Recap: As Ao and team Pied Piper try and settle into their new arrangement with the Japanese government, Elena meets Maggie Kwan and confronts Eureka about her mysterious origins, and Naru arranges ‘Occupy Scub Coral’.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts:  This week’s episode is very much a show of two halves. The first half is a dull, uninteresting slog, mired in the same boring politics that have constantly extinguished any threat of Ao reaching for the heavens. There’s little redeeming value to be found in any of these sequences, although the sight of the Secrets emerging to halt the Allied battleships is a striking one. The nadir of this sequence is probably Naru’s completely baffling re-entry into the story. I must admit, there’s a certain surreal charm to seeing her in her ridiculous rabbit getup just eating at the table, but it swiftly gives way to confusion at the sheer insanity of the situation. Naru had been built up as this mystical, powerful figure with an almost magical connection to the coral. So seeing her reduced to leading a bunch of protestors is horribly damaging to whatever credibility the character possessed. It also makes absolutely no sense in universe. The military have seen that she possesses supernatural powers and she stole a giant robot – why is she still allowed to walk free? I joked last week about her simply being forgotten about, but unless she can be tied back into the main plot fast it looks that that might actually be her fate.

For all the by-now-typical incompetence on display in the first half however, the second half is surprisingly intriguing. We get a reappearance of ‘ghost’ Eureka (who seems to be becoming less mysterious and more ditzy every time she shows up) who reveals a genuinely cool twist on Elena’s long-mysterious past. It turns out Elena actually isn’t from Eureka’s world/timeline at all, despite her constant flashbacks to the heart-emblazoned moon. Instead, Eureka rescued her from earlier in the timeline, and dropped her off five years ago. Why Elena remembers the moon isn’t explained, but presumably Eureka took a ‘short-cut’ through her own time for some reason. Although it’s not fully fleshed out, it’s nevertheless a fine twist that caught me off guard.

It also leads for once to a conflict with genuine emotional gristle. Elena’s angst this time is justified and believable, and this makes it different from every other time she’s freaked out in this show.  Her battle with Ao is given much more weight because of her perilous psychological state, and for the first time I genuinely felt an emotional connection with the character. Her sudden realization that she isn’t ‘special’ after all is something that’s very relatable, and for once Ao get the words perfectly right, leading to a predictable but still touching moment.

It has to be ruined of course, by the arrival of Truth, now looking to have abandoned any semblance of subtlety in favour of being an axe-crazy lunatic. That’s not a particularly good sign as we enter the final three episodes, and the show is worryingly far away from any sort of climax or conclusion. It doesn’t feel like any of the multiple plot threads floating about are going to be resolved, and the entire show atmosphere is lacking the sort of tension and excitement a finale should possess. If only a mysterious figure could suddenly appear to save us all…

Random Observations

– Eureka’s embarrassment when Elena mentions the heart on the moon is adorable.

– Maggie’s brief flashbacks seem to indicate the Quartz Gun is not quite as all-powerful as we might have believed.

– Where on earth did Naru hide her Nirvash? Is it just parked in the back yard?

– Also adorable – Naru’s sister saying how she likes her ears.