This week we learn a bit more about the relationship between Satellite and Neo Domino. It’s quite depressing, but Satellite continues to exist and is left as it is for the sake of the rich and the powerful. (Or as Godwin puts its, “the prosperity of the chosen ones” – get that bullshit out of here). They are basically slave laborers, managing the trash dumped onto them, ridiculed for being stupid due to lack of education (such as that dumb ass punk Uryu from Neo Domino that was cast off the Satellite after getting himself a criminal record due to trouble he had caused). It was also further highlighted how the people of Satellite have little to no opportunity of seeking a better life in at Neo Domino as they are completely cut off from the mainland by water.
However there is a way to get to the city without a boat, but it’s a very risky path. There is a large pipeline connecting the two cities to dump the trash that gets processed at Satellite. Once a month at midnight, for three minutes, the pipeline is shutdown for maintenance. During that short window of time is their one chance to escape, one of them being Jack who had done so after stealing Yusei’s D-Wheel he had just built and his card. Since Yusei intends to use the same route, he has been running simulations and making sure his D-Wheel is fast enough to get him to the hatch before the pipeline begins processing trash again, or else he will be caught up in debris, or worst, get himself killed.
As for Jack, even though he is now living the high-life of luxury, new home is at the vantage point of Satellite, serving an everlasting reminder of his past. He loathes his past so much, that he would rather see Satellite destroyed… or says the man who continues to hold onto his friend’s stolen monster: Stardust Dragon. If he truly wanted to forget, he wouldn’t have taken Stardust Dragon or at least could have tuck it away somewhere out of sight. Instead he holds onto it as he looks out to the place he had grown up in.
But perhaps the curious thing about this episode was actually giving us the chance to see Jack in a different light. It involves a memory and wisdom Yusei has kept close to his heart: The key of being a victor is being a duelist who believe in all his cards. At the same time, it also revealed to us that Yusei did not necessarily carry that kind of belief from the start.
While there were talk of those who reside in Neo Domino as the “Chosen Ones” (I beg to differ, Uryu serves as one great example of someone who was born there, only to be cast off to Satellite because of getting himself into trouble), they also brought to our attention a far more important piece of the story: Jack being “chosen by the Stars”. Although they didn’t explicitly say anything, the mark on his arm serves is enough to scream it will become relevant later on.
Meanwhile back in Satellite, just as Yusei was making final preparation for his great escape, he was interrupted by a stupid city punk like Uryu who are looking to stir up trouble. The guy already beaten up his friend, and was now looking to snatch the D-Wheel he had painstakingly started from scratch again, so naturally, while he was not in the mood to deal with him, he wasn’t about to let him continue harassing his friends, nor mock their dreams.
However the duel was… certainly a lackluster and to some degree was a tad annoying. It was mostly because Uryu running his mouth and being an idiot of not understanding how his own cards work. Otherwise it was fine. Though I will say, when it was Yusei’s turn, it was like music to my ears because he’s such a quiet guy. And for final touches: Even though the guy was a little shit to his friends, he still shared words of wisdom with him.
Overall another solid episode that continued to flesh out the inequality between the two cities, and the past Jack has left behind. They really gave us good sense of just how extreme the cut off is between the two cities when Yusei and his friends only learned about the hottest new commodity of Riding Duels on D-Wheels after he had hacked into the mainland’s feed so they could watch the match for the first time. So when Yusei successfully built Satellite’s first D-Wheel, it became a symbol for hope.
They were also dropping just enough subtle plot-hints to to keep one intrigued of how things will develop, as well as setting a solid pace of timeline in terms of Yusei’s great escape.
Another little thing I appreciated was how they given us a bit of insight on Ushio’s character (the security officer) as well. There was discussion about how Rally was let off the hook, and the reason for that was in order to carry out the promise, Ushio paid for the item Rally had stolen out of his own pocket. However that doesn’t mean he isn’t salty about his loss, and Yusei knows it.
Although it was unrelated to this incident, Ushio has received a new special pursuit deck to help deal with reckless D-Wheel motorists who are not respecting the road rules. Ushio is hopeful this deck would grant him victory when the opportunity arises for him to arrest him.
Last thing I would like to address something I forgot to mention in last week post. I will be approaching this second edition of this coverage with the mindset as though I am watching this for the first time. Although there will be times when I might break away from that narrative to drop a couple of points (as I did today), this is the better approach so that I don’t get caught up in my own head of getting mixed up between what I remember and don’t remember about certain details, or else I am just going to end up confusing myself!
See you next week!
