86 is a show that knows how to move deliberately. This episode was essentially entirely dedicated to buildup and setting the stage, with the actual attack on the “Morpho” rail cannon being saved for next week. Along the way, of course, we get loads of character building and some neat looks into the machinery of government and the military.
The highlight scenes for this episode are Shin talking to the little empress (having a fight with her, really, about wanting her to not come along on what might be a suicide mission, where she calls him out for acting protective when he rejects such care from others), the President calling the mission to task (and showing how dangerously shrewd he can be), and Nordlicht’s commander getting a last minute change of plans.
That change of plans is to use an experimental high-speed transport, which she will pilot, in order to deliver Nordlicht Squadron to the Morpho, rather than using the relatively slow heavy transport helicopters. It’s a pretty creative machine, being a “ground effect” plane (flying at a height of a couple meters and at supersonic speed) with a sort of stealth bomber design to it.
And, for plot, the 86 suit up, board the plane (with the implication that Shin caved and is helping the empress to stow away), and launch after the diversionary force begins.
But there is so much more going on here! I think my favorite notes are from the President, Ernst Zimmerman. He’s kind of interesting in that he’s… menacingly kind. He insists his adopted kids come home safe after taking out the Morpho (an issue that has come up several times, since there seems to be no clear exit strategy. However, he makes military officials sweat for having put the 86 up to this, and suggests (albeit to no one but the audience) that he might go off his rocker if anything really bad happens to the kids, finishing his statement “Come home safe, or I’ll have to destroy this world.”
One of the things I’ve called out before in 86 is that you don’t get characters who are just hate sinks with no redeeming qualities. Even some individuals with fairly awful black marks, like Lena’s uncle, are written in such a way that you can generally understand why they are the way they are even if you strongly disagree. But no less important is the fact that it doesn’t write characters as pure good, either. Shin and the rest of Spearhead are broken people shaped by essentially a childhood at war. Lena takes her role as handler despite the fact that she objected to the principles that led to the 86, and accepts the name “Bloody Regina” presumably because, however much she sees her processors as people, she is willing to have their blood on her hands to assure victory. And Ernzt Zimmerman, the voice for the kindness and paternalism of the Federacy of Giad? He is still a scary, sharp politician, and perhaps overly dedicated to seeing his ideals through. Their commander, Grethe? It’s pointed out that her care for them may be based less on noble philosophy and more on it being something she does to assuage her own pain at having suffered bitter losses before, arguably similar to how Lena in season 1 seemed to offer Spearhead kindness, from their perspective, only to assuage her own guilt without really helping.
The format of the episode – getting the big buildup to the big battle where the main characters go up against impossible odds with the help of both allies and some unique assets that give them the edge – is standard and timeworn. What makes 86 unique and great is how it takes its time to make the characters engaged in that effective yet timeworn plot live and breathe.