To me, the difference between the first and second cours of Chi Chikyuu is pretty self-evident. If you don’t see it,  my justifying it won’t make it visible – we just don’t see it the same way. But no question for me, this was at least progress. It’s not a hugely high bar but I think this was the best episode since the timeskip (the big one). Even at its most awkward Orb still at least trades in interesting ideas, which establishes a pretty high floor. At least this week we weren’t testing the structural integrity of that floor.

That said, I can’t shake the vibe that I’m watching characters making speeches now, where before I was caught up in a story of people. One could speculate that it’s a case of the characters driving the plot transitioning to the opposite. But in truth, that’s just subjective interpretation. Jolenta is someone we don’t really know, and Draka and Schmidt are people who never felt like they could really exist. But they’re the horses puling this carriage so we go where they take us…

The matter of what to do with Draka now that she’s done what she agreed to is the most urgent. Schmidt is predictably unsentimental – he proposes “disposing” of her. In practical terms it makes sense. But in narrative terms it doesn’t, so Jolenta overrules him. Draka has to be the next in line in a story of next in line people. People passed a torch that will ultimate set their pyre alight. Draka didn’t ask for this any more than Rafal or Oczy did, but Jolenta isn’t interested in her opinion. She knows her time is up and Draka is the logical next in line.

The best scene of the ep in fact is Lewandlowski explaining his life’s outlook to Jolenta. He’s a character who’s been a near-total cipher to this point, and this is certainly another of those “speech to camera” moments. But it’s an interesting one. He espouses something close to idealism – the idea that a slow slog towards good is the only way to bring meaning to existence. We’re born, we live, we die. Often very early and painfully, certainly at the time and place this story is set (as jumbled as that is to decipher). Personally I feel like Lewandlowski is pretty spot-on both in his theory about why religion exists and what was going wrong with it, but I’m not sure many in his era would express it the way he does.

In fact this ep is mostly characters elucidating their personal philosophy. Next is Schmidt, and we already kind of know the score here. His case that nothing humans make is anything “real”, but instead of pale imitation of nature, is a convincing one. He’s got Plato on his side but as has been wont for 2300 years, Aristotle is held up in challenge. His view, Draka says, was that sometimes human creations perfect what God only began. As for Jolenta, she feels the weight of history and her small place in it. That’s why she’s prepared to pass her baton to Draka and face the fate of all Orb’s chosen standard-bearers of the new faith.

“I Love Heliocentrism” would make a heck of a bumper sticker. As an epitaph, I’m not so sure. But Jolenta, though she brazenly foreshadows her reunion with her father, knows full well what happens next. It’s been the plan all along. From a story standpoint it’s something of an anti-climax for Jolenta to end her story without she or Nowak realizing that the other was a few meters away, but Nowak may in fact do so next week depending on the aftermath of the explosion. Either way, that’s an interesting conversation we’ll never have the chance to hear.