Lingerie Panic - Episode 3
Again we view the breathtaking sleekness of the Mithril submarine. Entering the control room we see the Captain thinking aloud about the peculiarities of a class trip. She delves into her past living in Okinawa as a little girl, the destination of the trip. She reveals that she did not get along well with Japanese students and eventually transferred to the school located on her father’s base, suggesting militant involvement of her father.
After she’s interrupted by the one of the gentleman we’ve not yet been introduced to clearing his throat, Kalinin opens the folder in hand to break the news to the Captain that they have found distribution of rare drugs correlating to the Whispered in the Soviet states; Khabarovsk in particular, the same region where our series opened with Sousuke saving the young red-headed girl. This seems to be a hot spot.
We see the young girl’s eyes wilt with sadness at the news. She counters the information with an alternative, more peaceful approach of hacking. Kalinin informs her that the exhaustive list comes down to eradicating the problem by physical means. When she questions what those are, missles are the suggestion that makes the most sense.
Reading over the situation again she takes a minute to think, characteristically tugging at her hair before saying she understands that the facility must be terminated and agrees to Kalinin’s recommendation of cruise missles. But she has some conditions that must be met. All information possible must be gathered through the means available to Mithril, and the operation must take place at an hour that avoids the most casualities possible. This is the first insight we see into the sense of justice Captain Tessa takes to completely to heart.
The decision has unnerved the Captian, though. Even though she seems cool on the surface, how much it bothers her causes her to drop the stack full of papers she is required to go over that had been in her lap. It also speaks volumes of her susceptibility to clumsiness. She apologizes profusely gathering the papers as best she can as they were given to her. The unintroduced gentleman, Commander Mardukas, earns an apology preceeding his name as he kneels down to help the Captain alongside Lt. Commander Kalinin.
In the sea of papers Tessa spots The Seven Promises of Garbage Chief. This peaks Tessa’s curiousity, however, Lt. Commander Kalinin simply continues to gather the papers together intent on continuing her briefing on the Arbalest as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile back at Jindai High we wallow in a sea of garbage! presumably to prep Sousuke for his duties during yet another class representative held meeting regarding the class trip. The whole class seems to be discussing how to sort and dispose of garbage properly. This is a great scene displaying the cultural difference of Japan in sorting, recycling and the consciousness of the environment. Batteries, umbrellas, combustible versus non-combustible… it all confuses Sousuke so much he’s sweating bullets again! Kaname notices and consoles the young boy, handling the situation with such ease, swiftness, reassurance and such a show of power that Sousuke is once again impressed by her and thanking her for her help. Everyone but the two see how friendly the two are starting to act when together. Aw!
In the safe house, Sousuke reads aloud the Seven Promises entrusted to him as Garbage Chief. Kurz presents the young soldier with a heaping plate of food. Mao smells the food and immediately digs in, chopsticks in hand while Kurz draws the viewer’s attention to Sousuke’s immense lack of cultural knowledge of his own nationality. When they are all gathered at the table, the physical toll the few days have taken is painfully evident. Sousuke has to be -ordered- to rest (Melissa knows him all too well) before he accepts taking the next day off as Kaname’s bodyguard. One has to assume Kurz has at least edible cooking skills, as Mao ensnares the whole dinner platter without offering any to anyone else. It is at this point that Kurz reveals his fried noodle with canned crab special has used the very expensive canned krab Melissa complained about in making adjustments to Tokyo living in his noodle entre, ticking Melissa off! - her punishment for trying to be so greedy with the grub… the man never takes a day off.
The next day, Kyoko and Kaname take a stroll down the streets of Tokyo excitedly talking about the shopping they need to do in preparation for the class trip. The streets are littered with people enjoying the warm day and the two girls anticipate looking for a nice, new bathing suit to be initiated on the school trip when Kurz interrupts them! He assumes a fake, broken accented Japanese - as we know full well Kurz is fluent in Japanese, in order to ease into his undercover tourist facade. HIs blonde features don’t hurt this assumed foreigner getup! Before you know it the girls are laughing and having a good time with him.
Trees move by forces completely contridictory to physics. It is Melissa in the M9 so taken by surprise she nearly blows her ECS cover in the Armed Slave. Yelling at the scene in front of her, her tone promises reprimand later when she’s alone with the worthless flirt for his potential compromising of the mission going off on his own flamboyant tangent when they are supposed to be gaurdians from the shadows.
The submarine calls it ways through the waters, the control room is full of statistics. Tessa announces the opening door to initiate sequencial launch of the guided missle toward the aforementioned drug target with complete authority and immense confidence. The launch sequence completes, leaving the viewer in awe of the young Captain’s confidence commanding the submarine and her ability to take inhesitant charge of her subordinates.
