gundam 00 season 2 episode 9

- Wow...Ali is like, totally, superhuman. What is wrong with that guy. Secchan and Tieria went 2 against 1 with Ali and still lost half their equipment. Tieria is so cute these days XD
- Ali leaves when Sumeragi sends Lockon and Allelujah to help. Tieria wants to chase after him, but gets stopped by Allelujah, and Tieria snaps "that's Lockon's enemy!"
- Back on ship, Setsuna tells Saji that Louise asked after him and asks whether Saji wants to contact her. Wow, Setsuna actually thinks about others once in a while.
- They get interrupted by Lockon and Tieria stamping through the door, with Lockon demanding to know about this "enemy" thing. After a typical anime time skip, Lockon find out everything.
- He laughs - with a hapless expression - and says that it was so like Neil to hold on to the past. He comes out with some philosophies that's surprisingly more mature than Neil's in thsi convo.
- Setsuna interrupts with "what if your enemy is right in front of you?" He then reveals he personally knew the kid who suicide-bombed the site that killed Lockon's parents/sister. WE ONLY SEE ONE LOCKON. Hm. Maybe that's why it mattered so much to Neil because he was just a few paces away from getting his parents out of there alive. Setsuna insists it's because he didn't stop the kid.
- Instead of threatening to pump bullets into Setsuna's head like Neil did, Lyle merely says that even if he stopped the kid, terrorism would have gone ahead anyway...which is so surprisingly insightful. I mean, terrorism is a movement, not a single person...even if you chip off a few fingers (in the form of actual bombers), the head is still there. He then says that they're fighting for the future, not the past...which presses a sore button on Tieria.
- While Sumeragi makes plans to return to space, Tieria mopes about what he should be doing. He's torn between his own sense of justice and the goal that supposedly comes with his existence as Innovator, and the "future" he's supposed to realise. Elsewhere, Regene asks Ribonze whether the Twin Drive system was part of Aeolia's plans or developed by CB alone - essentially he's questioning their interpretation of Aeolia's plan, I guess.
- Graham goes and meets Billy, who calls him Mr Bushido...at which Graham snorts that people are just calling him that and he finds it stupid. GOOD. YOU HAVEN'T LOST ALL YOUR BRAIN. He asks Billy for a new MS, to which Billy agrees but says he must make it his task to wipe out CB. Wow...fury of a scorned woman much?
- Mannequin believes Ptolemy will aim for space while Mushroom Head says they'll be too chicken to stay in the water. Revive puts up a hand for Mannequin and Mushroom Head is defeated by majority. For some reason they're aware of the Trans-Am system and it being able to be used to power Ptolemy. I mean WE didn't know that until this episode!!! Bloody spies, better informants than the scriptwriter.
- Things go as Mannequin predicted, of course, but Ptolemy rises too fast for their air troops to deal with anyway. Revive is waiting up near space with a giant rail gun, which he shoots Ptolemy with and redirects its course towards where an ambush is waiting.
- But Sumeragi is one step ahead and already had Setsuna deployed (since his Trans-Am was unstable and couldn't help Ptolemy anyway), and he dismantles the command ship before we even got to see the guy's face properly. Soma Marie doesn't look too happy about it.
- Mannequin forwards a message to Ptolemy, in English: I express my respect for the tactics of Leesa Kujo of Cestial[sic] Being. Colonel Kati Mannequin. Autonomous Peace-Keeping Force. Sumeragi starts having static-charged flashbacks at this, of her student days with Billy and Mannequin.
- She says she can't escape her past - and this cuts across Setsuna, Lockon and Tieria, so presumably she's speaking for them as well. I guess Allelujah having met his one twu luv strikes him off the list.

It's surprising how a screaming psychotic role can make you forget the voice actor XD I almost forgot that Ali's seiyuu is Black Cat's down-on-luck Sven XD Conversely...Lockon's VA was screaming his way through Black Cat as Creed.

I wonder if Marie/Soma would leave CB? Or do something, at any rate. She had like one line this episode - "Daijoubu".

Lyle is so mature. I mean people say "oh he's immature because we saw him lose it at the Katalon base". But come next episode he's gotten himself under control again. At least he's not Neil, who nearly went to blows with Setsuna, and recklessly threw himself onto the battleground with his dominant eye useless.

Then again...he's had an extra four years to grow up. And I think him not being personally there at the scene of destruction really did make a difference to how much the revenge mattered.

.....And then again, he could be just putting it on. He's really good at keeping his thoughts under wraps.