Score: A-

Well this episode spent quite a bit of time diving into the situation surrounding both the cast and their home planet. As expected this was definitely a planet that humanity moved to when Earth became uninhabitable. Of course for a bit there I was wondering if we were simply looking at an alternate dimension situation. But it seems unlikely that Polina’s ship and crew would be sent there. And even if they did arrive in a different timeline that would mean the ship the main cast used wouldn’t have been sitting out in space. The issue about the timeline remains and there has to be a story behind that. But it just wasn’t one the main cast could figure out from where they stood. Maybe after this Charce situation more details will come to light. But at the very least they have a better picture to work from now.

And at the very least this Earth/Astra situation does tie into both the murder plot and the journey home. What that sphere was and that a ship existed near the exit point was an issue to address. The very premise of the show relied both on that means of attempted murder being put in place and that the cast would have a way to get back home. Now we more or less get why that is the case. The starting planet…is Earth. And it was turned into an ice-covered death sphere. The sphere threw the main cast out near that ship and started on their way home as we’ve seen.

The questions still hang in the air. Just why would they rewrite the history books the way they did? This is presuming that Polina isn’t from an alternate history. But otherwise why make up a WW3 that never happened? Did they simply want a good excuse for humanity to have gotten rid of war, weapons, religion, etc. Although one would think they could go with a more optimistic route. They went to another planet and humanity stood together to avoid annihilation. Why not just run with that? Well regardless humanity appears to have rewritten the history books and intentionally pushed history out of the education system so no one could look too deeply. After all…if you rewrite history and have history a major profession…someone is bound to notice.

So let’s dive right in with the Charce situation. Honestly, it is no secret that I’ve been suspecting him for a while. He got the similar backstory stuff to everyone else, but we didn’t get a comfortable resolution with him. It never perfectly fit. And he was giving enough unsettling gazes that he didn’t seem cleared of full suspicion. It’s still not certain about the Aries/Seira connection and whether that ties into his motivation for doing all this. But that should become clear next time around.

What I didn’t expect was how Kanata was going to figure out the truth. I do like that he actively tried to figure it out himself. That first attack was key to figuring out who the killer was and their objective. And it was perfect that he did realize the importance of turning to Aries. If anyone could tell him in detail what happened that day it would be her. Lean on the person with a photographic memory! Of course he almost didn’t get to find out since Aries freaked out over a ‘night visit’ from Kanata. It was nice for the first time in a while later in the episode to see these two interacting more and showing actual interest. Kanata had been veering towards being an utterly dense protagonist. So it is good to see once again his interest in Aries.

If nothing else this was a pretty enjoyable episode. It was nice getting to see just where the show is going and revealing a lot of stuff in one episode. We managed to cover both who the assassin was and also a good deal of the history surrounding Astra. Only a few episodes to go now. But I’m hoping that the remaining episodes will be pretty interesting, entertaining, and reveal the full picture.

While mystery is nice while the story is ongoing, I would like to know the truth of things before it is over. I’ll certainly miss this bunch when it does reach that point though. But for now I’ll look forward to finding out just what Charce is thinking. Sure he’s a clone of a King. But just why did he agree to partake in this mission? The truth is yet to be revealed and all we can do is wait to find out.