“She’s a woman beyond common sense.” -Elena Peoples
Summary: As everyone and their mom races to get to the Gekko state where it crashed in the ocean, Ao and Eureka spend some quality time together. It’s very clear that 1. Eureka has no idea that Ao is her son and 2. that she is indeed pregnant. They talk about Eureka’s life and about Renton. Ivica, Hannah, Rebecka, as well as Gazelle etc all arrive on board. Ivica takes Ao aside and explains that the Eureka with them is a version of herself from the past and that is why she doesn’t know who Ao is or recognize Ivica, whom she had worked with 10 years ago. Colonel Endo, the only survivor from the Scub Burst in Okinawa that Eureka disappeared from, appears to take Eureka away. Meanwhile Gazelle and Ao get in a fight which breaks up once a very sketch looking Eureka shows up. Ao quickly realizes that it’s actually Truth in disguise. A vicious battle ensues, with Colonel Endo giving up his life to protect Ao from Truth. The episode ends in a cliffhanger, with Eureka about to join the fight in her Nirvash.
Impressions: Um…WHAT…THE…@#%$…DID…I…JUST…WATCH.
So, a couple of things are confirmed. Let’s break it down to make it a bit easier, shall we?
1. There are two different worlds, the one of E7 and the current E7AO one. In retrospect, it has been kinda obvious from the beginning that this is a different time and place. With all the historical weirdness as well the fact that the Earth isn’t covered in Scub Coral (and the missing writting on the moon, and a million other things), it’s very apparent that this the past (?) Time must run very differently between the two worlds; Eureka in this episode is 6 months pregnant and when she comes back 13 years in the past, she’s just about to give birth to Ao (so she would be about 9 months by then). This time/dimension/world shift certainly complicates things. Personally, I hate it when stories involve time travel type stuff, because unless it’s done will, it usually just ends up being confusing as all hell. We’ll see how AO does with it.
2. Truth is a Secret. More specifically, he’s the same Secret that Eureka fought 10 years ago in Okinawa before she flew off (I hope it was to go back home). He’s also the Sea Giant that saved Naru. I quite liked him as the Sea Giant: Sure, it looked like what I imagine a rave looks like when you take LSD, but look at all the pretty sparkly colors! Truth was all over the place this episode, first as a lady, and then later as scary looking Eureka. I’m getting a little tired of him just being this all powerful God, who can bend guns with his bare hands and turn parts of himself into giant launching fists that can go hand to hand with the Nirvash. There doesn’t really seem to be a limit to his power, but let’s see how he does when he has to take on the two Nirvashs in the next episode.
3. Renton is out there somewhere, presumably looking for Eureka. And he’s definitely the baby daddy. I loved how Eureka was talking about him, getting all flustered at first like a little kid but you could tell that she really, really loves him. They’re hands down one of my top 5 anime couples of all time. And how cute was Ao wearing his dad’s old track suit?
Let’s count how many different versions of Eureka show up in this episode. There’s Eureka from 10 years ago, when she meets Ivica and Endo for the first time (1). There’s the Eureka from this episode, whose pregnant (2). There’s Truth pretending to be Eureka. Notice how her outfit is more from the time at the beginning of Eureka Seven (3). And then there’s the Eureka that shows up as a hologram/vision and tells Ao that Secrets aren’t enemies (4). Sheesh, that’s a lot to keep track of. I wonder from what time period hologram!Eureka is from? And the revelation that Secrets are enemies seems like it’s going to be a game changer.
This show has so much stuff going on right now and so many plot points that I’m getting the distinct feeling of a juggler being thrown one too many balls. They better start clearing some stuff up or otherwise I’m worried that this show might be trying to do too much with too little time and in the end it won’t wrap up in a satisfactory way.
Final Thought: There’s a small moment in this episode that shows Endo thinking about how Eureka told him about her son Ao, and asks him to take care of him if anything happens to her. He remembers this and shoots at Truth, who is going after Ao, leading to him being killed. When Eureka first meets him in the past (and she knows him but he has no idea who she is) she must have known how and why he would die. You can see it on her face. But she still told him about Ao: and by doing so she kinda signed his death warrant. That is a very hard choice that she must have faced. Just wanted to point that out.