Mardukas, in a paternal way offers this time awaiting the three hour duration flight of the missle as a time for rest for the Captain. He seems to be the only one who notices how difficult making and carrying out this decision is on her. Tessa thanks him, but expresses her fear of having nightmares. She asks her advisee if the guards in Tokyo, Melissa, Kurz and Sousuke should be withdrawn after the destruction of the plant. Kalinin agrees but starts to express hesitance before replacing the statement with “Just my imagination.”
The safe house is dangerously silent. Darkened hallways own the building, an empty and completely made bed the only thing in the bland room. Suddenly Sousuke’s ear twitches alarmed at a presence unknown, turning the handle on the door entrance and he rolls out from under the cot armed with his Glock. There is someone unwelcome.
Kurz announces his presence loud and boisterous, and he is welcomed with the cool metal of Sousuke’s weapon to his chin.
“Well, I see you’re awake Sergeant Serious.”
“On duty and drunk, huh?”
“Nothing I could do about it. I was just gonna have one beer and that’s it man. But that Kyoko kept pouring me more. And more.”
“Wait- Kyoko? Kyoko Tokiwa, you mean Kaname’s friend? But she-”
Sousuke’s voice reaches a stressed pitch as he realizes what transpired the day he was in bed. Kurz draws his attention to an angry Melissa Mao who’s reasoning out the only pros to popping him one in the left cheek for picking up the mission objective. While Kurz hints at sexual harrassment for such an action, Sousuke is now the one angry at the situation. He lectures Kurz on becoming too emotionally close to the mission to be able to make clear decisions.
Here, Kurz takes the opportunity to turn the tables on Sousuke. He’s just jealous that Kurz was able to ease into a friendly relationship with the girls so easily. Cunningly, Kurz hints at mentions Kaname made on thoughts and feelings on the interesting new guy at school. Sousuke feigns disinterest, but then tries to entice the information out of Kurz. Who would let feelings jeopardize sound decisions in this mission? Kurz smiles at the victim who’s fallen into his trap and feeds a line that speaks of mental begging to find out what was said, while the mental war commenses between the two collegues Mao snaps them to attention. Someone is climbing up to Kaname’s apartment balcony!
Ordered into position, the Uruz team falls into action. Sousuke’s realm, scaling the building to confront the intruder; Kurz the sniper from across the way and Melissa in the M9 AS. The banter between Kurz and Sousuke continues when Sousuke warns of the sniper not letting his guard down from behind, where he is most prone. Kurz snaps back for him not to forget whom he’s talking to. Mao’s intellegence places Kaname in the bathroom taking a shower while the show is going down outside.
Effortlessly Sousuke scales the tall building and takes down the perpurtrator without killing him, strickly under Mao’s order. Taking the masked intruder down, Sousuke ‘reads him his rights’ and advises against giving their position away. Searching for weapons Sousuke finds a Jindai High Student ID. Shinji Kazama.
Uruz 6 radios in to Sousuke, the boy is holding something in his hand, what is it? Sousuke reveals a pair of panties in his hand. Kurz laughs in a way that says he completely understands the situation, the drive behind it and the hilarity that they raised their blood pressure over something so trivial. Mao keys in with discust that she isn’t paid enough to deal with this immature crap and advises Sousuke to return to the safe house ASAP.
Sousuke then interrogates Shinji as to why on earth he’s on Kaname’s balcony with her undergarments of all things. We can tell by his voice that Sousuke is quite angered and demands answers. When Shinji blatantly states he’s a panty thief, like everyone should know and asks if Sousuke is one; he answers no with such swiftness and tone it’s as if he’s afraid of Kaname ever thinking such a thing of him.
Staring past the gun Sousuke holds, Shinji recognizes him from school! Even though Shinji completely admired the knowledge base Sousuke shared on AS’s the first day of school, the two have never gotten a chance to discuss the topic… until now. Older students in Photo Club are blackmailing Shinji into stealing the panties to get his wideshot photos of various AS’s he’s taken. Those shots are irreplacable and Shinji will do anything to get them back! Sousuke is more concerned with how Miss Chidori would feel if she ever found out about this.
Shinji takes this opportunity to start up a conversation on Sousuke’s weakness: Armed Slaves. Discussing specs, ownership and other things of AS relevance.
Kurz and Melissa are still able to hear the whole conversation though the mouthpiece on Sousuke. The two on the balcony, no longer aware of where they are, continue a lengthy conversation on various AS models, tactics and abilities - a long enough conversation that Kurz and Melissa are able to heat up a quite nice dinner and almost finish it. It seems the two Uruz members are completely unaware, or uninterested in the conversation, until the histerical commentation between the two (almost like a husband and wife speaking of their child, but with militant sarcasm suitable for them).
“They’re having a good chat.”
“Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship?”
Their mutual respect for one another is interrupted. The sliding glass doors open, revealing a toweled Kaname Chidori fresh from her shower. Questioning the presense of two male classmates on her balcony at night, she seems to be handling the situation very well. Until she sees her panties still in Sousuke’s hand and the word coincidence –
Leaving the entranceway to the balcony, the two boys breath a deep sigh of relief. But their anticipated safety from rage is faulty, Kaname returns to the doorway with bat in hand and her target them.
