And here we see Shin rejoining the battle. Not really anyone else; even his fellows are rather scarce this episode, but it’s time for the return of Undertaker in full.
For the first bit, we see Shin in his training camp, pulling some fancy piloting stunts that standard Giad hardware can’t quite keep up with. Shin’s mostly-friend from the library is there as well, and intends to maintain some degree of friendship. This is despite the fact that the other Giad soliders seem to be kind of spooked by the Eighty-Six, Shin in particular. And while the face of that attitude lays it on a bit strong (enough to be called to task by a superior officer at some point), can you blame them? The Giad forces are mostly ‘normal’ people who have enlisted with hopes and dreams and haven’t really been psychologically hardened yet. Shin and the other Eighty-Six, however, are hardened veterans who mostly never had anything like a normal life and had bitter trouble understanding a life outside the battlefield. As much as the first season worth of material showed us that, among their own, they were still more or less normal young people, it’s impressive to contrast their attitude with some folks who actually had a semblance of normalcy.
Along the way, we also get to visit the spot where Fido made his last stand. The area has been recaptured by Giad, and with the discovery of Shin’s old box of names, a monument was erected there to the fallen Eighty-Six he bore with him. It’s a powerful moment that involves all the former squad as they’re shown this and introduced to two other facts. First, that they’ll be a dedicated “test” squad under military R&D, piloting the latest models made in imitation of the high-spec Republic tech. And, second, that Fido is back. Apparently his memory core was salvageable, so while the wrecked husk of his old body is still at the monument, he’s been installed in a brand new machine, happy to see Shin (and the others) again, actually getting a real smile out of Shin.
In this, the Empress is also revealed and her position explained – she’ll be acting as a squad “mascot”, an antiquated tradition of having a young girl stay at home for a military squad to bind them as a family, though of course we know she has her own reasons for being out there. Shin also has his pistol returned to him, marking an important part of his identity. We see him going into battle, new Giad-tech version of a Juggernaut pulling all the old stunts and painted with his trademark headless skeleton.
Perhaps unfortunately, Shin’s burdens have followed him as well. In the wake of one battle, he finds his friend from the library mangled and dying. He’s able to give a friend mercy in those final moments, including the desperate finishing shot for someone who can’t be saved. While Shin at least doesn’t have to carry the names on, what with dog tags and a competent government, it’s very clear that his role as Undertaker has found him again.
On the whole this episode had a tighter focus, and benefited from it. You could kind of tell, after his second in-episode appearance (having lunch with Shin and talking about how much he wanted to take care of his little sister) what was going to be done with the friend from Giad, but at the same time while telegraphed it was also needed. The scene isn’t so much trying to manipulate you into crying for this character (though it uses many of the movements of material that would do so manipulatively) as it is trying to build up the inevitability of Shin’s return as Undertaker. To an extent, I feel like the death flags are obvious because the audience is supposed to experience the episode knowing what’s coming and becoming invested not as much in the doomed guy as in Shin.
And at the end of all this it seems that the recent gains made by Giad are liable to suffer some heavy pushback, with the Legion’s offensive becoming fiercer and more deadly. That gives us lots of room to work in the coming weeks.