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Gundam 00 Season 2 Ep. 7: Reunion and Separation

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Summary

As Louise’s GN-XIII rushes in Ian tells Saji to shoot, but Saji thinks that if he does, he’ll be just like Celestial Being. Before he can fire, the Ptolemaios 2 turns and fires GN missiles. One of them blows off Louise’s right arm, and the other is blocked by Andrei, who tells her to fall back. Ian tells Saji it’s ok that he wasn’t able to shoot. Graham’s Ahead Sakigake slices apart one of Setsuna’s swords, and he wonders if Setsuna is holding back or insulting him. Allelujah asks Soma to stop attacking, but her Ahead Smultron presses forward and cuts into the Arios Gundam with her beam saber. Setsuna activates Trans-Am and attacks Graham, which is exactly what Graham wanted. Setsuna cuts off one of Graham’s arms, and Allelujah holds on to Soma, causing them to crash on a nearby island. Setsuna speeds in to finish Graham off, but suddenly both of his GN drives overload, causing him to crash in the ocean. Graham sees that there’d be no victory in cutting up Setsuna this way and leaves. Zinin tells his men to attack the 00 Gundam, but at the same time the Seravee Gundam and Cherudim Gundam arrive as backup. Sumeragi orders the Gundams to fall back, and the ship fires smoke torpedoes to cover their attack. On the Bering, Kati orders her suits to retreat and regroup. Feldt is unable to locate the Arios Gundam, and Sumeragi comes to the bridge and asks her to search for its last location. Zinin tells Graham that he’s too selfish, but Graham refuses to listen, and Louise notes that Soma didn’t come back. Kati wonders how she’s going to tell Sergei about Soma’s disappearance. As night falls, Allelujah wakes up and jumps out of his cockpit. He runs over to the Ahead Smultron’s cockpit, and Soma wakes up and tries to attack him. She says she can beat a failure like Allelujah without a suit and knocks him down, but she’s suddenly hit by pangs of pain in her head. She has flashes of her childhood and passes out after Marie is awakened. Sergei launches in a GN-XIII to search for Soma, and both Andrei and Louise get orders to call off their search. Rindt tells Kati the orders come from higher up because they’re supposed to focus on attacking Celestial Being, and he thinks the regular army should look for Soma. Lockon and Tieria launch to search for Allelujah, and Sumeragi tells them to avoid A-LAWS. Ian reminds Setsuna that he told him not to use Trans-Am. Saji comes in to help with repairs, and when Setsuna asks if it’s ok for him to work on a Gundam, Saji answers that he’ll do what he can until the Katharon people escape. It begins to rain as Tieria and Lockon fly over the ocean.

Marie wakes up in a tent and is joined by Allelujah, who tells her that both their suits are inoperable. He asks her why she was Soma, and she tells him a new personality was implanted in her that restored the senses she lost. He thinks that’s despicable, but she says thanks to that, she was able to see him with her own eyes. She asks him what he did after leaving the institute, and he says he and several other boys escaped to avoid being disposed of. He says he regretted not taking her at first, but it worked out better that he didn’t. They stole a transport ship to escape the colony, but eventually ran out of food and oxygen. Then, Hallelujah began to kill them off. Marie says she knew he had another personality in him, but he says it’s no excuse for what he did. He asks Marie about her memories about Soma, and she says she still has Soma’s memories and personality. Allelujah says she must know what he did in killing all their comrades, and she tells him she also “killed” him once before by killing his Hallelujah personality. She says she doesn’t know what she should do know, and he says the same thing goes for him. Marie says she’s glad to be with Allelujah because he was the only person who could hear her when she had no senses. They hear a noise from outside and watch a Federation GN-XIII land nearby. Sergei exits the cockpit and recognizes Allelujah’s voice as the one who helped save the falling orbital station five years ago. He then pulls out a gun and tells Allelujah to get away from Soma. Elsewhere, Klaus meets up with his Katharon comrades at another branch and is informed that the Federation has established an interim government in Azadistan. Marina asks if that’s true, and the man says the Federation is dismantling and reorganizing every country in the Middle East. Marina falls to her knees and can’t believe that Azadistan no longer exists. Marie tells Sergei that her personality was overwritten and that she’s not Soma. Allelujah steps in front of her and says Marie is a kind person who can’t kill anyone, but she’s be forced to as a super soldier if she returned to A-LAWS. Sergei points out that if she stayed with Allelujah, she’d still be dragged into battle. Sergei says he won’t believe a terrorist and that he’s lost a lot of comrades because of Celestial Being. Allelujah tells Sergei to shoot him, in exchange for keeping Marie away from battle. Sergei obliges and pulls the trigger, but Marie jumps in front to take the bullet. However, Sergei fired his gun into the air. Sergei says he’ll report that Soma died in battle. He then thanks Allelujah for helping save the orbital station years earlier and begins to walk away. Marie tells Sergei that Soma wanted to be his daughter, and she runs over to hug him. Sergei tells her to keep on living and be happy with Allelujah. Sergei gets back into his suit and takes off as it begins to rain again. Marie cries, and Allelujah thanks her for giving him a reason to live. In the morning, Lockon encounters Sergei, who sends light signals giving him the location of Marie and Allelujah. Lockon finds them and is surprised to see Allelujah kissing Marie. On the Ptolemaios 2, Mileina reports that Allelujah has been found. Saji is surprised to see Setsuna smile, and Setsuna says anyone would smile when a good thing happens. On an island, Tieria is informed that Allelujah has been picked up. On a nearby hill, Regene says that’s good news. Tieria is shocked and asks why Regene looks the same as him. Regene answers that they both share the same DNA as Innovators.

Commentary

The whole issue regarding Soma/Marie is resolved surprisingly early in the season. We learn that Soma really was Marie, and that Soma was a new personality grafted over Marie. The episode looked like it was going for a situation similar to ones seen in 08th M.S. Team and SEED where star-crossed lovers are stranded together, but that’s put aside almost immediately when the Marie personality emerges and takes over. The battle in this episode ends pretty quickly and is basically just a fast mop up of what happened in the last episode, rather than something that stands on its own. Graham certainly tries to live up to his “bushido” name by sparing Setsuna since the 00 Gundam was disabled. If anything, this episode further displays why Sergei is one of the best characters in the series. He’s always been a pragmatist, and he’s not blinded by military service or ideology. He can see beyond that and thanks Allelujah for what he did all those years ago. He also puts enormous faith in Allelujah by leaving Marie in his care. The episode ends on a nice cliffhanger with something that was inevitable: the meeting between Regene and Tieria.

Overall Rating
3.5/5

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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