Gundam 00 – 17

SHOCK AND AWE!

After a near brush with death, Tieria finally garners enough courage to confess to Setsuna. The latter accepts, and they share a passionate kiss in full view of everyone, including the Trinity siblings, who cheer them on. Later that night, Setsuna sneaks into Tieria's room and proceed to make love to his newfound life partner.

Gundam 00 – 16

Evil Haro?!!

Oh man, I've not been so excited over an episode of Gundam 00 in a while now. Despite being a cleverly disguised recap episode, it did manage to impress, with the introduction of the new Gundams and its pilots. Just as the Gundam Meisters were being subdued and captured last week, a team of unknown suits came to their rescue, and boy, did they make an entrance.

Gundam 00 – 11

Nothing much occurs in this episode, except from the fact Hallelujah emerges from time to time to speak to Allelujah, akin to how Jessica materializes in the "flesh" to Nikki from Heroes. Also, Tieria is a whiny bitch.

Among other events that are unrelated to the Celestial Beings, Louise tries hard to make Saji leave a good impression on her mother, while the Kinue(Saji's reporter sis) confronts Schenberg's known descendant, who apparently doesn't have much of a clue on his great grandfather either. Meanwhile, Marina discusses with UN envoy Alejandro over its aid plans for Azadistan.

Back to main plot, Allelujah manages to convince Sumeragi, who is consuming alcohol as her way to calm down, to authorize a mission for him to lay siege on the facility in which he was created. Sumeragi asks if it was alright for him to slay his own kind, but the adamant Allelujah is undeterred and sorties with Tieria to a secret research facility in one of the HRL's space colonies.

Infiltrating the space colony with relative ease, Allelujah arrives just outside the facility only to find himself being overwhelmed by the telepathic cries of all the subjects and is unable to pull the trigger to fire Kyrios' weapons. As though right on cue, Hallelujah urges him to do so, by taunting him on being a hypocrite and such. It works, and Allelujah lets loose barrage of missles, reducing the facility into smoldering rubble.

News of the attack reaches worldwide, and the HRL's experiments on human subjects were revealed to the public, prompting Sergei to arrest the head scientist for tarnishing the HRL's reputation and handing a public victory to the Celestial Beings. Back on the Ptolemaios, Allelujah finds Sumeragi drinking once again, but this time asks for a shot too. She first declines him, but then caves in after he informs her that he had just turned 20 a few minutes ago.

Decent episode that delves deeper into Allelujah's past as well as his other persona, who conveniently shows up when the former is struggling with decisions that involve seemingly unethical slaughter. Next time on Gundam 00, we will get to see Setsuna dealing with his own troubles as well, as he heads back to Azadistan to resolve certain issues, probably setting up for another encounter with Marina as well. Shin out.

Gundam 00 – 10

After being tactically overwhelmed in the previous episode, the Not-So-Celestial-After-All-Beings must now fend off against their oppressors, with Allelujah and Tieria having to face greater odds as they are isolated from the main group. For once, we get to see that despite having a godly Gundam, the Meisters are still humans and are prone to mistakes and succumb to emotional trauma.

Among other revelations featured in this episode, we discover that Allelujah is some sort of Newtyp'ish genetically enhanced soldier similar to Soma. Also he has a split personality, where the other half is known as Hallelujah, a much more violent and volatile persona(aren't they always?) After having experienced the same splitting headache(NEWTYPE FLASH!) whenever Soma is within the vicinity, Allelujah loses consciousness and is captured by the HRL.

After dispatching his share of the foes, Tieria arrives at the location where Allelujah was captured, and decides to terminate him along with the transport vessel the latter was being held. Fortunately, Soma interrupts and goes head on against Tieria. Virtue's inherent weakness of having to pause between each shot is exploited by the enemy and Tieria finds himself in a literal bind. However, he unleashes his trump card, and GN-004 Nadleeh is revealed, whereby Virtue transform into its secondary mode by shedding its external armor, revealing a sleek Gundam with red hair-like cords protruding from the head.

Tiera makes waste of his enemies, prompting Sergei and Toma to make their retreat. They are intercepted by Hallelujah who taunts Soma into attacking him, although it proves futile, as he is able to anticipate her every moves. Sacrificing himself for Sergei and Toma to escape, the first lieutenant lunges at Kyrios attaching himself to it. What he didn't expect was Hallelujah to slowly torture him to death, instead of finishing him off right away. This is when Allelujah pleads with his other self, as an disemboweled voice, although the former decides not to listen.

Despite having made the enemy withdrawn, it was a failure on the Celestial Beings behalf, as they made too many blunders which lead to this predicament, while making several narrow escapes, which could have lead to the capture of a Gundam unit or worse. Pretty intriguing episode, as I've mentioned before, sheds light on the fact having the best equipment around does not necessarily guarantee a win, and the development of both Allelujah and Tieria. Next week's episode also seem to dedicate itself entirely to Allelujah, as we are given glimpses of his past and how he came to be who is today. Shin out.