Eureka Seven AO ep15: figure it out for yourself.

[Eureka Seven AO ep14]

I don’t suppose there’s ever enough pressure put on the main protagonist of a mecha series.  Not only are you thrust into a giant world destroying machine with which you’ve been given no instruction, to start your world saving career, but at some point people are going to want answers.  They’re going to want to know what you’re fighting for. They want to know who’s side you’re on. They want to know if you’re human.  But things are pretty bad when people start coming to you to find out what they’re fighting for.  Oh AO!  You’re so slick that not only is the audience left out of sorts, but so are the characters in your story.  Dear story, could you at least tell me if I’m facing in the right direction?

Eureka Seven AO episode fifteen starts off with one of those weird, but familiar sequences.  A dream where a character is left facing their fears and questions, and then waking up in a panic.  In Ao’s case, he’s left wondering why Naru left him for Truth.  I suppose he’d stay up all night pondering that question if the chief engineer hadn’t kicked him out of the lounge and sent him to bed.  At least Ao got to see the Mark I (maybe I should be calling it the Nirvash from now on) almost fully repaired.  Doesn’t seem to give him much consolation though.

Meanwhile, Chief Ivaca and Rebecka are pondering the meaning of the progressively more humanoid Secrets that have been attacking.  The presence of a strengthening and recurring signal is also a point of interest that will soon come back into plan.  At the same time, it looks like Mr. Blanc is dealing with his own problems, as he fends off questions from powerful and interested parties (likely American, hur dur “We’re evil”) about the storage of the quartz Generation Bleu has been retrieving over the years.  The information leaked from the Japanese government last episode is having lasting effects.

Ao in the meantime (busy episode) is now receiving medical scans under the direction of Hannah Momma apparently.  He seems normal, but it’s apparent that there is worry and questions about the effects of the trapars on him.  The scan is done under the rouse of a company wide scan for employees; so we get to see the rest of Team Pied Piper and Team Goldilocks talk about recent developments.  Elena is clearly still playing the ignorance card, though at times I’m surprised the mountain of secrets she holds don’t explode from her head.  Fleur clearly isn’t buying it, and I’m glad to see that someone actually noticed, at least somewhat, how weird she was acting around Ao and Eureka.  She’s also quite worried about Ao, and it doesn’t look like she views Eureka meeting him as a good thing for the moment.  Though it’s Team Goldilocks’ Chloe who seems the most worried about him.  Her and Ao did share some special moments, so it appears she knows he’s hurting.

Hannah Momma’s departure felt a little ominous to me.  I didn’t think about it much the last episode, or even before that because of the whirlwind of amazing developments that have occurred over the past month.  But the reveal of Generation Bleu’s precious orbital station and that epic stash of secret quartz has to spell doom for a sempai character like her.  I don’t have much to back up my claims of a “death flag”, but I have pretty good insticts about these things.  And just from her meeting with Gazelle, I felt she was in for some future trouble.

Speaking of Gazelle, we see him meet Ao for some under-the-table sleeping pills.  Given the kinds of dreams Ao has been having, I don’t blame him.  And neither does Gazelle.  They have developed a weird bond, the two of them.  Chloe was spying on them, but he ability to sneak is laughable.

We then switch to the Japanese government’s conference on the Secret head they have been stashing.  It looks like some amazing developments have been made.  And the idea of communication with them seemed unbelievable, I first thought it a ruse.  It was nice to see the rest of Team Gazelle on hand, asking all the important questions.  After the conference is when all the bad news starts rolling in…

For whatever reason, Scubs all over the world are reactivating.  Just that quick it’s a global crisis and Generation Bleu is flooded with requests.  The first Scub to get a Secret is dealt with by Pied Piper… to disastrous initial results.  When Fleur and Elena’s long range attacks are ineffective, Ao goes in, but is promptly shot down!  In the end, it takes help from the rest of Team Goldilocks to bring to bring down what turns out to be another humanoid Secret.

My favorite part of the episode is seeing Ao in bed, on an IV waking up next to Chloe in the chair next to him.  She makes the comment that their situations are reversed.  But it’s a bit unsettling despite the progressive conversation they have about her family and the Scub Corals reviving all over the place again.  She asks Ao if the Secrets are their enemies.  And Ao kinda dodges the question.  His mom has told him directly (somewhat) that the Secrets aren’t his enemy.  And you would think he would trust his mother, AND someone from the future.  But I guess when you’re left with more questions than answers, then you have no choice but to slowly keep walking forward until you can find another way.

As the next sortie begins, Team Gazelle is able to hack into the Japanese mainframe and it allows Georg to try to communicate with the Secret.  This works better than anyone could have hoped.  As it appears that the Secret is directly talking to Generation Bleu through Georg.    Unfortunately, it appears that what the Japanese government said is true.  This leads Mr. Blanc to do something drastic.  What I worried about has come true.  He’s divulged the location of the organization’s quartz stash.  All in the hopes of drawing the Secrets away from the Scub Corals, and into one big group.  Episode end.  Wow.

This show has not let up a bit for over a month now.  And it appears that this little chain of events that started in space, may end there as well.  I’m somewhat hesitant to believe the Secret.  It seems to perfect.  But I don’t really have anything else to go on at this point.  If there’s a clean solution to this crisis, I’d like someone to enlighten me.

I know everything will come down to Ao, but there are still so many key ingredients that I’m not sure of.  How important will Elena be?  What IS Elena?  Is Fleur a love interest, just a good comrade, or a sacrifice?  You know what?  Let me stop there.  I’ve gotten in the habit of asking these questions at the end of my posts.  And they’re not going to get answered anytime soon.  I’ll just wait for the answers.  As for how the story is gonna play out.  I’m content to experience this show the way the characters are.  I’ll just have to figure it out for myself.