thought this was the best episode of the second season so far. Even though the first part of the episode had a good amount of awful things in it.

First, they send all four pilots, two Gundams, and their strategist to meet with a group that they really don't know too much about. This leaves the Ptolemy in what kind of absolutely defenseless vulnerability?

Second, Setsuna bitches New Lockon out for taking off his helmet, and in the very next scene has his helmet off. Nice.

Saji. I still don't like that guy, and it's too easy to rag on him, but, really, almost every single ordinary guy under the sun is going to make the series of choices he did in this episode. If anyone's to blame, it's the guard that gave him the keys to the Jeep. Looking forward to seeing how they continue with his story. And, yes, I did just say that I'm interested in Saji and Louise's part of the story.

Guess I was wrong about it being a marriage proposal... Sergei is still the best guy in all of the enemy forces, and even though Andrei is going on about how he let his mother die, I've got a hunch there's some circumstances behind that story... Or it served as the catlyst to make Sergei into the awesomely upstanding guy he is now.

Mobile Dolls. As I mentioned before, the issue of 'unmanned weapons' has only been addressed in one other Gundam series (it was notably absent in SEED). And I think this show is doing a good job of showing how twisted and distantly vicious this practice (which is becoming more and more a part of modern warfare, and thereby one of the most relevant issues a show like this could actually address) is, both in regards to how it ups the amount of 'collateral damage' and in how it distances the act of killing from the people responsible for the bloodshed. What does it mean for us? I have a hunch it'll be the tipping point in getting Feddies like Mannequin and Sergei to wind up on CB's side. Also, I have a feeling it'll serve as the main point of confrontation between Wang Liu Mei and CB.

I liked Graham in this episode, silly hat and all.

Ribbons. You dah man. I think they enhance Ali too, just because it seems to be Ribbons (and his strangely named andro harem's) SOP. And, yeah, I'm excited too. The man was born Cassius Clay, but the name they screamed was, "Ali! Ali! Ali!"

Wang Liu Mei provided the surprise of the episode for me. She got info from Nena about A-LAWs going to attack Kataron's base. She immediately sent word to CB (noteably naming Tieria here...) to help them. This is a bit of a surprise to me because, at least from the first episode, I'd always thought she didn't give two shits about Kataron (after all, they're like well organized flies up against a boar with the difference in their equipment), but since CB had nothing to gain by going back there and engaging crack A-LAWs troops, it makes it pretty clear that Wang Liu Mei still sees them as serving some kind of purpose down the road...