Episode 14 – Geass vs. Geass
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Code Geass - Masquerade.mp3
The battle at the docks rages on, and Kallen falls back from the duel with Suzaku as the Britannian forces regroup. Ougi tries to contact Zero, and C.C. tells him that Zero is currently unable to move. Time has already passed since the cliffhanger from last episode, and Lelouch is conscious. There is blood on the ground, indicating a struggle, though it is unclear as to who was shot and who else was there in addition to Lelouch and Shirley. However, since Lelouch’s gun is gone, he concludes that someone saw his face.
At Ashford Academy, Shirley is up in the middle of the night, trying to write a letter and crying. We know that she did indeed see Lelouch’s face, but we do not know what happened after that. However, she has Lelouch’s gun. The next day, the Ashford Academy Student Council notes that both Lelouch and Shirley are absent. Nina, Rivalz, and Nunnally all express their desires to meet Euphemia, though we know that Nina’s desire is dirtier than the other two’s. Lelouch calls Suzaku to see if anyone in the Student Council had seen his face, but based on Suzaku’s statements, no one did. Lelouch does find out that Shirley is missing, and C.C. states that they should investigate her potential involvement quickly, since Lelouch had seen her at the battle.
Cornelia, Darlton, Guilford, and Euphemia talk about Zero’s consistent targeting of the Britannian Royal Family, and Guilford brings up the possibility of giving Euphemia a knight around whom she can create her own personal guard for her protection. I think it is rather obvious who will end up being her knight, but they do not say yet. Cécile and Lloyd talk about Suzaku’s strange attitudes about human life, and Lloyd wonders if Cécile is using Suzaku as an emotional replacement for someone else. That is a little seemingly throw-away line that would be interesting to explore later on.
At Ashford, Lelouch has used his Geass on Shirley’s roommate so he and C.C. can investigate her room. Although he does not find his gun, he does find that Shirley has circled the time of a train to Narita. At the Black Knight headquarters, Ougi worries about how conveniently timed the explosion of the JLF ship was, and Diethard echoes those sentiments. When Tamaki tries to yell at Diethard for abandoning his post, Diethard states that he had been given permission to observe the battle by both Zero and Ougi, which Ougi acknowledges as being true. On the train to Narita, C.C. tries to probe Lelouch’s feelings for Shirley.
At Narita, Shirley is met by the mysterious white-haired guy, who somehow knows everything about Shirley and Lelouch, including exactly what happened during the battle the previous night. When Shirley was pointing the gun at Lelouch, Villetta showed up and mused about how bringing in Zero alive would earn her a noble title. Shirley, in her despair and confusion, pointed the gun at Villetta and shot her. The white-haired guy, whose name is Mao, calls Shirley a murderer and a manipulative witch, and Shirley’s fragile emotional state begins to shatter. As Mao does his trademark and rather obnoxious clapping, we get a zoomed-in look at one of his eyes, which bears the sign of Geass.
Lelouch and C.C. arrive in Narita and try to look for Shirley. Lelouch gets a cell phone call from Shirley, but it is actually from Mao, who is standing right behind him. Lelouch tries to find out where Shirley is, but Mao instead proposes a duel, holding up a chess piece. Elsewhere, C.C. attempts to get information about Shirley from the locals, rather amusingly awkwardly, I might add, and she sees Mao and Lelouch boarding a cable car. She is shocked to see Mao, indicating that there is some kind of relationship between the two of them.
In the cable car, Mao and Lelouch play chess. Although Mao claims to have never played chess before, he manages to defeat Lelouch rather quickly. When Lelouch wonders who Mao is, Mao mentions C.C. Lelouch then comes with a series of possibilities as to Mao’s identity, and Mao semi-answers his question by taking off his strange goggles, revealing his Geass. Mao reveals his Geass as the ability to read minds, and, on his cue, Shirley shows up outside the cable car. Back at the docks, while wondering about his suspicions about Zero, Ougi finds Villetta, bleeding and unconscious, though she does mumble about having seen Zero’s face.
Shirley, Lelouch and Mao
Back at Narita, Shirley reveals that she knows that Lelouch is Zero. Mao tries to manipulate her into shooting Lelouch, while Lelouch tries to convince her otherwise. Ultimately, she grazes Lelouch’s hair, though he is knocked onto the ground, dropping all the pictures of him that she had in her room. Shirley becomes further confused, and Mao retreats to pick up a shotgun to finish the job himself.
However, when he goes back into the cable car, C.C. turns it back on, sending him to the bottom of the hill. Mao realizes that C.C. is responsible, since she is the only person whose presence he could not sense with his Geass. He starts to get a tad scary, taking off his goggles and headphones and raving about C.C. We also hear what was playing in his headphones, which was a recording of C.C.’s voice. Yes, Mao is completely crazy, if you could not tell. Lelouch then uses his Geass on Shirley to make her forget Lelouch, Zero, and all the stress she has undergone in the past few days to atone for murdering her father.
That night, they meet at the Narita memorial, though Shirley no longer knows who Lelouch is. Lelouch mentions that he is visiting the memorial for a friend whose true worth he did not realize until it was too late, and Shirley tries to cheer him up by reminding him that, no matter what, the morning will always come. This was definitely one of the more emotional episodes, and it also shows the great juggling act that Code Geass does, managing to advance a bunch of minor plotlines while advancing the primary love relationship plotline and the main story of Lelouch as Zero all in one episode.
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