Athrun is now on PLANT having left the previous episode. Kira, Lacus, Murrue, Cagalli and everyone else on Minerva remain on Earth watching the U.S. President's speech.

Internment camps have appeared as well with signs of violence in places. Not sure what the dead fish were supposed to mean, though.

War has broken out between the Naturals and the Coordinators. EA launches a frontal attack on PLANT with dozens of ships and assorted mobile suits, which was met by ZAFT suits. While distracted, EA snuck in a small force of ships from which launched Windams (I think) carrying rocket launchers containing nuclear missiles. All of which were launched against PLANT colonies, but were destroyed by a ship-portable Genesis-like weapon (secretly built, it looks like) along with the suits and ships.

EA then retreated back to their lunar base.

Athrun meets the second Lacus, with an Haro of her own, who looks so much like the real one that he couldn't tell the difference. That girl is... umm, a bit on the top-heavy side, I have to say.

Edit - And Kira and Lacus are not sleeping together. They may be sleeping in the same room, though, but I doubt it. There is a little boy(?) who was sleeping by Lacus's side, however.

Miriaria makes an appearance here as well.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were in the same room (that's the impression that I got), because of the tendancy of Japanese to sleep on separate twin beds instead of a single double bed. Kira and Lux should be close enough at this point to share the same room.

Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if Sunrise/Bandai wanted to head off another round of angry complaints about young kids sleeping together (ala Fllay and Kira).

EA is using nukes again? So what, they are going to commit mass-genocide as revenge? :eyebrow:

they plan to completely wipe out the coordinators from the face of existence... at least PLANT still doesn't use GENESIS on Earth yet...

Not sure what the dead fish were supposed to mean, though.

Environmental contamination from the falllen Junius 7? Or maybe it's one of the fishes that were frozen in Junius 7's ice? Someone's probably bitching about genetically modified fish in Earth's oceans.

"Neutron Stampede". It seems to be nucleared powered as when it was spun up, energy gauges for reactors were showing the charge building. Its visual effect looked much more like that from EA's super weapon used in Alaska instead of ZAFT's Genesis device. Except without the exploding bodies. :hmm: The barrel and fins to its side were ruined by the shot, however, so it's still a single-shot weapon whatever it is.

In the next episode's preview, there's a shot of a mobile suit's head. I can't tell for sure - since it's just the face plate and one antenna thingie shot - but it looks like Saviour's head unit actually. There were also shots of a girl's feet and silhouette on stage. I wonder how the other Lacus sings. :) The girl is definitely perky as well. Too much caffeine in her diet possibly. LOL.

The episode does a bit of recap before the opening sequence. After the opening sequence, it shows the PLANT coucil discussing the ultimanium released and people watching the President of the Atlantic Federation giving his speech. Even as all this is happening, there are scenes of the Earth Alliance forces moving their nuclear missile arsenal and the new Windam mobile suits around on the Moon.

Jibril is talking with the President of the Atlantic Federation - looks like the guy is under his thrall too. There are scenes of dead fish and Miriallia taking pictures of them.

There's a shot of Kira, Lacus and Cagalli. Cagalli is working throughout the night and it seems she's way out of her depth now. Kira and Lacus are in bed, though not in the same one.

The attack goes underway while above said President makes another speech (more propaganda, I suppose). ZAFT reacts superbly (with shots of Yzak and Dearka) and is doing fine in holding back the Earth Alliance when another small fleet of EA ships approach the PLANTs from a different vector, their intent detected by an intelligence gathering MS. They're armed with nuclear missiles.

It seems that this small fleet and the pilots of the Windams are all anti-Coordinators and a pilot screams "For a pure and blue earth" before the missiles start lauching. We get a cool shot of a shocked Yzak before the Nazca with the ship portable GENESIS-thingy fires it. Its a one shot thing though, but its enough to wipe out the nuclear missiles and everyone on the EA side that were involved in firing those missiles.

Meanwhile, through all this chaos, the Minerva on Earth goes into yellow alert, which surprises the crew.

Athrun meets the second Lacus and is suitably shocked (and she's more stacked than the real one too). I guess the Newtype synopsis that have assassins trying to kill Kira and Lacus has something to do to with making this Lacus legitimate. She sounds very much like the real Lacus, except this one is rather over-familiar with Athrun and sounds too much like an airhead. She even has a Haro, even though it sounds even more annoying than the original one. BTW, the real Lacus still has the horde of Haros following her about, they were shown in a shot while the real Lacus and Kira was watching the speech given by the Atlantic Federation president in the temporary home in ORB.

Jibril is well, not very happy. The EA forces are forced to retreat since obviously, their strategy to wipe out all the PLANTs in one fell swoop has failed miserably.

This episode ends with Gilbert and his ... unique expression (condenscending, superior, smug look).

On to the next episode!