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Gundam Seed Destiny Episodes

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Episode 37: The Thundering Darkness

Details

Original Air Date: June 2, 2005

The Synopsis

Shinn and Rey board their new units, the Destiny and the Legend, respectively, in pursuit of the escaping Athrun and Meyrin. Shinn is full of mixed feelings over the situation. He has a hard time understanding Athrun's betrayal, all the while listening to Rey's words of "they're labeled as the enemy now." Headquarters gets information on who set the alarms off as a distraction, and Meyrin's name came up. Dullindal asked of her whereabouts, only to find that she had disappeared. He pages Rey and asks him about it, and Rey reports that Meyrin had gone with Athrun willingly, and is currently onboard the stolen Djinn.
At that moment, Gladys happens to walk in and hears this in shock. Rey then notes that Meyrin is an information expert, and they cannot afford to let them escape since there is no telling how much damage they may cause with such a hole in security. He asks Dullindal for permission to bring them down, and Dullindal, trusting Rey's judgment, consents.
Gladys is furious.

Athrun tries to reason with Shinn as they begin to catch up. He tells Shinn to stop firing at them, and that he too was being tricked by the Chairman's words. Athrun tries to explain his reasoning to Shinn, but is cut off by a suddenly furious Rey. Rey tells Shinn not to believe in such lies, and that they know better than to believe such things. He reminds Shinn that Athrun was now the enemy, and there is a flashback of Shinn vowing to defeat any enemy of ZAFT for the sake of ending the war. Shinn asks Athrun to surrender now, but Athrun refuses and counterattacks, reminding him that Meyrin was also onboard. Rey says that since Meyrin was with Athrun, her life no longer mattered. Rey asks Shinn if he will defeat the enemy, or will he allow this incident to ruin the hopes and dreams of the people of PLANT, the people who rely on the Chairman's leadership. Shinn snaps and goes into seed mode. He whips out "Excalibur" and, similar to the way he destroyed the Freedom, destroys the Djinn. Athrun screams Shinn's name as the Djinn falls into the ocean in an explosion.
Shinn is in shock as he returns to base, as is headquarters. Gladys is not happy.

Luna is informed of her twin sister's actions, and cries in disbelief and loss. When Shinn and Rey board the Minerva again, the crew regard them warily, their minds on their lost comrade, Meyrin.
Shinn and Luna pass each other as they walk the ship. Shinn apologizes, and Luna begins to cry again. Rey disappears and leaves the two alone.

The gathered ZAFT forces begin to move toward Heaven's Base, where Logos is situated. Dullindal sends Djibril an ultimatum, requiring their surrendering of the so-named Logos members, and the abandonment of base of all personnel and the lowering of arms.
Milliaria intercepts this message as it is passing through, and reports it to the shocked crew of the Archangel. Lacus, in the Eternal, says that things are moving quickly and they may run out of time. Once Heaven's Base falls, Dullindal's next target will be Orb.

Meanwhile, Athrun and Meyrin are shown safely in the infirmary wing of a ship allied with the Eternal.

The Review

I think this episode was meant to act as a testament to the chaos of war. Shinn, even though victorious after his bout with Athrun, doesn't look as happy as he technically should be. I think this is the key point that our storywriters are going to use to bring Shinn back into our good graces, if at all -_-.
I was interested to see that all that time the Archangel had been tailing Athrun with a spy, to keep him safe. His friends still refused to abandom him even though he had re-enlisted with ZAFT :).

Screenshots