise answers that she decided to abandon her past, but he says they’re back together again. Saji wants to have a peaceful life with Louise, but she tells him she can’t and pulls out a gun. Louise says she’s dedicated to destroying Celestial Being to create permanent peace and avenge her parents. Saji steps forward despite her warnings and says she isn’t that kind of girl. He asks what changed her, and she says she changed herself. Saji doesn’t believe that and says the Louise he knew was a kind girl. He steps forward again and places his hand over the gun’s barrel. Louise puts down the gun, and Saji hugs her. She thinks about the death of her parents and her injury, and she’s pulled out of the vision. Andrei closes in and attacks, but Setsuna goes into Trans-Am mode and easily dodges. Revive and Tieria shoot at each other from point blank range and then engage with beam sabers. Tieria activates Trans-Am and grabs onto the Gadessa. Revive ejects the cockpit and escapes, but Tieria switches to the Seraphim Gundam and captures him. The 00 Raiser’s Trans-Am runs out, and Soma attacks Andrei. She asks him why he killed Sergei, and he’s shocked that she’s alive. Andrei calls her a traitor and retreats when Allelujah approaches. Allelujah grabs onto Soma to stop her, and Saji yells at everyone to stop because revenge can’t bring people back to life. He says people are losing their senses and won’t be able to proceed forward. Graham watches the battle from nearby and concludes that Setsuna isn’t turning out to be a worthy opponent. On Earth, Shirin tells Marina to wait in a hut with the kids because she’s a hindrance without a gun. In the Ptolemaios 2‘s pilot room, Saji tells Setsuna he’s going to fight to get Louise back. On the Baikal, Andrei wonders how long Sergei was a traitor if Soma is part of Celestial Being. He overhears Louise crying and saying Saji’s name in the pilot room, so he decides to do what she can’t. Looking at the situation, Goodman complains that licenses weren’t so good, but Hiling tells him they do things their own way. Sumeragi and the Meisters begin interrogating Revive, and Lockon is surprised when Revive removes his helmet. On the bridge, Lasse asks Anew to correct their course, but she pulls a gun. Mileina asks Anew what she’s doing, and Anew says she’s an Innovator and shoots. Elsewhere, Ribbons declares that he’s the only one worthy of the 00 Gundam and doesn’t believe that Regene’s agreeing with him. In space, Wang believes that giving Veda’s location to Celestial Being will cause the world to change, and Hong Long reports that their ship’s controls have locked up. Ribbons slaps Regene and warns him of what will happen if he acts on his own again. Wang wants to escape in the shuttle, but no systems are responding. They get a call from Nena, who says she knows their ship isn’t working because she caused it. Nena says that she’s always hated how Wang had everything and still wanted more. As the Liang approaches, Nena opens it and undocks her Throne Drei. She proclaims that Wang should die and opens fire on the ship. As the ship is hit by more shots, Hong Long jumps over to shield Wang from an explosion. Overcome by ecstasy, Nena continues firing on the ship.

Commentary

Following the cliffhanger from the last episode, Marina is indeed not shot and escapes with her life. That makes it a bit annoying then that this episode features a similar cliffhanger with Anew shooting Lasse. The 00 Raiser’s GN magic works wonders again this episode, with it’s disappearing trick and the shared vision Saji and Louise have. It seems as though Saji was getting through to her, but that’s all interrupted by Andrei. The massive GN particle flow leads to another too-short appearance of Hallelujah, so hopefully he’ll come out again in the near future. Soma is obsessed with getting revenge on Andrei, so it’s a bit surprising that it’s Saji of all people who gets her to stop. Andrei’s misunderstandings of things get more twisted, causing him to think that Sergei was even more of a traitor than he suspected. It also looks like he’s going to take it upon himself to try to kill Saji on behalf of Louise, which will cause even more problems. Although it should be a win that the Meisters captured an Innovator, it’s a loss because they grabbed Revive and he “activated” Anew as an Innovator. The epilogue features Nena launching a surprise attack on Wang, so it looks like Nena is finally acting on punishing Wang for working with Ali. It’s too bad that Wang was actually doing something helpful by delivering the Veda coordinates, although she’s done enough bad things that I wouldn’t mind her being dead. However, I suspect that Hong Long will probably sacrifice himself to save Wang, and she’ll turn up alive soon.

Overall Rating
4/5

Gundam 00 Info

Director:
Seiji Mizushima

Writer:
Yousuke Kuroda

Mechanical Designer(s):
Kanetake Ebikawa
Takayuki Yanase
Hitoshi Fukuchi
Kenji Teraoka
Naohiro Washio
Kunio Okawara
Seiichi Nakatani

Character Designer(s):
Yun Kouga
Michinori Chiba

Musical Composer:
Kenji Kawai

Format:
50 episodes; 3 compilation movies

Airdates:
Japan 10.06.2007 – 03.29.2008 (S1);
10.05.2008 – 03.29.2009 (S2)
U.S. 11.24.2008 – 02.09.2009 (S1);
06.29.2009 – 09.21.2009 (S2)

Video Release (SE):
Japan 10.27.2009 – 02.23.2010
U.S. 09.04.2018

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