A new episode of Gundam Unicorn. Just like in the second episode four months ago, our protagonist Banagher is still caught in the struggle for the mysterious item known as Laplace's Box. Nice try, but no cigar. Summary: The London Bell task force launch their attack on Palau. ECOAS commandos have sneaked ahead and planted bombs which severed the support between Palau and an adjacent asteroid, and the Nahel Argama fires it Hyper Mega-Particle Cannon to push the asteroid into Palau and in the process destroy several enemy ships and mobile suits. While fighting erupts outside the space colony, Banagher slips away from the Sleeves and follows the instructions on the map to the 14th Space Gate where he finds the Unicorn parked and unguarded. Banagher decides that the battle while end if he takes the Unicorn back to London Bell and thus climbs into the Gundam once again. Apparently you need to install device drivers for mobile suit weapons. Not fun when you are in the middle of a fight waiting for your weapon to fire. Meanwhile on the Nahel Argama, Riddhe takes Audrey towards the launch bay for their trip back to Earth, but they are spotted by Micott. Micott initially threatens to report Riddhe and Audrey to the higher-ups but lets the two go after Audrey explains that she is trying to stop the conflict from escalating further. Riddhe and Audrey then board the new Delta Plus and launch into the war zone. After disabling a few Neo Zeon mobile suits, Riddhe and Audrey spots Banagher in the Unicorn. After learning about Audrey and Riddhe's intentions, Banagher asks Riddhe to take care of Audrey. The two mobile suits part ways and Riddhe steers the Delta Plus towards the enemy space port in order to steal a booster to cut down on the trip time back to Earth. Banagher and the Unicorn fly towards the Nahel Argama and Banagher notices that most of the Neo Zeons are retreating. However, Banagher is quickly confronted by Marida in her Kshatriya. Marida manages to grab hold of the Unicorn and she and Banagher start arguing. When Marida refuses to listen, Banagher activates Destroy Mode on the Unicorn. Not far away, Full Frontal is watching the battle from his command bridge along with Suberoas. Full Frontal explains that a "psychoframe monitor" has been installed on the Unicorn to help decipher the Laplace System. In order to make this plan work, Full Frontal planned to let Banagher take the Unicorn back and get into a 1 on 1 battle with Marida so Marida can trigger the Unicorn's full capabilities. Back in space, Marida uses her funnels to destroy the Unicorn's beam gatling, but the Unicorn suddenly emits a signals and takes over all of the funnels. As the Unicorn starts to tear the Kshatriya apart, Full Frontal explains that the Unicorn's true system NT-D (NewType Destroyer) has been activated. Once the enemy has been identified as a Newtype, NT-D will activate and take control, turning the Gundam and its pilot into a single-minded killing machine. Wouldn't be a Gundam series without characters projecting their naked selves onto the screen. After ripping out bits and pieces from the Kshatriya and knocking Marida unconscious, Banagher goes for the finishing stab to the cockpit, but suddenly Marida's memories start to flood into him through the psychoframe. Banagher learns of Marida's tragic history as the clone of Elpo Ple and a sex slave. Marida's memories is enough for Banagher to regain control, and Banagher decides to take Marida and the Kshatriya back to the Nahel Argama. On board the ship, Captain Midas and his officers also learn of Marida's identity as a clone, and through medication examination they also know that Marida has lost the ability to bear children from prior trauma. In the infirmary, Banagher chats with Marida, and Marida states that there is something inside of Banagher that allowed him to overcome the NT-D system and perhaps Banagher can uncover an even deeper part of the Laplace System. Suddenly, Marida's condition worsens and Banagher is told to leave. Banagher then goes to talk with Micott and Takuya. Micott wonders if Riddhe and Audrey have made it to Earth, but Banagher is sure that Riddhe would keep his word. Meanwhile, Riddhe's Delta Plus successfully enters Earth's atmosphere, and shortly after Riddhe's father Ronan is notified of his son and Audrey/Mineva's arrival. Unbeknownst to the London Bell task force, Full Frontal's forces have been following them and Full Frontal concludes that the Nahel Argama is going to rendezvous with a civilian shuttle in Earth's orbit and also the Unicorn will be taken to specified location inside the wrecked Laplace colony to unlock another part of the Laplace system. Back in the Nahel Argama, Daguza is trying to talk Banagher into helping with the mission. Banagher initially refuses, but is eventually talked into it by Captain Midas. Also on the ship, Alberto Vist calls his aunt Martha. Alberto is starting to feel sorry for crew of Nahel Argama, but Martha reminds Alberto that the Laplace's Box is key to their wealth and tells Alberto to do everything to make sure that the box stays with the family. Martha also tells Alberto to bring Marida to a facility to Earth so they can do their own enhanced pilot research. Alberto then goes to bid Nahel Argama's bridge crew goodbye, and Captain Midas and his first officer can sense that something is up. Love how the mobile suits imitate humans and look side to side when passing on secret messages. Banagher launches in the Unicorn with Daguza also in the cockpit. The Unicorn along with several escorts then fly to the wreckage of the Laplace colony. The Unicorn flies inside to the specified location and initially nothing happens, but suddenly the Unicorn starts broadcasting Ricardo Marcenas' speech from UC 0001 and Destroy Mode almost activates. At the this moment, the Nahel Argama detect Neo Zeons approaching and recalls the expedition group, but Banagher steers the Unicorn right towards the enemy. Banagher battles three mobile suits from the Garancieres, one of which is piloted by Mr. Girpo (the father of the family that hosted Banagher last episode... not sure about the name though) who tells Banagher to back off. Girpo explains that they are only here to rescue Marida and will not destroy the Nahel Argama before flying off, but soon the