* * *
The cruise missle lands its target, displayed on the submarine’s widescreen. The destruction confirmation casts a hollow expression the Captain’s face. Commander Mardukas captures this from the corner of his eye, and he instead hangs his head at the news for Madam Captain feeling her pain.
Wild fires light the night sky. A heavy Soviet accent emerges from a factory looking building, he is on the phone with another man informing him that the factory has been destroyed and all the data on the Whispered with it. The impossibility of continuing the project seem no hurdle to the dark haired man whom shot and killed on the bridge last episode. He gives a shameful tone for not sharing the information with the Kremlin. This serves to strike a nerve with the Soviet Captain on the phone. Upon the announcement of firing the man named Gauron, the hitman reveals that he has the data stored on a DVD and the numbers are quite interesting indeed.
Bested, the Captain exclaims in disbelief at the actions of his hired businessman. Men enter the room with the Captain on the phone, intent on carrying him off to Lubianka for emprisonment for using the research facility personally, and therefore giving away the location to the enemy whom has destroyed thousands of dollars worth of research. He is the one to blame, all the while Gauron listens on the phone and chuckles. The framing went rather well.
Kurz is, once again, bandaging Sousuke up after the falling from the fourth floor where Kaname’s apartment is located. Sousuke explains the tatical escape plan, trying to allow Shinji to escape unharmed but it failed because Shinji got entangled in the bushes instead. This is the first hint at the strength of friendship between the two, Sousuke regards Shinji as a comrade in battle and sacrifices himself before his comrade.
Kurz describes Lt. Commander Kalinin as a voidless gentleman. When Sousuke expresses his near failure as a failure in the eyes of Kalinin, Kurz turns glum when he finds he can’t get a laugh out of Sousuke. The Sergeant continues in how he has failed to get on Kaname’s good side, and concludes that she surely hates him. We see this really bothers Sousuke.
The fax machine hums to life. The Mithril headed document orders the guards to abandon the recent mission handed to them. They are to enjoy one week off in Tokyo before officially returning to duty. While they do not understand the sudden termination, Kurz isn’t about to argue a full week off to do as he pleases! However, the Lt. Commander himself has plans for Sousuke. Uruz 7 is to go on the class trip.
While the fax claims that the fees are already paid and the permission forms already filled out and shouldn’t go to waste, the previous hesitance Kalinin started to express to the Captain in the control room comes to mind. Is Kalinin onto a hunch preluding danger? Or is he simply concerned about Sousuke’s rare opportunity to reclaim the childhood he should have been allowed to experience had not his circumstances been what they were growing up? The news surprises Sousuke at first and he rebels against it (you can actually detect his anger at the news if you watch carefully, Super-calm under pressure Sousuke’s eyebrows are twitching dangerously under his long bangs!), but after the encouragement from Melissa and Kurz he concludes the exact same statement as Kalinin during the first episode of the series. It is a valuable learning experience.
Airplanes fill the sky and the class files into the terminal. Kaname, our leader, carries the Jindai High flag like a tourist guide. She gathers the students up and shouts for them to keep up and quickly. Her philosophy of feeling free to ask her any questions they might have regarding trash is out the window with Sousuke’s infidelic behavior - when he approaches her to ask when he should collect he garbage she barks at him to stop asking her questions and fall back into formation.
Shinji walks up and laughs it off, saying how angry he’d be given the circumstances they were all in less than 24 hours ago. This is the first time we see Sousuke stunned at how forceful Kaname was with him, completely shunning him for a behavior he feared her observing. The statement that she hates him is full in every aspect and this saddens him into disbelief.
Kyoko picks up on Kaname’s mood right away and asks her what’s wrong, why is she so super angry? Kaname insists that it’s just the way she is and that she’s fine. Everyone has taken their seat on the aircraft, except for a few stragglers being social before take off. A suited gentleman strikes up a conversation with the stewardess, describing his cruel desire to toss them from the plane at a suitable height from the ground in order to achieve a peaceful flight. He plays off the joke and the stewardess continues her list of chores.
It’s Gauron. And he’s extremely interested in Kaname.
“Is this your first time on a plane?” She asks Kyoko.
“Yes.”
Fave Episode Quotes
1. “Right, common sense.” This doesn’t make any sense at all!
-Sousuke Sagara
2. “We’ll stick with Kaname and make sure she doesn’t get hurt. Or kidnapped.”
-Kurz Weber
3. “Give me 120 seconds!”
-Sousuke Sagara
4. “She’s the number one idol no one wants as a girlfriend.”
-Shinji Kazama quoting the older students
5. “Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship?”
-Kurz Weber
6. “Ah man, happens all the time: you get to know somebody and then they’re gone.
It was such a short-live romance.”
-Kurz Weber
Compiled by Miz
