The latest episode of Gundam Unicorn came out about a month ago, but I was too busy studying and then traveling so I didn't get a chance to watch this episode. In this episode, the intrigue around Laplace's Box continues as another Gundam joins the fray. Boo!!! Funny how there is one guy who doesn't react at all to the tea spray. Summary: The Black Gundam Unicorn "Banshee" drops out of the sky and sends Riddhe and his Delta Plus scurrying for cover. The Banshee then captures the Unicorn and returns it to the Ra Cailum. With the arrival of Banshee comes the representatives of the Vist Foundation including Alberto, and the Banshee is piloted by a reconditioned Marida. Before being extracted from the Unicorn, Banagher learns about the Laplace's Box from the Unicorn and decides that the knowledge cannot be revealed to anyone. The news of Banagher being uncooperative is relayed to Martha on the spaceship Garuda, and Martha coerces Minerva into agreeing to help convince Banagher to cooperate. Back on the Ra Cailum, Bright has a private chat with Banagher and learns that Banagher's chief motivation for piloting the Unicorn is to save Minerva/Audrey. After the chat, Bright learns of the secret deployment of the Federation's new battleship General Revil and deduces that the Nahel Argama is the target. Given that Unicorn and Banagher are to be transferred to the Garuda, Bright orders the Nahel Argama to wait for a rendezvous with the Garencieres and secretly tells Banagher to break out during the transfer and rescue Minerva from the Vist Foundation. The transfer starts, and Marida, Riddhe, and the Tri-Stars from the Ra Cailum are tasked with escorting Banagher and the Unicorn to the Garuda in the upper atmosphere. The Garencieres is given information by Bright's contacts and they appear on the scene to start a battle with the Garuda's forces. Banagher takes the opportunity to break loose with the Unicorn and commandeers a flying platform from the Tri-Stars. The Tri-Stars fly back down to rescue their fallen teammate. Marida chases Banagher around the Garuda, and they spot Suberoa trying to sneak aboard the Garuda with a flying platform. Marida is ordered by Alberto destroy the platform, but Banagher tells Marida to remember Suberoa and this distracts Marida enough to let Suberoas sneak aboard the Garuda. Gundams tend to bump lesser mobile suits off the show. Due to the attack, the Vist Foundation decides to get Minerva off the Garuda in a shuttle ahead of schedule, but at launch bay Minerva's contingent is met by Riddhe who unexpectedly lands in the ship. Riddhe wants Minerva to go with him, but Minerva questions his motivations and a standoff ensues with Martha and Alberto's group. The standoff is interrupted when Suberoa attacks and releases a smoke bomb, and Martha/Alberto's group retreat to their shuttle and Minerva gets away from Riddhe. Suberoa gets to Minerva and hands her a parachute, but an Anksha explodes outside the launch bay and incapacitates Suberoa. Minerva ends up hanging precariously to the edge of the walkway. Riddhe recovers and reaches out for Minerva, but Minerva chooses to jump instead and hope Banagher would catch him. A contest of strength and glowing lights. It's never wrong for female protagonist to choose the main Gundam pilot. Back outside, Marida is struggling with her repressed memories, but she gets angry and activates the psychoframe of the Banshee. The Unicorn is prompted activate NT-D, but Banagher stops NT-D from activating. Marida gets another bout of headaches and this allows Banagher to get away and fly down to grab Minerva from the air. Banagher brings Minerva to the Garencieres before flying back to the Garuda to retrieve Suberoa and Marida. Banagher's Unicorn engages the Banshee and the fight ends up inside Garuda's launch bay. Riddhe had returned to his Delta Plus and waits to snipe at the Gundams, but Marida goes after Riddhe because the Delta Plus' resemblance to a Gundam. Marida uses the Banshee's claws to rip the Delta Plus apart. Banagher draws Marida's attention, and then Suberoa pleads for Marida to come back with him. Marida's repressed memories start flooding back in and her mind overloads, causing her to fall unconscious and ejected from the Banshee. Suberoa catches Marida and Banagher brings them back to the Garencieres. Back in the launch bay, Riddhe escapes from his Delta Plus and eyes the now empty Banshee. The Garancieres then tries rendezvous with the Nahel Argama which is waiting at the edge of the atmosphere, but the Garancieres has engine troubles and can't reach its designated trajectory. The Nahel Argama fires its tow cable anyways, and the Unicorn catches the cable. The cable is however a little short, and the Unicorn is buckling under the stress of trying to hold the Garancieres to the cable. As Banagher is struggling, the spirits of Daguza and Gilboa appear, and the Unicorn emits a green glow which holds the Gundam together and helps the Garencieres achieve orbit. Even Gundams are going green these days. Now this is a laser spam. In space, the General Revil appears and attacks the Nahel Argama and the Garencieres. Banagher tries to engage the enemy but the Unicorn runs out of fuel. However, Full Frontal and Angelo Sauper appear on the scene. Angelo decimates the General Revil mobile suit forces with his new Rozen Zulu, and this opens up the way for Full Frontal to fly in front of the Revil and fire his bazooka. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If things weren't complicated enough already, this episode just made the story a little more complicated. The Federation is complying with the Vist Foundation's wishes and lets Martha and Alberto take Minerva, Banagher and the Unicorn, but Bright Noa isn't so keen on playing that game and actually helps Banagher and the Garencieres rescue Minerva, and they even take back Marida along the way. I didn't complete understand why the Federation sent the General Revil to destroy the Nahel Argama, but I'm guessing the Federation/Vist Foundation wants to wipe out evidence of the chase for Laplace's Box? The situation is certainly getting messier, the Feds, Vist Foundation and Neo Zeon all have their agendas and none of them seems to on the side of "good". One thing that's clear though is Riddhe is turning into an antagonist given that he is starting to dislike Banagher and the Unicorn and has an obsession on Minerva. Now that Minerva has ditched him for Banagher, Riddhe is probably going to try and get back at the Banagher by piloting the Banshee. One of the most interesting aspect of the series is how Banagher keeps on switching sides. One episode he is battle Neo Zeons and trying to shoot down Full Frontal, and now he was out fighting off the Banshee which represents the Federation and Vist Foundation, and now the Garencieres and the Nahel Argama join forces. Perhaps the point is that Banagher fights for his own principles, and so it doesn't matter which side he happens to be launching from at the time. We can't talk about a Gundam Unicorn episode without touching on the combat. The production quality is of course excellent and on par with previous episodes, and the battle in the high skies was pretty well done overall. However, I was a little disappointed by the Gundam vs. Gundam confrontations. The Banshee looked awesome and its ribbon beam gun was pretty cool, but there wasn't a real battle between it and the Unicorn since Banagher didn't want to fight Marida. Angelo did put on a show through tearing through a bunch of grunts from the General Revil with the Rozen Zulu's cabled beam arms. After all that wrangling, we are still not sure what the Laplace's Box really contains. Banagher has seen something about it from the Unicorn but doesn't want to say anything, and Riddhe seems to have an idea as well but didn't get a chance to say anything. The Box has some sort of important information, but what sort of information? It'll probably be some time next year before the next episode comes out though. From the feed of A Product of Wasted Time

read more: Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn OVA 05