This is a recap and review of episode 10 of Black Rock Shooter Dawn Fall, available on Hulu and Disney Plus.
In this episode, Empress faces off with an old foe, love prevails, and Lunatic cracks some jokes.
Spoilers to follow!
The episode begins with a flashback to Lunatic stabbing Empress in the eye after their final battle years before. We also see that she’d crucified Dead Master and Strength.
In the present, the girls survive a massive artillery strike from Lunatic (of which the A.I. quips, “Only a lunatic would use a gun this big,” which elicited a genuine laugh from me). She then sics Smiley (in his rabid baby doll form) on them. The young women mock him when he claims he wishes to reproduce with them, then attempt to escape from him when their weapons are shown to be useless against him.
Meanwhile, Empress knocks Charlotte down and puts her to sleep. Colonel wakes up to find Empress has used the power from her coil gun to recharge the pod, with hopes of disarming Charlotte (though explaining she could still be brainwashed).
Smiley brings Dead Master and Strength to Lunatic, who taunts them. We then get a flashback of Smiley pledging himself to “the moon goddess”: Lunatic. I already thought they were a team, but this just confirms it.
In a typical soldier speech, Colonel claims he and his soldiers will stand their ground against the E.I. and Artemis’ armies while Empress goes to rescue her friends. Empress tells Black Trike she’ll use “the overdrive key” – a risky upgrade that will give her seven times her usual power. She says she’ll only use it for ten seconds to minimize risk to herself and does so, knocking Smiley over so the girls can get on their vehicles. Smiley chases after them like the T-1000 on steroids.
As they drive, we are given a flashback of Empress using the same overdrive key to rescue Dead Master and Strength from Artemis, though it wipes their memories of her doing so. We then see her entering the pod where the kids found her in episode 1. Her friends, having thought she’d abandoned them back then, now understand she instead sacrificed herself to save them.
As such, when Smiley gets the upper hand on Empress, her friends come to her rescue. Empress uses her massive gun to finally get rid of smiley for good, reducing him to ash.
Charlotte, out of the pod, holds Monika hostage. Colonel talks her down by invoking memories of Jessica (I guess she truly is dead?). A landslide occurs, and Colonel saves Charlotte, albeit taking her knife to his gut. She finally realizes who he is and screams.
Colonel and Empress share a moment of levity after they are reunited. Then, to give us an even more hopeful end to the episode, when Colonel goes to check on Charlotte, she smiles and calls him papa.
This show just goes through a roller-coaster of emotions! While the last episode was bleak, this one does a one-eighty, reuniting father with daughter and showing the bonds of friendship. Almost like a holiday movie. Coincidence?
The next episode airs on Dec 28 on Disney+ and Hulu.
