This episode of Dragonaut is filled with contrived plotting, character deaths, and the thickest melodrama I’ve ever seen, but I still loved all of it; probably because I am a sucker for melodrama. Thanatos has now transported to near Earth and the Gillard army is trying to destroy it, with disastrous effects on the army as Thanatos wipes them out without suffering any damage. Gio waits inside Thanatos for Jin to decide to let Toa go or not. There’s also the spirits of Akira and Machina which have somehow merged with Thanatos and now speak for it. I have no idea why Akira and Machina needed to come back when Gio is already Thanatos’s voice. I’m kind of pleased that they aren’t exactly revived, but it still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.
On Earth the dragonaut gang decides to fly up to Thanatos to convince Gio that dragons and humans can live together, with Sieglinde giving a pretty nice, tearful goodbye. Kazuki sits around waiting for Widow to heal from the wound Gio gave her, while Jin and Toa spend their last days together. I liked the contrast in scenes here with Kazuki treating Widow like a piece of trash whereas Jin and Toa are acting all lovey dovey. Widow begins turning into yellow sparkles, apparently because she and Kazuki never had a resonance, and manages one final confession to Kazuki of her love before she disappears completely. Widow has to have the worst fate of any character in the show. She’s basically Kazuki’s punching bag the whole time and then just goes and dies. Really sucks for her.
The time runs out on Jin and Toa and Gio arrives to take Toa again. Jin relents this time and lets Toa go, much to her protest as she wants to spend all her time with Jin. A Widow-less Kazuki and Toa-less Jin meet on the beach and begin fighting each other, which ends with Kazuki confessing his repressed homosexual love for Jin. I’m not kidding here. The reason the whole time Kazuki has wanted to kill Jin for taking Gio is because he wanted Gio to protect Jin. Yeah, it’s very warped logic that fits Kazuki’s stupid mind perfectly. After Kazuki and Jin have a good cry over things they band together to go get Toa back, conveniently forgetting Kazuki’s homicidal tendencies.
Jin and Kazuki are joined by Commander Sakaki, who now wants to save Laura. They infiltrate the ISDA base and Sakaki manages to rescue Laura with Jin and Kazuki going on to find a shuttle. Sadly Sakaki is shot in the back by his own scientist after rescuing Laura. Laura sees Sakaki’s sacrifice and transforms into her power armor to fight the rest of the security forces while Jin and Kazuki escape in a shuttle. Her and Sakaki, both mortally wounded, confess their love for each other and Sakaki realizes the foolishness of his actions before they both die. Professor Nozaki arrives to absorb Laura’s anti-thanatos factor, intent on killing thanatos once and for all.
Sakaki’s death is the saddest one so far in this show, just cause he’s the kind of character who realizes he’s wrong far too late. The final moments between him and Laura were really sweet. Widow’s death was random, especially with the sparkles, but at least that cleans up her and Kazuki’s story. Kazuki is still the craziest bastard ever, even if he is redeemed. I still hope he dies soon, perhaps killed by Thanatos or something. But the most random thing in this episode is seeing the three operator girls actually fight. One of them even has throwing knives! That was just too much. I wonder how throwing knives work in low-G anyways.
