Welcome to The 08th
MS Team rewatch! The rewatch gets some good news and tries to get a party
started but only manages to get ties up and tossed into an old cellar. Hey, can’t
a guy just have good time without Zeon soldiers showing up to ruin everything?
Why even bother trying? Where are all the Gundams when you need them?
Summary: Episode 05 “The Broken Order to Standby”:
Original Airdate: November 25, 1996
English Airdate: July 27, 2001
Eledore and Michel return from a mission before the rest
of the 08th Team and they’ve been ordered to stay at the based until the others
return. They’ve received mail and they open while chatting with Jidan, one of
the mechanics on the base, who is eating his lunch. Eledore learns that a song
he wrote is being recorded and will one day play on the radio. Jidan has his
own good news to brag about, his delicious smelling lunch is the courtesy of a
woman named Maria who lives in a nearby village. Jidan makes it sound as though
he is romancing it with Maria. Too happy to pay attention to Jidan, Eledore
wants to leave the base and go celebrate the good news even though he was
ordered to stay on base. He convinces Michel to go with him.
They leave the base on pretence that they’re going on a
recon mission. Eledore say he plans on resigning soon, thinking he’ll make it
big in the music industry. They arrive at a village but it looks deserted and
the local bar is empty. They’re immediately accosted by Zeon soldiers who take
them captive.
The rest of the 08th Team arrives at base to discover their
missing comrades. They soon learn in which direction they were headed and while
Karen points out that their leaving the base is a violation of a direct order
Shiro dismissed it, telling her the priority is to find his missing team
members.
Back at the village, the viewer is informed that the
village is under strike Zeon control because the Apsalus crash landed nearby.
They hope to have the ship fixed without alerting their presence to the Earth
Federation. Eledore and Michel are brought to the basement cellar of a hotel
where they are being interrogated. Eledore attempts to lie his way to freedom,
pretending to want to become a double agent for Zeon. The interrogation is cut
short and they’re locked in a cellar. A woman comes argues with the guard to
let her in to see the prisoners and the guys overhear her name: Maria. She
brings them food and kind, hopeful words. It’s clear to both of them why Jidan
has a crush on her.
Eledore is cracking under the pressure of knowing he’ll
be executed come the morning. He can’t stand the cruelty of the universe that
on the day he finds out his song will get recorded he’s captured and put up for
execution. Michel, who seems to have swallowed up Maria’s hopeful words, tries
to soothe Eledore’s sorrow. They get into a huge argument when Michel accuses
him of being self-centered. Even he has stuff he wanted to do in life and he
also has regrets, such as not being able to write a final letter of goodbye to
his beloved B. B. The ruckus causes the Zeon guard to barge into the cell. The
guys inadvertently knock out the soldier and upon realizing it, stop fighting
an escape.
The episode ends in a successful, albeit chaotic, escape
and Eledore is severely wounded. He’s saved only by Karen’s medical attention.
Commentary:
This is one of the top episodes of this short series.
That is, as far as I can remember. I quite honestly haven’t watched the entire
series in a few years. Whether later episodes are better than this one remains
to be seen but one thing is clear, a lot happens in this episode and most of it
proves to be important for our characters. The previous episode developed the
character of Sanders (the former Reaper), this one focuses mostly on Eledore
but Michel and essentially everybody else also get some nice character
development. There is some action towards the end but mostly, the focus is on
the members of the 08th Team who haven’t yet had their time in the spotlight.
We learn a lot about Eledore. His enjoyment of music
isn’t just a hobby; it’s something he’s trying to do for a living. The news
that his song will be recorded is a big personal success. We also learn his
dislike of the military and the war. He doesn’t want to be there but he doesn’t
appear to have any other options other than breaking into the music industry. I
wonder if he’s there because of a military draft or because he was unable to
get any other type of employment. Either way, it sheds some light over his
relaxed and somewhat detached relationship with his job. Based on what we’ve
seen in previous episodes, he’s good at it but he doesn’t enjoy it. We also
learn that he’s never piloted a mobile suit and the reason is a simple one,
he’s claustrophobic. He can’t close the cockpit of the weapon he and Michel
steal from the Zeeks. He’s far more comfortable driving the hover truck where
he can see outside the vehicle.
We also learn a fair bit of stuff from Michel and he
proves to be rather naïve on several occasions. He’s also quite gullible,
letting himself be easily manipulated to follow Eledore to the nearby village.
The way he acts in this episode confirms what some astute viewers may have
puzzled together from small character moments we’ve seen in previous episodes.
One example of his gullibility is how quickly he bought into the Sanders the Reaper
curse. In this episode, he foolishly belies that Eledore was trying to defect
to Zeon and he nervously asks him about it when they’re locked up in the cellar
only to have Eledore point out how silly it is for him to have thought that. We
also get to see how Michel reacts to being in a combat situation. Up until now,
he’s been in the hover truck providing support to the three mobile suits but he
engages directly in combat during his escape from the village. The experience
was shocking, mostly due to the severity of Eledore’s injuries, all of which he
received right in front of Michel. His first combat experience was a very
violent one and he’s likely not going to want to pilot a mobile suit any time
soon.
We learn in this episode that Karen has a gentler side.
She administers first aid on Eledore and Jidan mentions that she’s learned her
medical skills from her deceased husband. He was a medical doctor and died in
combat. It’s a side we haven’t seen from Karen yet and it helps to round out
her character because it lets the viewer know she’s not just a by-the-books
soldier. At the very end of the episode she’s alone with Eledore in a tent
while he’s in and out sleep. There is a caring look on her face. Eledore acted
completely irresponsibly and she’s pointed this out to her commander but when
her teammate is injured, she pushes that out of her head and focuses on the
matter at hand.
I quite like how Shiro handled Eledore and Michel’s
adventure. He disciplined Michel. He was firm in his message but also pretty
lax. He gives Michel a day off to recover from the ordeal because he obviously
recognizes that Michel and Eledore went through a difficult time being
imprisoned and having to escape.
The entirety of the 08th Team went through a difficult
time during “The Broken Order to Standby” but things aren’t going to get any
easier for them. Next episode they have to deal with Eledore’s absence while
he’s recovering from his injuries.
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