86 - Episode 8 Review - Shin Has Located His Brother Shourei
Warning: Spoilers up to the end of Episode 8 follow.
This episode was jam packed with emotional moments, with little to no levity. The opening scene alone was bombshell after bombshell. Raiden and Shin are talking. Four members of Spearhead died in the last battle, and we don’t even get all their names. Raiden reveals that he finally found his older brother’s voice among the Legion. Raiden promises that he and the others will follow Raiden until the end.
In the next scene, we see Lena struggling with the revelation from last ep that Spearhead is meant to be an execution ground for the 86. She reads over documents that confirm this. Powerless, she turns to her best friend Annette to confide in. That was a mistake.
Annette continues her usual apathetic attitude about the 86. Finally Lena snaps at her for it. And Annette snaps back. Annette reveals her true self, and she comes off as a creepy villainess who’s a little insane. She feels guilty and loathes herself for being a scumbag supremacist but she projects her hatred onto Lena.
Annette reveals that she betrayed her childhood 86 friend (coincidentally it was Shin. Small world) as soon she was ostracized by other kids in her school. Oh, and the Para-RAID was invented by her father by experimenting and killing 86 kids who had some kind of special telepathy. The guilt drove Annette’s father to suicide. Anyways, Annette tells Lena that she hates her. And now I hate Annette.
Of course, Lena does the only thing she can to try to save Spearhead (sort of). She goes to her uncle. But she gets chewed out by her uncle, too. Who equates hope with despair.
What bothers me is that in Lena’s futile attempts to change things she didn’t say the one thing that might have convinced them - she didn’t reveal that the Legion will not expire and will destroy San Magnolia if the 86 are no longer around to protect them. Then again, even in real life, I’ve witnessed how logic and reason doesn’t work on people who can’t handle the truth.
Lena then turns to the last person that she always turns to - Shin. She advises Spearhead to run and disobey this suicide mission, but he refuses. And Lena learns that Shin is doing this because of his brother. Shin tells Lena not to call them anymore, and gives her his best advice on how to survive the inevitable onslaught.
Then we get a depressing montage of the remaining 86 members. Time fast forwarded at some point and now only 5 members remain - Shin, Raiden, Anju, Theo, and Kurena. But they all look peaceful and happy. They accept their fate. In their Juggernauts, they go on to their last battle. And Lena hasn’t contacted them since Shin told her not to.
Last, we hear from the mind of Shourei in the massive new Juggernaut. He’s ready to kill Shin and looks psycho!
