Recap: Baffled by the apparent disappearance of Team Goldilocks, Ao attempts to find out what has happened to them. But the world he knew has subtly changed around him, and as he discovers how this may be linked to the work of the mysterious Johansson, the political tide is turning against Generation Bleu.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: At this point, more than two-thirds of the way through its run, Ao should be beginning to tie up its various loose plot threads and try and head towards a single coherent ending. Instead, this episode spills a whole bag more onto us, almost like it’s launching us into a brand new arc. The revelation that Ao’s ‘Quartz Gun’ is able to erase certain areas from time makes sense given what happened to Goldilocks, but again no explanation is given for how he was able to turn a bunch of quartz into an enormous gun. it just happened and the show seems to want us to blindly accept that. Oh and the gun also seems to have some low level sentience for whatever that’s worth.

This episode also seems bloated by unnecessary filler. Ao’s trip to Ireland (which looks like it stepped out of 1812) is totally unnecessary, as is the barely there subplot about Fleur and Elena’s anime.  OK, it’s necessary in the sense that it gives the showrunners an excuse to put them in assless chaps.  Gazelle’s crew spend more than three solid minutes dumping exposition on us from the Johansson Book (which is definitely NOT the Dead Sea Scrolls nope no sir) which is important stuff but could surely have been integrated a little more smoothly. Naru’s appearance is also utterly irrelevant, merely a reminder that’s she’s now teenage coral Jesus, and she still lacks any sort of definitive aim or objective.

The best scene of this episode is the reappearance of ‘ghost’ Eureka at the end, who drops some plot related technobabble on us, but also provides some emotional gristle as she and Ao interact directly for the first time.  What she has to say merely muddies the already confusing waters of continuity further though. She’s trapped between times somewhere? How is she able to astrally project herself back? Renton also gets namechecked, as Eurekea explains he’s looking for something like the Quartz gun, presumably to rescue her. It’s yet another mystery that the show has introduced, but the fact that it hasn’t paid off any of the multiple other ones floating about leaves me pessimistic about its oncoming finale.

Random Observations

– I do like that they replaced Goldilocks with Harlequin in the OP. Nice little touch

– Why is Gazelle in this show again?

– Truth now has the ability to control and shape water because…he’s a wizard?

– “For the Quartz, time and space are the same.” How? Why?

– I laughed a lot at the constant shots of Noah eating candy in the next episode preview.

– After eight or so episodes I proposed an insane theory that Truth might actually be Renton. Though the emergence of other plot points has made that pretty unlikely, it’s worth noting that Eureka mentions Renton is searching for something like the Quartz gun, and Truth himself mentions he’s been searching for it.  He also says “That’s what I want!” when told it can change the world.

– Truth is a mass murdering psychopath who kidnapped and corrupted Ao’s childhood friend/crush. There is literally no reason why Ao shouldn’t pull the trigger and blow him the fuck out of reality.