Knights of Sidonia 1.08

Immortality

The first half of this episode focuses on the battle with Gauna 489, 490. and 491, all of which resemble Garde 702, Hoshijiro's ship. The second half is mostly devoted to a look back at the past.

The three squads split up and each take on one of the Gaunas: Samari Squad 489, Nakazono Squad 490, and Kunato Squad 491. The Gauna not only look like Garde 702 but they also communicate with the Gardes pursuing them using a voice that sounds like a distroted version of Hoshijiro. Kunato is unnerved by the communication with the Gauna.

There is what looks like a Garde pilot loosely attached to Gauna 491. Tanikaze disregards orders and goes after it once he sees it and hears Hoshijiro's voice. Kunato destroys Gauna 491 but starts freaking out in the aftermath of the encounter. Tanikaze requests permission to retrieve the remains of Gauna 491, which look like Hoshijiro. Permission is granted. The other three members of Kunato Squad are sent to help the Nakazono Squad.

The Samari Squad destroys Gauna 489. The Nakazono Squad is faring considerably worse than the other two squads. Gauna 490 has killed three of the four members of the squad while the other squads were busy dealing with Gauna 489 and 491. Nakazono, the squad's leader and last remaining member, is killed before the other squads arrive in time to help.

Kunato, Ren, and Hou arrive before the Samari Squad. Kunato is still going nuts and starts pleading with Gauna 490 to spare him. Ren and Hou are in good mental shape but Gauna 490 is still a little too much for them. Hou is killed. Ren survives only because Tanikaze shows up just as Gauna 490 is about to kill her. The Gauna takes off and the remaining 7 pilots are recalled to Sidonia.

The news media aboard Sidonia considers the mission to be a success, despite the loss of almost half of the pilots. The Gauna that look like Hoshijiro's Garde 702 are dubbed Crimson Hawkmoths.

Nagate tells Izana about Hoshijiro's connection to the Gaunas that they encountered.

Hiyama confronts Kobayashi about why she keeps sending Nagate out on missions. Kobayashi made a deal with the immortal council. It was either that or imprison Tanikaze. Kobayashi believes that he won't be killed in combat because of the abilities he has.

Nagate and Izana go to see Hiyama, who is still reeling from her meeting with Kobayashi and doesn't feel like talking. They leave and she starts to think about the past. Her first flashback is to 100 years before, just after the end of the 4th Gauna War. The population was severely depleted. Ochiai was to blame. He deleted most of Sidonia's accumulated knowledge and dumped the Kabizashi when they needed them most.

Yure Shinatose, one of the survivors, figured out how to recover some of what was lost. They cloned Ochiai and suppressed his memories in the clone. Shinatose was elevated to the immortal council for what she did. Hiroki Saitou, one of the other members of the immortal council and the hero of the 4th Gauna war, disappeared into the bowels of Sidonia and wasn't seen for another 80 years.

Hiroki aged because unlike Kobayashi, Hiyama, Shinatose and the others of the Immortal Council he had not had any treatments to prevent him from aging. He was found collapsed. He was revived and, unknown to him and against his will, a clone was created. The plan was to transplant his brain into that of the clone once it grew big enough.

Hiroki found out about the plan and retrieved his clone. He wanted to raise it himself. Kobayashi refused to go along with his plan. He fought his way out with some help from Hiyama. Hiroki disappeared once again into the bowels of Sidonia. 

The sample that Nagate brought back with him looks like deformed version of Shikuza Hoshijiro. It is being kept in a remote section of Sidonia.

Thoughts

Both halves of this episode are great. There is so much to digest. The battle flies by so quickly it is easy to miss things. Kunato clearly isn't as cool, calm, and collected in battle as he wants to believe that he is.

The second half of the episode drops a lot of information about the past. Not everything is spelled out in detail but lines are drawn and some explanations are provided.