In the Magellanic Cloud, near Balun, a Gamilan fleet is engaged in a battle. During the fight, Gamilan General Domel is ordered to leave his front line unit by Admiral Ditz. He isn't happy about it but he follows orders.
The senior crew members of the Yamato try to decide what to do with Melda Ditz, the captured Gamilan pilot. There is much arguing. A scan of her reveals that she is essentially human, except for her blue skin. Kodai argues for treating her humanely. Others would like to resort to other methods to extract information from her. Commander Okita leaves the questions of Ditz up to Kodai.
The subject of first contact comes up with the Gamilans comes up. First contact occured on April 1, 2191 near Uranus. The force from Earth that encountered the Gamilan ships was led Commander Okita who at the time was a Vice-Admiral.
Shima Daigo, Daisuke's father, was the captain of the Murasame, the ship that made first contact. It has long been held that the Gamilans fired first but at least two people on board the Yamato know that is not what happened.
Chief Damage Control Officer Yamazaki was aboard the Murasame. He was the sole survivor of the fire fight. He was ordered never to tell the truth but he goes to Shima Daisuke and tells him what really happened. The official story is a lie. Admiral Serizawa, ordered Vice-Admiral Okita to attack the Gamilan ships. Okita refused and was relieved of his command. Serizawa then gave direct orders to Captain Shima of the Murasame to attack. Captain Shima did as ordered and his ship was destroyed. Shima Daisuke doesn't want to believe what Yamazaki tells him.
Commander Okita decides that they will drop Lower Storm Leader Ditz off in her ship in a system near to where they expect to find a Gamilan fleet. They leave her with enough food for a few days and then quickly depart.
Thoughts
This is another full episode. It really took a couple watches to absorb it all. I think I got most of it on the first viewing but it all flew by so quickly.
One of the take aways from this episode is that maybe the Gamilans would not have attacked Earth if it were not for Admiral Serizawa's orders. I'm not sure how likely it is that there would be peace now if not for Serizawa's orders but maybe things on Earth would not have become quite as grim as they did.
This is a very good episode. I especially like how they dealt with the flashbacks to first contact and Daisuke's reaction to the news that the official version of what happened is a lie.
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