For all that the pace of 86 can be deliberate, when crap hits the fan, the show knows how to show it hitting the fan.
The Legion deploys a massive offensive, as expected, not just against Giad but in every direction. All the surviving nations that border Legion territory are set to be hammered harder than ever before.
We start with the fighting in Giad, where Shin is there to do his thing, getting everyone up and ready early for the hell he knows is approaching. Sure enough, his mad preparations are proven right as the Legion comes in overwhelming force, and only Nordlicht Squadron (particularly Shin’s circle of friends) is ready and able to answer their onslaught. We get a pretty awesome fighting sequence where all of our old characters show off their new war gear; the Giad hack of the Juggernaut may be “only slightly better” in terms of pilot protection and handling, but they’ve got a bunch of fancy attachments like a heavy cannon for sniper Kurena, missile pods with cluster warheads, improved melee weapons and grappling hooks, everything to take it to the Legion with even more acrobatic stunts and displays of destructive power than they showed off before.
It’s not all triumph, though. The little empress tries to call out to Shin, only to receive a vision of his status: Fighting the Legion, and losing his battle to retain his humanity, surrendering to the combat fugue that leaves him almost more of a killing machine than the robots he’s carving his way through. Shin’s juggernaut (yeah I’m still going to call them that; Shin was very insistent about it in a previous episode, after all) even takes a hit that sends shards of glass into the cabin, putting a gouge none too far from Shin’s eye, and he doesn’t seem to care.
She also gets a vision of where Kiri, her former knight, is: a city in ruins, with a five-color flag burning. Though the assault against the Federacy of Giad is fought off with the time bought by Shin’s preparation, that marks another front we have to be concerned about.
Sure enough, we cut to San Magnolia to find that the defenses in a particular zone have been overrun, as the Legion pushes past the river that marks the borders of the eighty-five districts. The news reaches Lena in District 1, which she confirms with Cyclops, leading her to, of course, want to do something about it.
She’s not able to start, though, before having a conversation with her uncle, framed so as to make us believe that there’s a good chance this will be the last. He objects to pulling the 86 behind the front line, expecting that if they’re allowed into San Magnolia proper the result will be a massacre (or worse. Likely worse.) whether or not the Legion is defeated. He tries to warn Lena of this, essentially telling her that the indolence of the ethnic Alba citizens and the crimes of the government they support won’t be forgiven, and even if the 86 don’t just hang them out to dry, they’ll take a worse revenge than the Legion itself would.
Lena protests that if her choices are “or death”, she’d rather die fighting, doing absolutely everything she possibly can until the last minute, both for herself and seemingly so she can face those who fought to the bitter end before (no doubt and with little ambiguity meaning the 86 that have been under her command). Her uncle, a general as you recall, ultimately lets her go, expecting her dream and spirit alike to be crushed but prepared to hold a gun himself and fight so she can last long enough to see it. With his permission, if not his blessing, Lena heads to the operations center and synchronizes not just to her squad but to all surviving 86 processors, taking command of them as “Bloody Regina” and preparing to lead them to the defense of the nation, within the eighty-five districts… whatever shape that nation’s going to be in when the dust settles.
In my mind, this is a huge moment. We were just shown, with the performance of Shin’s group, just how terrifyingly skilled members of the 86 have to be to make it in the highly active San Magnolia front, even compared to the likes of Federacy regulars, and now Lena has taken command of that entire hardened fighting force as a figure to which at least many of them owe personal respect and loyalty, which is a precarious place to be when her uncle is almost doubtlessly right about there being a lot of hatred and resentment of the rest of the nation and no loyalty that can be counted on otherwise. One wonders how long “Bloody Regina” is going to be allowed to remain just a nickname.
After the credits (You thought you could lull me into a false sense of security, 86? TOO BAD! I know your games, you tricksy show) we cut back to Shin and friends in a meeting room with the little Empress as she explains what she learned from her visions. The group regards the breach of San Magnolia’s defenses with muted but present sorrow, commenting that it’s probably “all over” there if the Legion has breached into the districts. They don’t say it, but the composition of the story is such that you know what any lingering regret about that might be. It’s then asked if Kiri is still there, at which point the Empress reveals that he’s left that front and…
Before she can answer where he is now, he answers himself, as Shin hears a wrathful voice declaring murderous intent, and everyone dives for cover from the incoming attack… which we don’t see hit before the show cuts.
Well, that’s one hell of a cliffhanger (two hells of cliffhangers, if you count any resolution to Lena calling out to the 86), and we won’t resolve a thing until next week at the earliest. Enjoy!