Gundam 00 s2 ep 17

In a flashback, we see Andrei as a commander in a war that is not going his way. As the orbital elevator is attacked, Sergei orders the retreat to protect the citizens, knowing full well that he is abandoning Holly, his wife. He states Holly is a soldier, and is prepared to die. Holly's body was never found and it was Hank who comforted Andrei.

Back in the present Hank is telling Sergei what a fool he was and how the whole thing will be a failure. Ribbons meanwhile tells Regene that humans fail to learn about history and will be doomed to repeat it. Therefore he believes it will take an innovator to lead the world. Seeing as how he created the other innovators, he believes it will be himself. Back at the elevator, Kataron ground forces are being attacked. This sends Lockon into a fit of rage and he goes in to fight them.

Back on the Ptolemy Setsuna knows that the only hope they have to taking out the second memento mori is to use 00-riser. But to bring out all of its power he will need a second pilot. Ian wants to go ask Lasse, but Setsuna asks Saji. Saji is reluctant, but agrees to save the 60,000 lives. On their way, they get flanked by Devine in a empress. Devine manages to grab onto the 00, but Using the new Riser system the 00 was able to destroy him, however the beam missed memento mori. feeling relieved that it missed, commander fatso orders the continuation of the firing. However this is short lived as the "shot" was not a shot at all, but an incredibly long beam saber. it manages to cut the memento mori before quickly running out of power, but they failed to hit the firing system.

The shot misses the main tower, but the damage is enough to activate the purge system built into the plates and the whole tower begins to disintegrate. the falling pieces hit the trains killing all the captives. Sumeragi makes a wide announcement to all mobile suits in the area to drop the fight and shoot down the pieces, at least the ones going to hit highly populated areas. CB is the first to go and start shooting, but it becomes clear quickly that they cannot do it alone. Luckly Marie appears in the archer to provide support. Kataron is next, followed by the federation. when the A-laws appears, Sumeragi has confidence that "she" will not let people die, referring to Kati.

At sunset the pieces have been destroyed and Hank and Sergei are looking over the damage. Suddenly Hank's suit is destroyed by Andrei. Andrei begins attacking Sergei and upon realizing that it is his father decides to exact his revenge for his mother. He manages to kill Sergei and Sergei regrets not being able to be a real father to Andrei. He pushes away his suit and it explodes with Marie screaming in the background.

Reaction:

Wow, a great episode. A true spectacle to see all the shots and all the forces working together. in terms of suit abilities, we got a few. Starting with the 00, we see it becomes just ridiculous with Saji piloting the riser. This is a great choice IMO because it gives the writers the freedom to have Setsuna lose any battle, and a great reason for him to win the next. Also gives them the freedom of using Saji or not. On the Arios side, we get to see the double wrist guns in action, and the Archer which is technically part of the Arios set. With Cherudim we can confirm it has missiles hiding in its skirt (go ahead, laugh it up). While neither Sergei dying or Andrei being the one to kill him surprises me, to see that Andrei, when the fight was for all intensive reasons over, kill Sergei without pause really makes me hate him. This also brings an interesting point in where the public opinion will be. While the death of the captives means nobody will know the truth, its un-hidable that the memento mori is a a-laws device and the collapse was ultimately brought on by it. It would take a lot of media manipulation to fool the people into believing it was the coup that brought it down, or that that kind of force was necssary. We'll have to see. 4 month time skip comming up, and a very cute looking Anew :)

Plus/Minus ratings:

Plus:
- Sumeragi, for rallying everyone to work together
- "collation of the willing" for being able to put everything aside to save the people.
- 00-riser for its 500m beam saber. Zeta gundam, eat your heart out.

Minus:
- Andrei. Added to list of "people who need a mobile suit dropped on them"
- Commander fatso. Even thought he died, he needed to do that 6 episodes before he debuted.
- Saji. Its more than half a season and he still doesn't want to fight.
- Marina, for thinking her song would have done something.