After last week’s episode, I wasn’t super excited to see what happened in the finale.  But boy was I surprised when I saw that Gainax was pulling out all the stops for this week’s episode.  The episode starts off with the young girl in the Bibliotheca thinking about Huey and how sad she is that he probably doesn’t even remember her.  Through her sadness, we find out that she gave Huey the key to the Bibliotheca in the hopes that someday he would come back and save her.  Suddenly, the water around her ripples and we see Huey’s coat as he walks up behind her.  She turns, saddened that she has to face him and scold him for entering the Bibliotheca again when he shouldn’t have.  However, when she turns around, we see Huey clutching at his side as blood soaks through his clothing (I’m guessing either a gunshot wound or a sword wound) and he looks up, smiling at her.  Before we can find out what happens, we seemingly go back in time to the beginning of the day, where Huey and Dalian are having tea in the study and reading the paper.  Huey scowls as he reads over an article, claiming that there are undead walking the streets and that nothing can kill them.  Dalian says that it may be a Phantom Book that’s causing it, but she’s doubtful.  However, as she continues talking, she seems to become worked up as she stares at the newspaper and finally demands that Huey give her the paper.  He obliges and hands it over and is surprised when Dalian demands that they head into town right away.

Once they arrive in town, we find out it’s actually not the whole potential zombie apocalypse that had Dalian concerned, but rather it was a bun shop’s ad that she saw in the newspaper.  Huey is amused that that was the one thing she was able to focus on in the smallest thing in the newspaper.  However, as they’re walking back to the car, a zombie attacks and Huey pulls out his gun.  He fires off several shots, which is enough to halt the zombie long enough for the townsfolk to get to safety.  Huey and Dalian then rush back to their car and drive into an alley away from where the zombie was sited.  Dalian has apparently swiped one of the newspapers that a young boy was selling and is upset to find that in the space where the original ad for the bun shop was, is a Phantom Book.  Huey is confused about this, but Dalian informs him that so long as the same amount of emotions are poured into the writing, it doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of a book to be considered a Phantom Book.  She then instructs Huey to find the place that the newspaper was printed because they need to stop the printing before everyone in London is turned into a zombie.  Later that evening, they manage to locate the printer and get inside, only to find the whole place crawling with zombies.  However, instead of attacking them, the zombies are too busy printing and packaging the newspapers to be bothered with paying them any attention.  Suddenly, the same man we saw in the previous episode with Ilas appears and welcomes Huey and Dalian, saying that he has been expecting them.  He beckons them to follow him up to the office and the duo agrees, though both are wary of him.

Once in the library, the man (who I’ll be calling the Professor from now on) gestures to chairs and tells Huey and Dalian to make themselves comfortable while he makes them some tea.  Huey stiffly tells him that he’s fine standing and he doesn’t need any tea.  After some mild conversation (mostly the Professor telling Huey that he knows all about British tea-time habits) the red yomihime appears and Dalian’s feathers are instantly ruffled.  The two girls go at each other, calling each other names like midget, when the Professor finally breaks them up.  He then asks Huey and Dalian to join them in their goal to spread destruction around England and interrupt the rebuilding conference going on in London.  Huey and Dalian both decline and the Professor sighs, saying that it’s too bad and suddenly pulls out a golden gun and shoots Huey!  (Well, now we know where he got that wound from.)  Huey goes down and Dalian rushes to his side as the gun the Professor is holding turns back into a journal or a book and he informs Huey that Phantom Books can be used for so much more than simply being read.  He then turns the book back into a gun and points it at Dalian, but Huey pulls out his own gun and shoots the gun/book out of the Professor’s hands.  Huey then manages to get to his feet and grabs Dalian, pulling her with as he sprints from the room.  He ends up jumping out of the window and the Professor and his companion are surprised by his determination momentarily before ordering the zombies to attack Huey and Dalian.  Huey manages to find a small supply room and barricades the door before sinking to the floor.  He then asks Dalian to open the Bibliotheca since he needs to save her.  Dalian makes him promise to come back alive and when he does, she opens the portal to the Bibliotheca.  So now we’re where the episode started off at.  Huey approaches the girl and tells her that he’s going to get her out of there and she hesitates, but finally takes his hand.  The two run towards the exit as the library collapses around them.

However, once they actually get to the entrance, they find it chained shut, to Huey’s surprise.  Just then, a large minotaur-looking figure appears and the girl gasps, saying that it’s the library’s keeper and he wants to keep her there.  Before Huey can even attempt to put up a fight, the monster crushes the ground beneath them and Huey falls through the cavern.  Back in the real world, Huey collapses as the zombies manage to break through the barricade.  Dalian calls out to him, saying that he has to remember who he is or he’ll be lost in there forever.  She starts to cry, saying that they still have so much to do and that he hasn’t even taken her flying yet.  Just then, she hears the voice of her other self – or the girl in the library – asking her if she truly wants to save Huey.  Dalian agrees and the two of them somehow manage to break through to Huey, though it’s in the form of Huey as a child.  At first, Huey doesn’t even remember who he is, but when he accepts the book from his child-self, he remembers everything and is able to break free of the Bibliotheca.  Dalian is surprised, but happy to see him alive and the two venture out of their hiding spot to confront the zombies.  As Huey reads from the book, we get some minor flash backs to the girl in the Bibliotheca.  Judging by what happened, she used to live in ancient Greece and stumbled across the minotaur.  I’m guessing that she agreed to guard the library and thus became trapped inside of it.  Once Huey finishes reading, the zombies are destroyed and while the Professor and his companion are upset about it, they comfort themselves in the fact that they have more than enough copies of it to destroy London, if not all of England.  However, before they can do anything, Han and Flamberge appear and torch all of the copies of the Phantom Book.  Before they can capture the Professor and his yomihime, they disappear, but Flamberge tells him that they’ll see them again.

After everything is said and done, we find Huey waking up in bed the next morning.  Camilla and Armand are beside him, worrying about him.  Camilla then calls Dalian inside, saying that Huey finally woke up.  Dalian tries to hide how relieved she is by being brash, but Huey starts to laugh when he notices crumbs around her mouth.  Afterwards, we see a small montage of everyone moving on with their lives.  We also see the Professor and his yomihime on a blimp and the girl is morose about not being able to achieve her goals because of Huey.  Despite her mood, the Professor simply wants to see what’s going to happen with Huey the next time they meet.

Opinions:  In a way, I’m glad I didn’t get my hopes up too much for this episode because it really blew me away.  The action was intense and pleasing to the eye and the fact that we learned quite a bit made it a worthwhile episode.  I’ll admit, I almost cried when Huey got shot, if only because I didn’t know what to do if he died.  I’m glad he didn’t, but seeing Dalian upset about him possibly dying was touching and showed that she really does care about him on a deeper level than just her keeper.  The connection between Huey and the girl in the library seems to be a little bit clearer, though I still have some questions about their relationship.  But the fact that we know that she is Dalian’s other self is quite a bit of information, as well as the fact that Phantom Books don’t always have to be in the form of a book.  Overall, it was an excellent episode, especially for a finale, though I wish we could have learned some of this information earlier in the series.  I hope we get a second season eventually, if anything so that we can unravel the mystery of the yomihimes.

Score: A/A+