86: Eighty Six – 9 [Goodbye]

What an episode. Eighty Six has come a long way from classroom politics and shitty lakeside ecchi. While the other writers on this site might disagree, might thing Eighty Six weak, I can’t help but enjoy what its trying to do. So without further ado how about we dive in to that?

Now in an effort to be fair lets start with the only real negative I have this week: The CGI. Eighty Six tries really had to avoid the showing the CGI. It does everything in it’s power, from clever editing and shot composition to after effects like smoke, to avoid it. And most of the time this works! The Legion looks… fine in motion because the CGI sheen gives them an otherworldly/inhuman feel. That works to their benefit! Meanwhile the 86ers are largely stationary which makes compositing them into the shot much easier. But sometimes a crack slips through and when it does… it doesn’t look good. I’m of course talking about Undertaker’s big fight in the first half of the episode. Narratively I enjoyed it, and we’ll talk about that in a moment, but the mech fight felt like the worst part of the scene.

Getting into the narrative itself, damn was that a packed episode. I went to close the video at the end of the Legion fight thinking the it was over only to discover I had 12 minutes left. The sheer amount of character progress, completed plot threads and set pieces make this feel like a season finale more than anything else. And in a way I suppose it is as from what I’ve been told this is actually the end of the first volume. Seeing as we have 2 episodes left though that raises a lot of questions. Where does the story go from here? Are these epilogues, preparing for the 2nd cour/2nd season? Are we going to see the fallout of this episodes events, will we get to see the 86ers again? While this episode was good I fear Eighty Six might have shot its shot a tad early.

Enough with the vagueness though, lets talk Shin! There was a lot to like here so lets start with his interactions with his brother. I really liked how the human nature of the Shepperd came back to bite the Legion in the ass. The exact thing that made them terrifying, harvesting people to boost their computation, also introduced new flaws into the system. Namely human emotions/irrationality. Tactically speaking, it’s a terrible decision to have a one on one fight between commandeering generals. But emotionally it makes sense as both have this unresolved history with the other and neither really cares about surviving. The way Eighty Six framed this whole thing was compelling as well. From Shin finally able to grieve for his brother, clearing the eyes in his memories to show the care and love, to his brother wanting to assimilate him to “protect” him. That was good stuff!

Shin wasn’t alone in getting big character moments either as Lena also took a big step this week. She not only ignored her commanders and hijacked the mortar system, she guilt-tripped her ex-best friend into helping her do it. All the while risking her own vision to connect with the 86ers so she can confirm the targets. While this may not seem like much from the safety of the capital I like that she’s finally making personal sacrifices. More than just asking permission or sending them fireworks and losing some money, she’s risking her position and reputation for them. Of course the real value of these scenes is yet to come. To really sell these sacrifices, to make us engage with Lena’s growth, there have to be consequences. I really hope Eighty Six handles that well in the coming episodes as the repercussions of her actions come down.

That’s not where Lena’s scenes stop though! No, in fact Lena had my favorite scene of the episode with her run through the streets. Some might call it basic or ill-fitting but to me? I call it symbolic. I loved the way her military regalia fell from her body as she ran through the streets. Literally stripping her of the confines of her role. How she broke the rules/ran through the streetlight, breaking through the feeling of conformity that has pervaded the Alba people since we first saw them. The way that as she ran, trapped within the streets of the capital, the 86ers left for true freedom, white birds flying through the air. Who is the one trapped now I wonder? My philosophical ponderings aside, yeah, its a really good scene. I liked it a lot and it made for a really good payoff to her story.

While the end result was great however I do want to mention some small nitpicks I have. For instance, Annette. I do like what Eighty Six did here. How Lena committed to their ruined friendship and decided to go all in on the guilt trip. It at least pays off their argument from the last episode that I was skeptical of. Similarly Annette’s connection, while tenuous and convenient, was at least set up enough that I can buy it. But both of these, basically anything involving Annette, were easily the weakest parts of the episode. They still suffer from her poor involvement in the story prior and I wish they had been done better. Credit to Eighty Six where it’s due, this is better than I expected. It just falls short of the rest of the episode is all.

Finally we can’t talk about this episode without taking some time for the 86ers! I’ve already mentioned it above in Lena’s section but I quite liked how this was presented. Any imagery they could have given us would have fallen short. So the decision to place us in the same position as Lena, listening as they explored their newfound freedom and walked out into the world, was done very well. I’m also very curious as to what this means for the story as a whole. Will they be returning for Lena at some point? Or to try and overthrow the Alba and free the 86ers? Maybe they will return with reinforcements? I really don’t know but it opens up a lot of possibilities and widens the scope of Eighty Six’s story beyond just this country. And that’s pretty cool!

So yeah. In case it wasn’t obvious, all in all, I’m pretty happy with this weeks episode of Eighty Six. It was a fitting conclusion to the story and wrapped up a lot of threads while still leaving room for the future. My only major concern is: What are they going to do with the remaining 2 episodes of the cour? Are these epilogues? Setting up the next cour? I really hope they don’t walk anything back or tank Lena’s storyline here, that’s my big fear. If Eighty Six can double down on what it did this week then I think I can end this season happy.