Ron Does Stuff

It’s the final episode! Let’s go!

The Goliath is preparing to fire, and I gotta commend the animators for what they’ve done here. It looks really great and really brings in that anime flavor that I’m looking for. We also get a surprise — the Goliath isn’t actually targeting the German vessel. Is Tesla going to decimate New York?

Inside the German vessel, Aleksandar and Volger are battling it out. Volger is a monarchist, some might even say a eugenicist, because of how insistent he is on the continuation of the Habsburg bloodline. The same inbred bloodline that gave us those chins, by the way. It’s a miracle Aleksandar turned out as handsome as he did.

When Aleksandar lets Volger land a hit on him, it sobers Volger up and makes him realize that his way of thinking has no place in the future that Aleksandar is envisioning. Well…wait until you get to 2025, Volger! Fascism’s back!

We then hear what Tesla’s actually targeting: Berlin. A beautiful city that I’ve only been in once but want to visit again! Never happening in my lifetime though because I am from the ~Global South~ and the world is burning. Oh well!

Threatened with the destruction of Berlin, the German forces announce a retreat — which turns out to be a fake out as they use a Tesla coil to “destroy” the Goliath. Unforuntately for them, they didn’t really destroy the Goliath and now Tesla is charging it up again to decimate Berlin. Over at the German side, they’re given instruction to catch Tesla alive so they can recreate his inventions, which is hilarious considering that’s what America did with Operation Paperclip. It’s how we got modern-day HYDRA in the Marvel Universe!

While the German forces are heading for the Goliath, Aleksandar is busy fighting his way through German soldiers. When it looks like all is lost, he gets an assist from Volger, allowing him to finally climb into a Stormwalker. Meanwhile, Nora Barlow notices that Bovril the loris has been calculating the energy and has figured out that the Goliath is actually tower number 4 of the 12-tower structure that Tesla has built. Nora Barlow radios the Leviathan to destroy it, but the weather disturbance caused by the machine makes it hard to target.

It’s here that Aleksandar butts in, volunteering himself as a marker for the bomb. He’s in a Stormwalker headed towards the Goliath along with the rest of the German forces, so the Germans won’t suspect a thing until it’s too late. Of course, Deryn’s not about to let her man die, so she snatches a mechanical wing suit from Tesla — it’s very early prototype Falcon suit — and searches for Aleksandar on the battlefield.

On the radio, Aleksandar is already saying his goodbyes to Deryn, who he says brought light to him in despair and who he’ll always be grateful to have met. Just when you think all is lost, both our heroes pull through. Aleksandar manages to put the flare on the Goliath, while Deryn swoops in just in time to get him out of there.

Because the Germans were on American soil conducting military operations, the US is pissed and joins the war on the side of the Allies. Aleksandar makes the decision to go back to Austria and serve his people, and asks Volger to come with him. Deryn gets asked to be a soldier, officially this time, but now she realizes it wasn’t becoming an airman that she really wanted.

Later that night, Aleksandar sees Nora Barlow and Volger on a walk together, getting along, and he runs to Deryn to tell her about this. They joke that if the two of those got together, it would end that war, but I think the Darwinist-Clanker union the audience wants to see is between the two of them.

Aleksandar asks Deryn to go back with him to Austria, but Deryn refuses, saying that she wants to fly. It’s not a total refusal, though. Deryn says the sky is connected, and that she really hopes to see him again. Then they kiss to seal the deal!

This was definitely an entertaining watch that made me want to re-read the books a few times. I do have to admit that I do wish it painted a larger canvas than it did. We see the events happening through Aleksander and Deryn’s eyes, but their point of view is extremely limited and as such, a lot of big things happen off-screen. It wasn’t a problem in the books because we get to hear their internal life, but in this different medium it makes the story feel smaller than it did in the books. WHICH ISN’T TO SAY THAT THIS SHOW IS BAD. It’s good! I just feel that it could have been better.