Unicorn is confronted by Full Frontal's Sinanju along with Angelo and another escort, and Full Frontal's goal is to make the Unicorn go into NT-D. Concerned about activating NT-D with Daguza onboard and also other reasons, Banagher retreats back into the wrecked colony. Once inside the colony, Daguza tells Banagher to let him out so Banagher can concentrate on the battle. Daguza had noticed that the Unicorn almost went into NT-D when Ricardo's speech was being aired, and Daguza encourages Banagher to continue on to uncover the true purpose of the Laplace program. Daguza then tells Banagher to head deeper into the colony and wait for his signal before leaving the cockpit. Back on the Nahel Argama, Alberto and the crew sent to pick him up are transported Marida to the shuttle, but Marida breaks from her restraints. A second later, the wall nearby is blown open and sucks some of Alberto's men into space, but Marida hangs on to a pipe and also grabs onto Alberto. Outside, the mobile suits from the expedition team has returned, and this forces Suberoa's team to retreat. Seeing that the situation is not in their favor, Suberoa tells his team to go reinforce Full Frontal's team. Surprised that shoulder mounted weapons actually can damage a high quality mobile suit. How many pieces do you want? Meanwhile, Banagher lures Full Frontal into the colony where Daguza has placed explosive charges. Full Frontal evades most of the explosions but Daguza hits the Sinanju in the head with his bazooka. In retaliation, Full Frontal kills Daguza with Sinanju's beam shield, and seeing Daguza's death enables Banagher to activate NT-D. Banagher chases Full Frontal out of the colony and is met by Angelo and the other escorts, but Banagher quickly disables both enemies. Banagher then chases Full Frontal near the Earth's atmosphere. Banagher is set on shooting Full Frontal down and has the Sinanju lined up for the shot, but Girpo flies in and is hit instead. Banagher is stunned that he kill Girpo and allows the Unicorn to be pulled down by Earth's gravity while Full Frontal manages to escape. Nearby, the civilian shuttle undocks from the Nahel Argama and flies off, and from the bridge Captain Midas sees that the Garancieres is entering the atmosphere. Down on Earth, Audrey arrives at Ronan Marcena's mansion. I have a Gundam which is virtually indestructible, and therefore if crappier mobile suits can survive re-entry then so can mine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A pretty good episode once again. The action was very nice as usual, and there was also some small developments about the nature of the Laplace's Box, but most of the characters along with us the audience are still just guessing at the purpose. At the surface, Destroy Mode just seems like an enhanced psychoframe system. Dig a little deeper, and the Unicorn's system can take over the pilot and become a single minded killing machine specially designed to defeat Newtype opponents, but there is another aspect of the system even deeper than that. While it wasn't an eight month gap like between the first two episodes, a four month break is more than enough for me to forget some of the details, and so I'm not sure how both the Neo Zeons and London Bell knew that the Unicorn should be taken to wreckage of Laplace to unlock the system. Did they get the information from the Unicorn itself, or from Alberto and Cardeas? I don't remember at all. Something obviously happened inside the wreckage and may have caused the Unicorn and Banagher to become even more formidable, but we'll have to wait until next episode to see what was really unlocked. With no other Gundams in sight, the Unicorn was the most dominant mobile suit in the series so far and even had the Sinanju on the ropes near the end of this episode. However, it was funny that earlier in the episode, the Unicorn needed 20 seconds to reprogram for its new beam gatling, and during that time Banagher couldn't fire and had a bit of trouble against the Dreissen. I guess Full Frontal didn't want to make it "too easy" for Banagher to escape and didn't get anyone to program in the new weapon beforehand. 20 seconds is still quite slow though. Moving on to characters, Audrey and Riddhe didn't do too much as they were focused on getting back to Earth. As for Banagher, it's amusing that the guy just can't stay at one place or with one group of people for very long. After boarding the Nahel Argama and being captured by the Sleeves in the last two episode, Banagher and the Unicorn managed to find their way back to Nahel Argama and then now fall into Earth. Banagher continues to grow as a pilot for the Unicorn continues to develop and he is learning to take responsibility a little better, but he still has that habit of arguing against violence, even when he is in the middle of a battle against dangerous opponents. Banagher isn't angsty enough to be really annoying, but he nags at people and nobody really listens to what his philosophies. Daguza was one of the few soldiers that can actually get through to Banagher, but too bad he's dead now and he died in a somewhat disappointing manner. Daguza basically died so that Bangher can activate NT-D against Full Frontal, and I didn't really feel that it was really necessary. So the third episode leaves us with Banagher and the Unicorn falling down to Earth. The Nahel Argama seems to be stuck in orbit for now, but the Garancieres has entered the atmosphere presumably to go rescue Marida (that's presuming she was taken onto the shuttle). I wonder where Banagher will end up now he's on his own. I also wonder what Alberto and his aunt Martha are up to, and if Full Frontal's plan of collecting data on the Unicorn will amount to anything. Despite the developments in this episode, the whole situation with Laplace's Box hasn't changed that much. All the parties involved still don't know what's inside Laplace's Box or what it is exactly, but they are all working feverishly to take possession of the box because someone said it was important. I doubt the box contains anything overwhelming awesome to the audience, so as long as there are some new mobile weapons and action in the rest of the OVAs then I'll be satisfied. From the feed of A Product of Wasted Time
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