Aldnoah.Zero

Episode 9

Episode 8 mixed reflective moments with scenes of one of its main characters being tortured, with an ultimate result of pushing characters into dramatic action at the end. Episode 9 follows a somewhat similar pattern, albeit without the torture element (at least not physical torture, anyway). The result is an episode focused primarily on long-needed character development, which leads in an odd way to the series' first true fan service scenes, which leads in an odd way to a development much more shocking than that which ended episode 8. Whatever else the series' faults might be, failing to leave viewers eagerly anticipating the next episode is not one of them.

On the Vers front, Lord Saazbaum has rescued Slaine and taken the young man back to his Castle. Quite surprisingly, he is not only candid with Slaine about being behind the assassination attempt but also reveals that his effort was as much a genuine rescue as it was potentially getting a troublesome opponent out of the way, as he feels deeply indebted to Slaine's father. (Anyone who actually believed this was anything other than a “cover my butt” ploy in wake of episode 8, raise your hand. Anyone?) He further goes on to lay out his motivations to Slaine and why the princess dying is part of it, which are also unexpectedly complex and go beyond just needing her death to trigger a war. Meanwhile on the Deucalion front, Lt. Marito is getting professionally treated for PTSD, which provides us an ugly flashback to what really happened to put him in such a state, while Rayet struggles, unnoticed and misunderstood, to deal with her own issues related to the death of her father and the fact that Asseylum, despite being equally betrayed, is coping far better. Bad things can happen in a situation like that, and boy, do they here.

In many respects this is an atypical installment for the series, as it has virtually no action component beyond the flashback and the climactic scenes (and those are really more dramatic moments than true action), inserts some humor and a risqué shower scene, and reduces Inaho's presence almost to nothing; in fact, he only has one line this week, and some of the jokes even make fun of his lack of expressiveness. If anything, it's actually better for Inaho's absence, as it allows other characters to show off some development, and surprises abound as a result. The Lt. Marito flashback is both horrifying and heartbreaking, and certainly explains why he has the condition he does, and Rayet and (from completely out of the blue) Lord Saazbaum both shine in revealing quite a bit about themselves. (In an interesting coincidence, this series airs at nearly the exact same time as the other show this season which also explores PTSD: Sword Art Online II.) The jaw-dropper ending, which could have massive consequences for the overall storyline, caps an episode whose excellence is only marred by vague assertions that Inaho might be at the center of a kinda-sorta harem situation.

Will the story have the guts to run with what it seems to have wrought at the end of this one? If this episode showed anything, it's that attempts to predict the course of events in this series may not always be reliable. For as shaky as the series has been at times, and for as low-key as most of the events are this week, the writing seems to be firing on almost all cylinders.

Rating: A-

Aldnoah.Zero is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.