Unfortunately for Sheryl, it doesn’t look like this will be happening very soon!
Picture courtesy of Hubby-sama btw. 🙂
So this is a re-cap episode, but don’t let that stop you from watching, since compared to re-caps I‘ve seen in the past this was just as entertaining as an all new episode would have been. Other shows out there should take some notes, because I wasn’t bored for one moment, despite the re-used footage.
This was probably largely in part down to the fact that we got a few answers in regards to Ranka and Sheryl, although of course those answers raise more questions.
Starting off on Gallia 4 we learn that Grace is one of many consciousnesses although she’s the one who gets to run the body. And through her narration of events we get to learn a little bit about what has been going on with Sheryl.
Grace refers to Sheryl as Operation Carnival, Fairy 9, saying though that she is a failure and was to be discarded. Since of course she was supposed to have died on Gallia 4. Grace while in Sheryl’s hospital room discretely switches Sheryl’s blood sample with another one. She tells us that Operation Carnival needed to be altered once Q1 was discovered.
I wonder if Grace knows Roger Clemens…
Q1 it turns out is actually Ranka and it seems that while Grace and whoever she’s in league with were aware of Ranka they had no desire to pursue her before Sheryl’s farewell concert on Frontier. But since that turned out to be a failure in their eyes and Ranka’s quick rise to stardom and voice seem to be producing the responses they want out of the Varja they now are actively pursuing her. To the extent, that they have assigned Brera as her bodyguard and Grace will be overseeing the project they want her to be a part of.
Which once again, means you kind of have to feel sorry for Sheryl. She’s put in all this hard work and effort only to be thrown away like trash and the worst part is, she doesn’t even know it yet!
Ranka is constantly being thrust in her face, on t.v, on the cover of magazines. She can’t even escape her whilst convalescing in her hospital bed. Sheryl’s happiness at seeing that Alto-hime has come to visit her is short-lived as Ranka pops out from behind him. Alto came, with, Ranka.
They won’t give you your panties back if you pull faces like that!
OMG No panties! Ranka is really upping the stakes in the war for Alto-hime, you may have to flash him your boobies Sheryl
Which is why the little impromptu duet was nice to see. Having seen such a worried and down Sheryl the last few episodes, it was nice to see her get some of her spunk back ^-^ On the flip side, it was also nice to see Ranka step-up and actually act on her feelings for Alto-hime and fight for him!
You know if he can’t pick one soon, Alto-hime might just have his man card confiscated..
Poor bastard.
Back to Grace’s narration, according to the Borg Queen, it was Grace and the collective which led the Varja to the Frontier fleet. After 18 months of careful consideration and planning the Frontier was picked due to a few vulnerabilities. It was close! It did not allow cyborgs and implants, and the fact it is a bio ship means it would be easily affected by environmental fluctuations.
During the re-caps of the battles interspersed with Sheryl’s concert we got some nice shots of Ozma and Skull One in action. They are such pretty machines!! But the fact he got to shine in the battle scenes this week and the little scene with Cathy and the discussion they have in the car. Make me worry for his future survival a little bit, especially considering the history of Macross.
It seems that Ozma and Cathy are starting to have their suspicions since confirming through camera footage, Alto’s statement that Brera’s ship was at Gallia 4 prior to its destruction.
Ozma notes that Alto’s promotion to Warrant Officer isn’t’ sufficient reason for him to have been called before Bilrer and boy is he one creepy looking Zentradi!
Cathy wonders if they are trying to shut him up, but Ozma says something bigger is behind it. Cathy is adament that her father the President has nothing to do with it and Ozma says that he doesn’t suspect her father. But they both think the most suspicious thing is.. Leon.
Hmm Ozma was focused on in the battle scenes and now he’s suspecting Leon… Is this the set up for killing off Skull Leader?
On a happier note, my pretty sniper pilot is alive and well fed apparently!
Isn’t Klein cute?
So, things I’m left wondering…
What is up with Sheryl’s blood that meant Grace had to switch samples. Is she ridden with those weird bacterial looking phages like Ranka? Or is there some other reason Grace is messing with it?
Calamitous Intent 
Grace switched the blood samples because she’d been drugging Sheryl. I’m pretty sure that’s why anyway, something like that would probably come up in a blood test.
That aside…best recap episode ever. As much as I enjoyed it, I’m pissed at Satelight for doing it. It tells me they can do a good recap episode and makes a certain other recap episode I watched from them much less forgivable.
Ahh you know I never thought of that but it makes total sense!
It really, really was I think other shows really should give this one a watch and learn from it!
Well at least Klein was smart enough not to feed her man pineapples…
Isn’t it cute apple sauce is so kiddie and yet here is chibi-Klein feeding her love like a baby.
LOL and hopefully he’s smart enough to not make her use the aeroplane method, or he may get fed that pineapple…
Great scott! Your hubby can draw.
This is what my drawing would look like > http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/impossibledreamz/AltoandSheryl.jpg
Lol. It just occurred to me – Stick figure Alto has no clothes, and stick figure sheryl has no top. no shoes either, but that’s ok.
Wow, I didn’t understand any shit at the beginning and I hated the recaps, but the only part I really enjoyed of this episode was the showdown
@Hoshi, LMAO your stick figures are awesome. Shame on your dirty brain though for drawing stick Alto and stick Sheryl nekkid! 😉
@biissmo, I enjoyed the recaps because of the way they had them synced to Sheryl’s performance. So that the ships launched just as she reached a crescendo.
I think I got the gist of what was going on because I watched the episode 3 times. Once raw, once through subbed, with Hubby-sama and then I usually have it running as I write the blog post out and I’ll do screen-caps as I go along.
That said the showdown was AWESOME!
At least this recap wasn’t narrated. How I hate those, where clips are just put together and given a rundown by some guy with a passable announcer voice.
@dingsan, yes this recap ep was very refreshing!
Anyone else notice that the things inside Ranka seem to have crystals similar to the ones in Sheryl’s earrings?
The crystals seem to be important and are probably tied into project Carnival.
Bird Man –> Dr. Mao Nome –> Sheryl Nome –> Project Carnival –> Ranka
It’s a theory anyway.
@Cheese McWhiz, now that you mention it, they do don’t they? I’ve been wondering about the exact relationship between Mao and Sheryl Nome.
My own guess is that Sheryl is a genetically modified clone of Mao or Sarah as a product of Project Carnival (Fairy 9 -> does this mean there were 8 failed clones before Sheryl?), while Ranka is a natural granddaughter of Mao’s who was changed by the events 11 years ago, which presumably also gave birth to Grace and the rest of her kind (whatever they are).
@Yoo, you know I wondered about the number designation too. Nine does seem to imply that there were eight before her right?
A clone could be possible, or they could have just genetically modified Sheryl before she was born and she’s a natural descendant of Mao’s.
But if she is a clone I wonder if her current sickness is related to that, or is Grace poisoning her…
We’ll find out in any case ^-^