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Episode 15 - I wonder if there is a heaven
Since the showdown with the Patouria, Wits and Roybea left the Freeden to return home. They sit at a fork in the road and have a debate over whose side is heaven and whose side is hell. In a minute, they move out, each heading down his own path. Inside the Leopard, Roybea has several baskets of roses. He pulls out a PDA and says “let’s start with A”. He goes to several girls and hands them roses, all of which are thrilled that he remembered them all this time. At a diner, Roybea says his reason for checking on the girls is to see they’re alive. He says they’re lucky to avoid vultures and colony disease. She asks if any of his friends died of Colony disease and he replies, “no, just the family of a friend”. We’re taken to where Wits is, at a graveyard. He is at the graves of his father and youngest brother. He calls them stupid bastards for dying from Colony disease and lays a bottle of liquor on his father’s grave and a chocolate bar on his brother’s. Wits younger sisters who happen to be twins show up. They’re overjoyed to see him and drive him back to their family’s farm. An older man in a top hat was watching from behind a tree. He walks over to the two grave stones but doesn’t say anything.
As Wits is driving back to his old home, a Daughtress Tank drives in front of him. He hastily pulls out a revolver but his sisters explain the suit is there to keep vultures away. He drives deeper into the field and sees his mother, brother and another sister. They rush to welcome him home. Wits wants to go back to his home but his mother says they store things in that room now. His brother, Draso, volunteers to clean it up for him and runs away. Wits drives his mother and twin sisters to the grocery store and his mother asks where he got all that money. He says he’ll tell her when the time is right and she asks if it had anything to do with Vultures or mobile suits.
Roybea’s luck doesn’t seem to be much better. He exits a house where an apparently pissed girl runs after him. He tells her has to visit someone in a hospital bed. She calls him a liar and he tells her to go to hell. Roy gets into the Gundam Leopard and says “Now for the real thing”. He taps a bottle of liquor with a yellow rose tied to it. Wits crashes on his bed but a moment later, his brother tells him it’s time for dinner. Wits heads downstairs as Draso rushes to hide a photograph. Wits complements his mother’s cooking and asks for some coffee. She tells Wits that she doesn’t drink coffee then Wits points to a coffee maker and asks what it is. She quickly stands up and begins to make coffee. Wits sees a piano in the room and asks the elder sister to play. Her hands freeze over the keys and the mother drops the coffee maker, causing it to shatter.
Wits notices something is wrong. Draso is avoiding Wits’ stare while his hands are trembling. Draso mutters “We have a new father”. Wits slams his hand on the table and asks why everyone was hiding it. His mother retorts by saying he has been lying about being a mobile suit pilot. He says he only did it so he could provide for his family and receive a slap courtesy of his mother. Wits runs out of the house and his mother begins crying. He stops at a bar. Roybea in the Leopard heads up to a village and is worried that he’ll be too late. At the bar, Wits asks the bartender to keep the store open because he has enough money. He says he is a revered mobile suit pilot. He tells the bartender he left town and was picked up by vultures. Their leader gave him the Gundam Airmaster as a memento. The bartender asks to hear the whole story. The bartender says his mother hates mobile suits only because she isn’t over his father. The bartender hands Wits a cup of coffee and sits at a piano. Wits realizes that the bartender is his stepfather.
Explosions outside ruin the meeting and Wits’s stepfather says they’re the same ones who come back every harvest. The Daughtress Tank springs into action and fires upon the Vulture’s Jenices. Roybea lays the yellow flower on the grave and insists the person can’t be dead. The Daughtress Tank is easily beaten. One Jenice aims at a group of fleeing civilians but is shot by the Airmaster. Wits kicks one Jenice and shoots two others. The Jenice that was kicked gets up and tries to vertically slash the Airmaster with its heat hawk. Wits elbows the Jenice out of action as Roybea continues speaking at the grave. Apparently, the woman he is mourning gave him the Leopard and was his hero. He dumps the bottle of liquor on the gravestone and says that’ll be the last time he visits. Wits descends on another Jenice and fires on it. The head flies off and lands near the Vulture’s leader who is in a jeep. The Airmaster stares him down and he hastily retreats. Wits flies over his home and drops the briefcase full of gold bars. As his family marvels at the gold, Wits says their fields sparkle more. Roybea and Wits meet up at the fork where they parted and both believe their side was hell. They stand up and decide that the Freeden is their home and go back.
Paul Jr’s thoughts:
This episode was minimal on mobile suit action but none the worse because of it. We learned quite a bit about the backgrounds of Wits and Roybea. They got caught up on character development and told us a little on how they got their Gundams. This was a nice break from the action and forced both pilots to show their concern for the Freeden.
