Endride – Episode 12 [The Light of Babel]

You guys, I was going to do it. After trying to suck it up and give Endride a fair chance, I was prepared to drop this show. Then after an unplanned one week hiatus (in that I simply had no knowledge of it, not that the producers had a last minute brainfart) Endride resumed, and I was looking forward to being done with this show. Until Delzaine died and Babel did some funky stuff, and now I am actually giving this show yet another chance. o_o

Yeah I know, I didn’t see it coming either.

So when we left off two weeks ago, Demetrio, Shun and the Ignauts had arrived at Babylon. They’d fought the Truculents and Emilio had run off to Babel, where he confronted his father, King Delzaine. Within the Ignauts, Louise revealed to everyone that she was a traitor and was working with the other four Truculents behind Demetrio’s back.

When this episode picks up, Emilio is trying to goad his father into fighting him. Delzaine asks Demetrio what he’ll do once he kills him, and goddamit Emilio doesn’t have an answer. Still. Get it together kid, that’s only like the fourth time you’ve been asked that freaking question. :/

Ibelda has pretty much disowned both Delzaine and his fellow Truculents by this point. He is rebelling against any authority and is essentially just doing what he wants. He leaves to follow Emilio, while Louise and Demetrio continue to spar, and both Felix and Mischa chase after Ibelda.

As they fight, Demetrio tells Louise that he knows her motivations for betraying the Ignauts, and asks her if she was really faking all her happy emotions when she was with their group. Louise does her best to fake bravado for Eljuia and Demetrio, but when Demetrio makes no effort to defend herself against one of Louise’s attacks, she finally breaks down. Demetrio tells her that she’s already dead inside, and asks her if she can find a way to live without killing her heart. So she becomes an Ignaut once more.

On the way to Babel, Felix and Mischa catch up to Ibelda, but he’s able to cast a smokescreen and slip away. Demetrio, Eljuia and Louise catch up with them, and together the five of them head onwards to Babel. Pascal and his assistant have finally made it to Babylon as well.

Meanwhile Emilio and Delzaine are still fighting. Emilio accuses Delzaine of killing his birth father and forcing Pascal to leave the castle. Delzaine’s cryptic comments lead me to think there’s more going on, but Delzaine is killed by Ibelda before he can reveal anything to Emilio, leaving the prince heartbroken. Before the king dies, we see one of Emilio’s childhood memories where he remembers being given a sword by a shadowy figure, previously assumed to be his birth father. However now the shadows clear and Emilio is able to recall that Delzaine, smiling no less, is actually the person who gave him his sword. Is Delzaine really Emilio’s birth father?

Anyways, Ibelda by this point is pretty psychotic. He’s killed his three Truculent comrades, and has just killed the king himself. He seems determined to make it to the surface. As Babel opens and a column of light appears, Ibelda runs into it. Suddenly it turns red and he appears to be vaporized. We see on the control panel that it was set to something written in Endorian, and there are no subtitles. Maybe the lead scientist planned this all along, as a secret plan to kill the king himself?

Babel shuts down right as the Ignauts, Pascal and his assistant arrive. But it’s too late – Ibelda is gone, and the king is dead. As Emilio weeps over his father’s body, Pascal draws near to comfort Emilio.

At the end of the episode, Shun waxes on about wondering what Heaven and Hell are really like. He talks about living in Endora, and how it’s so different from what he considered the “underground” to be. In the background the bird the Truculents were using to communicate with each other carries a message to the Zoozian leader and his troops.

My thoughts: FINALLY. It only took essentially a whole cour, but things have finally been shaken up. Babel has launched. The king is dead. Maybe Emilio will stop being such an annoying shit now. Plus there’s still the whole issue with the vanishing Warp Particles in Endora; will this be solved now that the king is dead?

I really want to know more about Delzaine and why he wanted to go to the surface so badly. I also want to know about his ties to Emilio, and more about Emilio’s past. Also, who is going to be the new king???

For the first time this season, literally, I’m looking forward to seeing what Endride has in store next week. I guess I’ll have to eat my words from the summer preview. If this show continues to have strong episodes like this one, I might stick with it for the rest of its second cour. In its eleventh hour, this show literally got its saving grace in my book. Bravo Endride!