By Jugan rides in a Doubey as the Bruzin launches Wuxias and Langebeins. The Knossos‘ captain argues with Mashner that they can’t carry out Dorette’s dream now, but she thinks they can if they seize the Full Moon Ship. They’re currently being chased by the Salamandra, so she thinks they can fly under the Garanden and get the two to fight each other. She said Rockpie told her they can win, and the captain notes that flying that low means they’ll be pulled down by Earth’s gravity. The ship uses its afterburner to accelerate. Kerbes unloads some supplies from the Crescent Ship, which includes more funnels for the G-Lucifer. Inside the G-Lucifer’s large cockpit, Bellri and Aida take turns cleaning their undersuits. Raraiya offers Aida her condolences over Gusion’s death, but Aida says that he was careless and got manipulated by the promise of the Rose of Hermes blueprints. Raraiya looks at the tactical layout and realizes that the Knossos is trying to capture the Full Moon Ship. Manny argues with Flaminia and launches in the G-Rach because she doesn’t want Barara to get all the glory and steal Luin from her. Elsewhere, Luin’s Kabakali leads a force that includes Kun’s Mazraster, Chickara’s Gastima and a large contingent of Re G-ITs. Klim monitors the Knossos‘ movements and decides to accelerate in the Dharma so he can seize victory for himself, with Mick’s Trinity following. Aida lands the G-Arcane on the Megafauna and is told by Donyell that she should command the fleet as befits her duty. She doesn’t think she can do it, but a crying Steer insists that she can. Mashner and the captain argue about how to fight Luin’s forces when Manny joins the battle with the G-Rach. Kun destroys an Elmoran with her beam whips, and Luin is impressed by Venus Globe technology. Luin uses his beam rings to attack the Knossos, and an insane Mashner believes Rockpie is telling her to accelerate more. Luin attacks again with his beam rings, destroying the ship. Wilmit gets off a Crown and tells the Pope that she’s staying behind because Cumpa got off. Cumpa and Jugan argue about strategy, as Jugan wants to destroy the Salamandra to finish things off. He notes that the Bruzin has anti-heat coating and can perform atmospheric re-entry like ships used to in the UC era, and Wilmit realizes this means a war on Earth. Manny closes in on the Salamandra and uses her funnels to destroy multiple Space Jahannams, which impresses Chickara and Kun. Luin tosses a beam ring at the Salamandra, but Mick destroys it and then launches her funnels to attack.
Chickara and Kun spot the G-Self, G-Arcane and G-Lucifer heading toward the Full Moon Ship and give chase. Kun tries to attack Aida with her beam whips, but Raraiya counters them. Aida fires back while Bellri heads for the Garanden and is attacked by Manny, who wants him to lose for Luin’s sake. Luin joins the attack and gets pulled in by the G-Self’s tractor beam. Bellri yells at Luin that they can stop fighting now because only two ships are left. The Garanden‘s captain decides to open fire on the Salamandra so that he can finish off the Amerian fleet. Luin criticizes Bellri for being given overwhelming power and taking it easy while looking down on Kuntala. Mobile suits start to fall back to their ships as they approach the atmosphere. Luin gets pushed away and finds Manny having a hard time controlling the G-Rach’s descent. Kun and Chickara manage to return to the Garanden, while Bellri, Aida and Raraiya fly back to the Megafauna. Mick wonders why the Salamandra isn’t firing reverse thrusters, and the captain tells her they have anti-heat coating supplied by the Crescent Ship. Mick points out the ship’s complex shape, which causes the captain to panic. Klim adjusts the Dharma’s angle to protect himself and Mick. Luin gets in front of Manny so that the Kabakali’s anti-heat film can protect them. He notes that they’ll die together if this fails, but she’s ok with that. Luin deploys the anti-heat film while Manny fires the G-Rach’s reverse thrusters. Aida and the others reach the Megafauna, but Bellri flies off on his own to investigate the Garanden‘s movements. Bellri uses the Perfect Pack’s systems to manage atmospheric re-entry. Cumpa gets into a glider with Wilmit and heads for the Guiana Highlands. Jugan addresses his Wuxia team and tells them that the enemy is descending over the Guiana Highlands, so it’s their job to assist the Garanden. The Salamandra explodes during re-entry, but Mick thinks they could’ve survived if they braked more. The Garanden completes re-entry and immediately opens fire on the Megafauna, but Steer manages to dodge in time. Bellri is annoyed with himself for not being able to stop the battle. Klim finishes re-entry and ejects the Dahack from the Dharma. Manny and Luin also complete re-entry, and Luin vows to defeat his former friend. Chickara and Kun launch and are amazed by the sight of the Earth.
The penultimate episode brings death to named and unnamed characters. Mashner has unfortunately fallen into the stereotype of the crazy-eyed Tomino woman, which might’ve been ok in the 1980s or early 90s, but is out of step in 2015. She was one of the few female authority figures in the series, but she’s gone crazy with her babbling about Rockpie and recklessly assures the defeat of the remaining Dorette Fleet forces. I actually feel bad for the Knossos‘ captain who had to put up with her nonsense and incompetence. Also, it’s kind of surprising to see Manny’s character take such a drastic turn by wanting to compete with Barara and take down Bellri for Luin’s sake. Luin has all these gripes about Bellri being privileged, but that never bubbled up in the early parts of the series before he donned his mask and pseudonym. Still, he finally managed to accomplish something by using his new Kabakali to take down Mashner. Surprisingly, Bellri doesn’t have much to do in this battle aside from fight off Manny and Luin in the second half. It’s interesting seeing the various factions move back and forth in this large scale atmospheric re-entry battle. All sides have the rediscovered anti-heat coating from the UC era, but they use it with mixed results, particularly in the case of the Salamandra. Although this episode continues some of the previous problems of the series like the shortchanging of the Dorette Fleet’s use as a major faction, it does offer an entertaining battle that sets up an Earth-based finale. I only wonder if the one remaining episode has enough time to offer a proper finale for a story that’s been rather shaky in its second half.
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