Impression:
Was it just me or was that a weird way to end the episode? I don’t know- it was definitely fluffy, sweet and admittedly nice to see because I don’t think we have ever heard Chris sing soft songs on her own (excluding the Swan Song) because up till now she has always sung fierce, aggressive songs. And so because of that, I feel that we are finally starting to see how her world is opening up and seeing more of the other side of her. Chris is actually quite shy, she hides it with her tough/aggressive demeanor. So it was really sweet to see how happy she was to finally have a place to call home, and be comfortable on stage despite her shyness at first.
I am pretty happy to see that Shirabe and Kirika are getting some more screen-time. We were able to learn a little bit more about their purpose of their actions. One part of it for sure, as confirmed today that they want to protect Maria- who is vulnerable to eventually losing herself to Finè’s soul, that grows stronger every time she uses her powers.
Another interesting thing we learned today is that it is implied that while Maria’s powers may have a time limit, Maria may also be using the infamous LiNKER drug like Kanade had had to in order to become more powerful for the sake of revenge. On top of that, from what were told last season, when one has to obtain it ‘artificially’, they are forced to undergo terrible, gruesome operations in order to try making her body compatible with a relic. Looking back at the first episode during the eerie flashback of Maria and “Mom” in the laboratory with a girl who we presumed had died, there’s a chance that she was one of those who served or volunteered as a lab-rat. I am going to throw a wild guess that this may had been during the time the LiNKER was being created or modified so that it wouldn’t kill the user as they undergone the operations. But it’s not just that- the LiNKER drug and even the Shenshou Jing technology they use are best described as a double edge sword. It may give them a huge advantage, but the price they must pay for it is great.
It looks to me that the only one who isn’t or seem to have not suffered from the double-edge sword effect is Dr. Ver. The more we see him, the more convinced I am that he definitely plans to make himself into a third party by double-crossing “Mom” and the girls. I really, REALLY don’t like the way he looks at the relic fragments. I can see him prioritizing the Nephilim over them, and go as far to either somehow managing to persuade them into giving up their relic fragments to feed the Nephilim “for the greater good”, or something else along the lines.
Overall it was a pretty good episode, the second half was okay- but not terrible at least. I just felt the ending was a bit random that’s all. I am curious to see how things will turn out next week- will it turn into a brutal fight? Or will it just be a friendly singing contest as it’s supposed to be?
