By A Gradosian spaceship warps into the station orbiting Earth, carrying Gresco’s son, Le Cain, and the members of the elite Demon Squad. In New York, Matthew and Gaw guard the entrance to a warehouse by the harbor when Eiji arrives. Inside, David argues with other rebels about a plan to assassinate Le Cain. The rebel leader shows off their fighting power of three Dtols, but David notes that Le Cain is reported to be skilled in SPT warfare. An argument ensues, and Eiji reveals that he’s the source of David’s information. Eiji pleads with them not to attack Le Cain, and the rebel leader answers that he’d stab Eiji if he didn’t have Earthling blood. The next morning, several military police on hovercraft force citizens to line up for the parade march while rebels plant a bomb underneath a manhole cover. Le Cain’s hovercraft entourage travels through the street, with one carrying Rohan. The bomb explodes when Le Cain’s hovercraft flies over the manhole. The rebels then open fire on the police and attack with their Dtols. Le Cain runs into an alley and is gunned down by the rebels, but their victory is short-lived because “Le Cain” was a body double. The real Le Cain arrives in his Zakaal, accompanied by the Demon Squad’s Daljuan, Gashlan, Dankova and El-Darr. The Demon Squad makes short work of the Dtols, with Le Cain getting the last kill. He then reveals himself to the rebels and asks if they think he’s so stupid as to leave himself vulnerable to them. The Demon Squad then guns down the remaining rebels. Eiji notes that Grados will only become stronger with Le Cain here. Le Cain addresses the crowd and tells them not to rebel against Grados because they should be happy in being ruled. The police force the crowd to give Le Cain a round of applause, but they’re interrupted by Anna, David and Eiji on a loudspeaker. They declare that Earth doesn’t belong to Grados, and Le Cain comments that he knew he’d encounter Eiji eventually. Eiji declares that he came back from the edge of death and will fight Gresco and Le Cain until they leave. The Daljan rushes in to attack and is caught up in the explosion of the building where Eiji and the others were.
Later, Le Cain meets with Gresco, who comments that meaningless slaughter and destruction will cause them to lose support. Le Cain thinks that Gresco has been infected by Earth culture, according to gossip on Grados. Gresco declared the superiority of Grados’ culture, but he made an exception for the New York Public Library and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Le Cain believes that’s an inconsistent policy, but Gresco says nothing and walks off. Le Cain brings Giula and several soldiers to the library, but the police initially refuse to allow him access. Le Cain’s men start tossing books into a pile and set the entire library on fire. Gresco watches from the Grados Tower headquarters and has Le Cain summoned. Gresco looks at an Earth painting and asks Le Cain if he sees nothing of value in it, but Le Cain dismisses it as boring trash and damages it. Le Cain insists that Grados is the superior culture, but when Gresco tells him he’s young and doesn’t understand everything, Le Cain counters that he doesn’t want to understand. Later, Giula brings Rohan to meet with Le Cain, and Rohan offers to help. Le Cain wants to show Earthlings that Grados’ culture is superior and orders Rohan to set fire to the museum so that they’ll stop believing in worthless things. Matthew runs over to inform Eiji and the others that the Met is being destroyed. Le Cain addresses a crowd as soldiers pile paintings together in front of the museum. Rohan uses a flamethrower to torch the pile, shocking everyone in the crowd. Soldiers bring out more paintings and add them to the pile. Anna pleads with the crowd to help her rescue the paintings before they all burn. David and the rebels then rush in and open fire, allowing citizens to storm the Met and carry off pieces of art. However, the Demon Squad arrives and prepares to open fire, but Eiji rushes in with Layzner‘s V-MAX to save Anna. A protective energy bubble appears around Anna, and she escapes on a motorcycle with David. Eiji tells Le Cain that Earthlings can fight for pride alone before he escapes. Le Cain laughs and says that Earth is an interesting place.
This episode features the introduction of Le Cain, a big jerk with seriously bad fashion sense and his personal freak show, the masked Demon Squad. Le Cain is Gresco’s son and he’s come to serve as commander of the Earth occupation, which gets off to a fiery start (pun intended). He’s smart enough to anticipate that his arrival would immediately be greeted by an assassination attempt, and he’s able to outwit the overconfident rebels who foolishly ignore Eiji’s warning. Le Cain fervently believes that Grados is the superior culture and thinks that his father has gone soft, but then again, Le Cain doesn’t know the secret of Grados’ origin. If he did, he’d probably refuse to accept it. Rohan positions himself close to Le Cain and enthusiastic torches Earth art, in one of two scenes that are again reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451. Le Cain looks like he’s out to increase tensions by pressing Grados’ boot against the necks of Earthlings, so more conflict is bound to be on the horizon.
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