Curse you, PV – you spoiled the cliffhanger ending! But then I suppose no one really thought the Cabernet was dead – we still have two episodes to go.

I admit it’s not easy to put much focus on anime reviews what with everything that’s going on right now in Japan. I managed to push my scheduled trip back to 3/31, but things at the nuclear plant seem to take a twist just about every hour – it’s like some hideous TV drama and the mood swings are awful. If things are as bad as they look at the time of this writing (pretty bad at 833PM Pacific Time) I don’t think 17 days is going to make the difference for me. Let’s just wait and see what happens.

But life – and anime, and blogging – does go on. Letter Bee has aired, and Gosick finally aired as well so I expect to see a sub for that sometime soon. And the drama is really cranking up as we head towards what tentatively looks like a pretty decent anime-original ending for this show. There wasn’t no much new in terms of plot advancement this week, but there was a lot of character movement. We really saw Lag at his most Lag this week – he’s the ultimate idealist. He threw himself in front of Garrard and Valentine (and Niche followed his lead) to stop Noir shooting them and not with a shindan either. The matter of the sacrifices has permanently driven a wedge between Noir and Reverse, but Lag wasn’t willing to let Noir take the step of murder.

As for Noir, he’s the ally of the Bees once again, though it’s simply a matter of shared goals. They both want to stop the Cabernet but for very different reasons – Noir to save Those Who Could Not Become Spirit, and the others to protect the government and the people of Akatsuki. The thing is, I can’t blame Reverse for what they want to do – the government comes off as unabashedly evil in all this. But their methods are so brutal as to be indefensible.

Complicating matters still further is the revelation that Lag’s mother either is, or is intimately connected with, the Amberground artificial sun. That’s not a surprise but it does complicate matters even further as far as the right and wrong of things is concerned. We found this information out via the dramatic high point of the episode, a showdown between Lag and Noir, with Lag threatening to shoot Noir at close range to try and bring his Gauche memories back. Noir saves him the trouble and shoots himself, but the memories are all Noir’s – with one notable exception. That was Gauche Suede meeting Lag’s mother and telling her he’d “delivered” Lag. Obviously it’s highly significant that this was the only thing Noir retains from his Gauche existence.

For all that, it seems that Noir is Noir, and that’s that – even Lag seems to have accepted it for now. I suppose there’s always hope, but it may have to be enough for everyone that Noir is still a decent person who wants to care for the defenseless (which is certainly something Gauche would have done). Things are left pretty much in limbo – obviously the three-shindan attack was not enough to finish off the Cab, and it looks like it’s off to Yusari to mess up the hive next week. Poor Aria – she’s left with a big steaming pile of stuff to deal with and Largo nowhere in sight – but I’m dead certain whatever he’s doing (I’m guessing it’s Maka-related) is going to be vital to the resolution of the plot. I don’t know what to expect at this point – there are divergent enough interests here that no one ending can satisfy them all. Some parties are going to lose, and lose painfully. There’s potential for great heartbreak for both Lag and Noir, and for those that love them.