“She’s a bit of a villain, but she’s also our leader. And she’d never leave anyone behind or complain.” -Lutz
Summary: Koko’s team successfully manages to evade the Night Nine with a little help from their Princess and “Jormungand”, allowing them to make off with Rabbitfoot into the night. Koko finally tells everyone what exactly the “Jormungand” plan is and what it does, only to get a surprise from where she least expected it.
Impressions: Hmmm…that wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I guess it’s good I was surprised? I was certain that they would focus more on the fight to get Rabbitfoot and the confrontation between the Night Nine and Koko’s bodyguard. Instead, most of the fighting occurs off-screen, as the focus shifts to the players behind the scenes who are calling the shots. Even Jonah, who’s usually the character whose eyes we see various fights through, is removed from the action as he and Lutz fall down a cliff and into a mine field. But hey, at least we got a different take on the “two people falling down a cliff in the woods while it’s raining, how are we ever going to get out of here, oops I got injured” thing that happens all the time in anime and manga!
So besides the fact that there wasn’t enough fighting stuff for me (which is not something I ever thought I would say ever) there were two (three actually?) big things that happened. At the top of that list is Koko finally revealing Jormungand to the world. Well, really just her team and the people at the CIA and NSA. But still. First time we get to see it in action. Apparently, using the super-duper computer and 200 odd satellites HCLI launched into space, Koko is now able to hack into anything, like the militaries GPS/logistics system and feed it false information. All without them even knowing what’s going on. Of course, in a battle it’s always beneficial to know where your troops are and where your enemy is and what’s in between the two of you. If that information is false, well then, you’re in a spot of a bother. That’s exactly what happens to the Night Nine here. They might be super fast and super good fighters, but if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re going to be caught too close to a Cuban base, which isn’t really an ideal place to be if you’re an American solider.
Koko’s grand plan is to use this to shut down all air traffic, from the tiniest little pond skipper to spaceships, she wants the sky to go back to what it was like in 1910. By using Jormungand, Koko could easily limit the ways in which people move. Not only would she be able to gather information covertly about who was going where, but she could also change any of the information at will without anyone being the wiser. If you think about how much modern flight technology uses GPS and other technological devices, and then about how scary it would be if you think you’re going down to land but instead you find out you’re in the middle of the ocean. Or your plane is on a collision course with another air craft. Or your container ship keeps going around in circles because all its fancy electronic gadgets keep getting the wrong information. Even though the thought of all that might be scary, I found it really hard to believe that just by hindering people’s ability to move around you’d arrive at automatic world peace. Maybe I missed something in the very vague explanation that Koko gave, but I’m pretty sure that people were fighting each other way before GPS, airplanes, or even guns were invented. Humans have always found a way to get from Point A to Point B in order for Army X to fight Army Y, even if it ment hacking at them with dull swords or wooden staffs or even rocks.
It just seems like in order for Koko to separate humans from war, as she claims she wants to do, you’d have to do a whole lot more than just making it harder for them to move around because the way I see it, humans are going to continue fighting with one another probably until we either evolve into a higher level of being or the world ends, which ever comes first. It’s not like she’s going to alter human nature, and I think that’s what makes her whole plan seem so unrealistic. Or maybe I did miss something, or I’m just too much of a pessimist to believe in this very idealistic plan to end all wars forever, even if it is just a t.v show and not real life. And, if I may add, sacrificing 700,000 people for a plan for world peace that most likely wouldn’t work (because let’s face it, forcing peace on people while keeping all weapons to yourself is just begging for an uprising or two in the end) just doesn’t do it for me.
That’s why I was glad that Jonah pulled his gun on Koko and told her that she couldn’t do it. Judging by the look on Koko’s face, he was the last person she expected to turn on her. But I really think she does need a reality check there. Of those 700,000 people she wants to just let die, only a small handful of them are probably soldiers or people involved in the business of war. The vast majority of them are just regular people with families and friends, flying home, going to business meetings, going on vacations, and to say that you’re going to achieve world peace by sacrificing all those innocent lives does not seem right. Jonah, probably because of his past, can probably see this more clearly that the others, who might be too blinded by loyalty to see that the cause doesn’t justify the means.
I’m curious to see how that conflict between Jonah and Koko plays out next episode. I’m just curious in general to see how everything wraps up. I’m hoping that Koko will better explain her plan, since the way it stands now…I don’t know. I don’t really see it working, even if I suspend my disbelief all the way to Mars. How is the CIA and Bookman going to react to all this? Is Jormungand really already done? Then what will Rabbitfoot’s role be in finishing it off? Should I maybe re-watch this episode when I’m not so sleep deprived (yes…)? Sadly, I’ll be on vacation during the time of of the last episode so I won’t be able to cover it, but don’t fret, as the lovely Eva will be filling in for me. I’ll be sure to leave a comment or two once I’ve seen it, provided I can manage to extract myself from the clutches of my extended family.
Final Thought: I don’t know how I feel about Koko and Jonah’s bath scene. I could deal with them taking a bath together, since the way it played out made it seem like this was something that has happened before. But I don’t know about that kiss…he’s like her little brother…and that wasn’t really a peck on the cheek.
She said “First, I will close the skies.” Then she mentions the ground and the sea. There’s also the fact that she can control any computer in the world now, which basically gives here control over most anything, cause let’s face it, we are so reliant on technology now that we can’t function in society with out it. So I believe the whole no aircraft is only Part 1 of her plan. The only problem really is the whole 700,000 people dead thing, which is why as you said Jonah took out his gun.