[Paladin]

A new and powerful Chemie has awakened.

[Zolda]

Rinne has been blaming herself for what happened to Sabimaru. She thinks that Atropos used Sabimaru because she said that The Sisters' problems were with the alchemists, not Muggles. It seems like Atropos is attempting to manipulate Rinne by instilling a sense of guilt into her mind.

Spanner's direct superior finally makes her first appearance, albeit only in voice. She commands him to retrieve the Dreadriver and the Repli CC's. She also informs him of the exact location of The Sisters' hideout. Could it be that she has known about it for some time, but only informs him now out of convenience? It also seems like she's the one who commands Spanner to keep his eyes on Rinne. Why? Because she thinks Rinne could be a traitor/defector like her dad?

The Repli CC's have KR Dread's face on their rear sides. I wonder what happens if Houtarou inserts Repli CC's into the Gotchardriver's slots. Lachesis & Clotho do transform into KR Dread in this episode, and as I thought, the suit actor is male. I'm not convinced, haha.

X-Rex, being the Level 10 of the Ancient Creature category, has the ability to probe inside someone's mind, similar to the Legilimens spell in Harry Potter. Visually, it's similar to when KR Wizard accessed someone's Underworld. As the other kidnapped human (Mr. Manabe) says, X-Rex can see inside all his memories, especially precious memories he's trying to forget. Mr. Manabe's repressed memory is the one where he saw his daughter (Sawa) looking visibly disappointed in him after seeing him making gestures of submission and selling out his idealism and succumbing to his editor's pressure.

Aaaannnddd... *drum roll*

As I hypothesized here and here, it's revealed in this episode @ 19:11 that Houtarou does have some kind of (hidden? repressed? manipulated?) past memories that he's not aware of himself. It seems like X-Rex accidentally unlocks one small portion of Houtarou's past memories where it's revealed that he had already befriended Hopper1 when he was a kid. I pondered here whether there was a De-Neuralyzer spell that could reverse the effect of the Neuralyzer spell like the ones often used by Minato. Well, it turns out that X-Rex probably has this memory manipulation reversal ability. It seems like X-Rex is not only able to probe inside someone's mind, but is also able to unlock it and reverse any kind of memory manipulation. Though, I'm not sure whether X-Rex's probing/unlocking/reversal ability can completely uncover everything inside Houtarou's mind. This reveal makes my hypothesis about Houtarou's and his mom's memories having been manipulated/tampered with by someone are getting more plausible.

It seems like my hypotheses here and here were quite correct. Houtarou had already known and formed strong bond with Hopper1 since a long time ago, so it's no wonder that he felt nothing strange when he encountered Hopper1 for the first time in episode 1. He even probably had already known several other Chemies when he was a kid. This was the reason why Houtarou had already felt a deep connection with Chemies, mainly Hopper1, and even had had a grand dream of the coexistence between humans and Chemies, since his supposedly first encounter with them. This was also probably the reason why Steam Liner and Hopper1 chose Houtarou to be the user of the Gotchardriver.

What I also notice in this episode is the potential similarity between Mr. Manabe's/Sawa's and Houtarou's situation. Mr. Manabe is trying to repress a bad memory, while Houtarou's (hidden? repressed? manipulated?) past memory about his friendship with Hopper1 was probably done for similar reason. Perhaps Houtarou's (and his mom's) memories were manipulated to protect them from some kind of harm? Could it mean that Houtarou's dad was also an alchemist (probably a great one like Fuga) who sold out his idealism and defected to the dark side? Or probably his dad was a double agent sent by the AU to spy on Glion's/The Sister's death club? If so, then this could be a very interesting plot twist. Dang it. This reveal is sooo out of the blue. Sasuga, Mr. Hasegawa. Very well played.

Super Gotchard Cross X-Rex looks far less goofier than Cross UFO-X. Still not a fan of the undersuit. What I've just realized is that Level 10 RCC's only need one card to access the form, while normal RCC's need two cards. Also, Level 10 RCC's don't seem to have Wild Forms.

Next episode:
Rinne challenges Atropos in a duel? X Wizard will make its first onscreen appearance. Its head suspiciously resembles Bandora's head, probably as an allusion to its antagonist/villain wizard status. Not to mention that it's voiced by a female voice actor. It's holding 5 Level 10 RCC's, which probably are Exceedfighter, BeetlX, X Fortress, Lixion, and Xeggdrasil, which were scheduled to appear on Gotchard & Geats collab winter film.

[DreadBringer]

Thought at first this episode won't have the intro.

Like some of the female leads before, now Rinne also starts blaming herself for terrible things happened like Sabi's. This should be the opposite of what Atropos claims of her not giving a damn about those caught in the crossfire for Academy missions. I think people who blame themselves for other's misfortune means to me they put others before themselves, though this is an unhealthy approach to dwell on something outside their control. Terrible things happened not due to the failure of someone, but due to terrible people choosing to do terrible things, as Hotaro said regarding Dark Sisters.

Hotaro though also blames himself to not notice something's wrong within Rinne and prompts him (and Rinne) to do better. Dunno if that would mean Hotaro is indeed a positive influence to Rinne compared to her before (who's still doing Academy missions) as Atropos said though. Hotaro's faith to the Chemies would mean that even if they seem monstrous to "eat" people, he can still see the best in them like realizing X-Rex eats Sawa Manabe's father to know more about him, and use his memory reading abilities to get to know Hotaro more and befriend him. So far though, Hotaro easily "tames" and befriends any Chemies, dunno if there'd be bad apples among them like humans which'd be a real reality check.

Blaming oneself also happens to Sawa and her father. Rinne has just been told about it, now she encounters her "mirror" in Sawa who also blames herself for Hotaro being eaten. Rinne would return what Hotaro told her, and as someone who knows Hotaro better, she'd have faith on him to return. Hotaro's the best in dealing with Chemies. Her dad also blames himself for showing his miserable side to Sawa after being seen as her hero.

As Hotaro said though, being imperfect doesn't mean you're not worth loving, and it's not mere platitude as he has met Sawa who tries to take dinosaur photos for him. It's ok for heroes to fail, it'd make them realize more that they're human, as putting them on pedestal is also dehumanizing them, and likely also be inspired if they managed to rise and overcome their failure.

The one who henshins into Dread was Lachesis first, and she kicks Valvarad's ass. Clotho now centers on holding grudge to Hotaro, this feels like something such as Legeiel from Saber, which'd be IMO rather lacking to be just a bog-standard "kill the heroes" villain characterization.

[Mesnick]

Well, this episode is all about guilt. There are as many as three characters in it who are tormented by it. It's funny that Houtaro, in a rather clumsy manner, essentially explained to Rinna that she shouldn't listen to Atropos. As for the characters in the episode, it clearly demonstrates that when your hobby coincides with your job, it is no longer so joyful. Hotaro also tries to make friends with X-Rex by revealing his memories to him, but at the same time receives an unexpected revelation. Unexpected for him, not for the audience.
In other revelations, it is revealed that Spanner is simply following orders from an unknown lady, hence his concern for Rinna.
Also, given the desire of its leader to obtain the Sisters’ driver, it can be assumed that there are behind-the-scenes intrigues going on among the alchemists. And also that Rinne is important not only for Atropos.
Transforming on the run looked cool. The next episode teases a battle, the appearance of X-Wizard, and a holiday party. As the title suggests, everything should work out well.
P.S. By the way, given the abilities of the X-Rex, it is strange that it was not used for the recap-episode.

[PatriciaCole]

Thanks for the info, I will keep it in my mind.

[ArthurTuck]

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.