The pace of 86, at times, makes it difficult to talk about, or at least to start with. At the bare minimum for the week’s episode we saw some downtime and then got told what perceptive viewers already fully expected: the Spearhead is meant to kill those sent to it, a surprise to Lena but not really to us. And? And lots of development of the characters and time spent building the important emotions.
For instance, we spend a good deal of time on a holiday in the republic, Revolution Day. Lena is, of course, in the capital, but she manages to send Spearhead some fireworks. We actually start the episode with the characters on the front playing around with those, and then cut to Lena, days earlier, with shaken nerves and a well-placed bribe sending on the “special ammunition”. While enjoying their gift, Anju is actually able to cry (later pointed out by Shin, describing the scene to Lena, as a good thing – Anju reaching some sort of catharsis and coming to terms with the situation) and most of the others get some relief from the oppressive nature of their existence.
In the mean time, Lena’s time with the 86 also serves as an escape for her. She’s at a formal party, dressed in all black to ward off offers to dance (which is apparently working) and gets the Para-raid call from Shin which gives her an excuse to go out on the grounds to talk. They share the contrasts of their sights, Lena comfortable in the city but where smoke and light pollution make it hard to see the fireworks while Shin and the others are beyond defense but with clear dark skies and good company. Something the series likes to do overall is contrast the community of the 86 (who are literally being stranded to die) with the isolation Lena (who’s well-off and well-positioned) feels. We also get a good moment in this week’s Shin-Lena talks where they discuss what it means to remember someone, including Shin thanking Lena for remembering his brother, because he couldn’t (with the perspective of the audience, presumably he couldn’t remember his brother as a good man after all that’s happened).
There’s a nice extended scene between Anju and Kurena as well. It takes place in the shower, which is remarkably non-prurient, at first addressing Anju’s grief and her old scars, which we briefly glimpse and which previously kept her from sharing such a situation. From there, they move on to the question of whether or not to tell Lena the truth, ultimately deciding that Shin and Raiden (who normally do most of the communicating) are probably right enough to keep her in the dark because telling her would do no good.
From there, we get a brief battle: the Spearhead advances on the Legion base, only to have hypersonic artillery rain down hell on them and, at Lena’s orders, break off the attack. Hiding and recuperating at the site they used for their celebration two days prior, and hearing Lena slide into panic over how nothing she does seems to get them any help they decide to come clean with what they realized about their poisition: the 86 are meant to fight to the death, and any that threaten to make it through their tour of duty are placed in the Spearhead to be killed off. This horrifies Lena, who was both still ignorant of the depths to which her own government would sink and shocked that the Spearhead would know this and still fight. They actually have a long conversation over what they’re fighting for, if not to live, and the answer seems to boil down to the fact that they’re fighting the Legion rather than turning out of spite because, dead either way, they’d rather die in a way they could be proud of, rather than perpetrating the worst of humanity. Much is also made of the fact that not all Alba are guilty, nor all 86 innocent. Certainly, from the perspective of the group, the 86 have been put in a terrible place by the Alba, but that cruelty doesn’t extend to all individuals… and many of the Spearhead squad were abused and mistreated by ‘their own’ as well. The identities, 86 or Alba, aren’t black and white in terms of morality. It’s something that needs to be established for the fiction and probably needs to be remembered outside of it as well, even if that’s something really beyond the scope of what I can or should comment on.
Of course, from a storytelling perspective, while this may add in to the horrors that Lena knows that are slowly driving her insane (We get at least one more scene where, tormented by the voices of death, she nearly breaks down in the street), it’s also valuable information for if she does want to do anything about the plight of these people under her command. Knowing that she can’t work through official channels is the first step to getting things done in less-than-official ways. There are a lot of things Lena could try… but I doubt we’ll be seeing them too soon.
The reason for that is that, after the credits, we see a different squad of 86 brutally wiped out by the Legion, with their foes using advanced weapons and tactics. And, at the head of this Legion offensive is a particularly impressive looking machine that will, no doubt, serve as a good source of external conflict going forward.