Now this was a good episode to help set up what should be an exciting episode next week. But it also was good to get the perspective of the captured Satou and one of Carmel’s old friends Rebecca. Quite the hilarious character setting off explosives and as a result the fire extinguishers XD. It was also a good episode to let us see what was going on with Shana and the rest of that flashback with Shiro.

Poor Satou really got into a mess here. I can’t really blame him for lowering his guard since he actually figured Outlaw wasn’t going to hold him hostage. Unfortunately things didn’t work out like he planned. I can understand their perspective of course. Going in there to rescue Shana while she’s being held in the HQ of the enemy that has pushed them this far is pretty nuts. Yet Carmel can’t leave Shana there and by the end of the episode Rebecca realized she couldn’t leave Carmel to fight alone. It took Rebecca some time to figure that out since as a Flame Haze those kinds of bonds aren’t the most common. You are fighting alone in a world that you aren’t really a part of anymore so it’s not always instantly simple to go charging into a crazy situation. That little flashback was pretty nice and let us see where Rebecca’s decision to repay that debt came from. It definitely makes sense for someone like her to go in with this kind of fight than just to wait around for the enemy to attack.

Lot for Satou to deal with though in this episode. Has to be hard to just find out that Margery is down for the count. At least now Carmel can head off and leave things to Satou to deal with. Not sure how quickly he can get Margery to wake up and get back into the action, but hopefully it will be fast. Even with Rebecca and this mysterious Flame Haze (I’m betting on Khamsin, since we don’t know that many other Flame Hazes anyways) this will be a tough fight. Should be fun to see how Satou gets Margery going.

We got to meet a new Flame Haze, Frieder and the cute sounding Brigid. Definitely not the confident sounding type, though I suppose a tough sounding rose might be a bit odd. Frieder is a pretty logical guy who knows how important this war is. While I don’t like him using Satou as a hostage, I can at least understand his feelings. In his mind it’d be nuts to just throw away their fighting potential in a rescue mission with almost no chance to succeed. Though I’m still glad Rebecca ignored his logical arguments and went. If they can’t stand by their friends then it’s hard to tell what they are trying to protect.

At least Shana got some time to work through her feelings. Certainly the way Yuji reached out frightened her as much as anything else. It wasn’t that kind grasp she had back in the past with Shirou, but something else entirely. Shana is able to accept her own feelings now and even how in the past she acted like she knew everything. The only question is how she plans on getting through to Yuji. Right now he seems pretty locked into this path of his. Of course there is the minor issue of dealing with Hecate when she is defenseless. Here comes Yuji’s issue of leaving her helpless in enemy territory. I can see him stepping in here, but still it was pretty reckless. Think Carmel might want to rush that rescue mission.

That scene with Merihim was pretty nice though. Got to see his final moments and what was said between him and Shana in the end. Of course can understand the feelings Merihim had towards Alastor. Merihim was an important person for Shana being a constant part of her life until she became a Flame Haze. He also taught her that important lesson about love right at the end. Seeing his end makes me feel bad for the whole situation surrounding Merihim, Carmel, Mathilde, and Alastor. Just a lot of sadness and death unfortunately.

On a lighter note, wow a lot of Shana fanservice in this one. Shana in the bath, Shana standing in the nude outside the bath (with conveniant hair positioning), and Shana now having to deal with Hecate with only a bathrobe to cover herself with XD.

So we keep moving forward towards the eventual conflict against Bal Masqué. Still have to meet this extra Flame Haze going with Carmel on the rescue mission and haven’t exactly seen Yoshida since Yuji took Shana. Wish Shana luck in surviving the angry attack from Hecate who obviously has feelings towards the leader of Bal Masqué.
Score: A