[DreamSword]

Episode 11: Prelude to Apocalypse

It's the lead-up to the season finale, and boy do I feel unfulfilled.

The plot of this episode is that Wolf has succeeded in infecting most of the XAT, resulting an army of Amalgams being let loose on the city.

As such you get what you'd expect from a show like this. Streets littered with corpses, gunfire, explosions, Amanda and Hermann getting broken out of confinement, and our "heroes" claiming Malek is innocent and Wolf is a monster.

Meanwhile the AI in Joseph's' motorcycle(yeah she's a thing and she's annoying), breaks Joseph out of of the XAT headquarters so he can do his best to save the city. And props to the new girl piloting the Paladin mech(Clavier); she's one of the few to realize that Joseph is fighting Amalgams.

Also, I gotta hand it to Beatrice's' actress, Lydia Mackay. As basic of a character as Beatrice is, Mackay takes the role and goes in on it, making Beatrice sound incredibly mysterious and sinister for the entirety of the show's' run so far. The only other role that I think alot of people would recognize her from is that of Trisha Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist; a very different type of character.

She also drops a line about her "true enemy" to Joseph, being a blatant hook for next season. That and the entire rest of the episode really matters though, because what grabbed my attention most in all of this wasn't the action, the dire situation, and death, none of that. What pulled me in more than anything else this episode was this:

A short, sweet, and to the point scene between Brad and Clavier. One that highlights a bit more of their past together, and how the bullet necklaces they both wear represent a time long gone but meaning plenty to the both of them. It made me really interested in what exactly their relationship is, ontop of the entire scenario surrounding the mission they went together on in the past. That entire scenario has been far more interesting than anything in the past few episodes.

And all it took was just most minuscule of an attempt at a character arc.

Wait, what the heck? Was he the pope the whole time!?