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The Archangel limps toward Alaska, having lost contact with both the Strike Gundam and Tolle’s Skygrasper. Murrue asks Orb to search for them, but that does little to make the crew feel better. Cagalli, meanwhile, discovers a wounded Athrun, and is shocked to learn what happened.

In Alaska, the Archangel crew are told to stand by for further orders, and tensions continue to mount. Mu, Flay, and Natarie are given transfer orders. Elsewhere, Kira awakens and finds himself in the care of Lacus Clyne.

ZAFT launches Operation Spit Break, and the Federation is caught completely by surprise. Now, the Archangel is one of a handful of ships left at Alaska to defend JOSH-A from a massive offensive. And beneath the base lies a secret that will destroy them all!

The battle between Kira and Athrun has had wide felt effects, Athrun has lost his Gundam in his successful destruction of Strike Gundam; Kira and Tolle are MIA and presumed dead; and the ZAFT forces trailing the Archangel have been reduced to one. Things don’t look particularly good for the crew of the Archangel, especially when additional ZAFT units are deployed to continue the attack.

Episode 31: Grieving Skies

The crew of the Archangel is forced to come to grips with the loss of Tolle and Kira. With the impending ZAFT reinforcements, the Captain is forced to order the carrier underway without performing a S&R operation for the missing pilots. The ship sends telemetry data back to Orb and continues on its’ way towards Alaska hoping for good news. Cagalli leads the expedition to find the missing pilots, but all she finds is the charred remnants of Strike Gundam and an unconscious Athrun who has washed ashore. The Orb take care of Athrun, but Cagalli is intent on earning revenge for her lost friend and she begins to interrogate the “prisoner”. After learning more about Athrun’s past with Kira, she decides against killing him and they eventually release him back to the ZAFT forces. On board the Archangel, tensions amongst the crew are high with the pilots being listed as MIA and being unable to search for their friends. The episode ends with Kira awaking in the care of Lacus Clyne.

Episode 32: In The Promised Land

The Archangel finally manages to limp to Alaska, and for their greeting… enter a holding pattern and wait for further orders despite the fact that they have a prisoner on board. For the time being, the crew remains stewing while waiting for the order to disembark and with tempers high from the loss of Tolle and Kira things aren’t pretty. Miraillia is nearly catatonic in grief from the 

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missing Tolle and when she is brought to see the doctor for some sedatives, she comes across the injured prisoner. Not expecting to see a civilian, the prisoner goads the emotional Miraillia and she ends up trying to kill him with a scalpel until Sai jumps in to stop. Flay is now torn between her wanted revenge against the ZAFT, but the loss of Kira has hit her unexpectedly hard and upon seeing the carnage with the prisoner, she even tries to kill him herself before she is subdued.

Kira is healing under the care of Lacus, and he continues to be haunted by the horrors of war that he’s experienced up to this point but the care of Lacus helps to sooth his tormented soul. For Athrun, his “victory” has given him some stroke in ZAFT and he has been promoted into the Special Forces and will be given one of the new prototype Mobile Suits that are being produced back at home. Elsewhere, the main ZAFT forces are now in preparation for the invasion of the Alaskan Base.

Episode 33: Gathering Darkness

Command finally does something about the crew of the Archangel, they hold a general inquiry into the actions of the crew from the Heliopolis incident all the way up to their arrival at Alaska. From the pointed questions, it appears that the General believes that the Captain’s choices were at fault and caused most of the major incidents that have occurred since their evacuation of Heliopolis. But most especially, they seem upset that Kira was chosen as the primary pilot for Strike Gundam considering that they knew that he was a Coordinator. At the end of the inquiry, the 1^st Officer, Flay and Mu have been given re-assignment orders but the rest of the crew is returned to the Archangel and told to remain on stand-by for additional orders. Kira remains in the care of Lacus and continues to heal.

Episode 34: Seen and Unseen

The shuffling of people off of the Archangel feels like stripping the ship of all “valuable” components and takes off the last of the stand-alone weapons from the carrier with Commander Mu. Flay is upset with the shift, and continues to fight with the Executive Officer who ends up resorting to physically carrying her off the ship. The captain is finally given the new orders, to link up with the defensive line for the Alaskan Base and is finally given supplies, but strangely enough, the prisoner is still not dealt with. In the meantime, the ZAFT forces begin their operation, and unlike what the build up suggested, they attack the Alaskan Base and ignore the main fleet at Panama. With a skeleton defensive force, holes begin opening immediately and ZAFT forces begin to penetrate the base. Commander Mu senses something is not right while he’s being moved, and sneaks away to investigate. While running around, he comes across LaFlaga who has infiltrated the base. During the confrontation, LaFlaga escapes but Mu learns about a bomb underneath the base. Flay chooses this moment to appear and she is abducted by the fleeing LaFlaga.

In ZAFT territory, the news about the attack on Alaska has reached Lacus and Kira, and with his health returned the news causes him to want to return to Earth. When questioned, he does not want to return to fight for either side, he wants to stop the fighting entirely. Agreeing with him, Lacus sneaks Kira onto the nearby base and lets Kira take the newest Gundam prototype: Gundam Freedom (an even more powerful Gundam than Strike). Blasting off, Kira escapes from the defensive forces and heads to Earth.

Episode 35: The Descending Sword

The defense of Alaska has deteriorated into a slaughter with most of the line in disarray and no commanding officers to lead (having already evacuated to avoid the impending explosion). Commander Mu commandeers a fighter and heads out to the Archangel with the information about the bomb; he manages to land despite the severe damage to the flight deck and tell the Captain about Command’s betrayal. Deciding not to stay around, the Captain orders a full retreat with any available forces but the oncoming ZAFT forces are pressing against the escaping ship. Just as the ship is about to be overrun, Kira arrives at the last moment to open up some breathing room for the carrier and he shoots to disable his opponents instead of outright killing them.

Kira then opens his communications channels and warns both sides about the bomb hidden in the base, and tries to lead a mass evacuation of the area. However, the bomb goes off and takes a majority of the remaining ZAFT forces in the explosion. In ZAFT space, Athrun learns about the situation on Earth and learns of Lacus’ aid to Kira in helping him steal one of the prototypes.

Gundam Seed made that one step that I always loathe, one fighter working alone in the best equipment is more destructive than an entire army and is able to turn a battle around by themselves. It negates the whole point of having an army. Despite my dislike of that Gundam cliché, the story has been quite good and I’m actually interested in watching more.

- Tazman

(April 28, 2005)

"Wait Kids! You didn't learn how World War II ended! ... … … WE WON!"

- Teacher (Simpsons)

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