SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online – Episode 10 – The Devil’s Comeback [Review/Recap - SPOILERS]
By: v.o.lynnThis week is an episode of upsets, revelations, gut-wrenching agony, or angst for almost anyone with more than five minutes of screentime.
Last week, Llenn was trapped in the dome in Squad Jam 2, ambushed by Memento Mori (MMTM). Rising from the ground with a sight-beam on Llenn’s forehead, it looks like she’s done for. Then gunfire sounds from a different direction... the winds have changed.
The owner of the sight-line, Boss, said her team had come in search of a fight with MMTM, saw Llenn was in trouble and decided she'd rather make good on their promise to "do battle" the next time they saw each other in game.Llenn turns down the offer (politely, not dismissively, which is kind of sweet). Boss is confused for a moment, but after Fuka gives the TL;DR version of Pito's death wish, Boss’ demeanor switches from that of a potential adversary to immediate ally.Elsewhere, fleeing in revengeful tears, the last surviving member of KKHC has it rough. Her entire team was wiped out by Pitohui. KKHC tried to arrange an alliance; Pito declined with gunfire (as there’s no honor amongst rogues). Through hubris (or something resembling kindness) she lets the remaining member go. At the time, the solider had yet to take anyone down in the competition.
Pitohui gears up, ready to take on the next opponents, who happen to be SHINC.With the need to take out M’s anti-everything shield, Anna goes down while strafing. A short cease-fire, then Sophie, in a zen-like position, sits crosslegged on a rock. The sniper takes out the “gift” of an easy target and... instant immortal object. Leaning from Llenn’s first squad jam, they take the tactic of using a body as a shield and weaponized it.
Llenn rushes in to take advantage of the diversion, but her objective is wrenched from her hands as Pito gets a bullet to the face by KKHC’s final soldier, hiding up on a cliffside.Pito should have been dead. With a last-minute health-pack applied by M, he pleads for her to keep living as she dances at death’s doorstep. The soldiers on Pito's team figure it out: She's wearing the discontinued gear from SAO. The reason why it didn't kick her out when her heart rate was elevated was because it can't, and also: in-game death will be real death for her.Overexerted, she slips into a coma. What would have normally been blood where her eye was shot is replaced with a red-and-white stylized circle.M grabs Pito and regroup to a cottage, and batten down the hatches as Memento Mori rushes right in to the immediate annoyance and chagrin of Llenn. The last few scenes are... messy. The soldiers offer themselves as willing sacrifices to protect Pito, and Pito awakens from her slumber with a red lightsaber like a sexy Kylo Ren.(Cue end credits.)
A few final review notes:
It wouldn’t be surprising at all if the final member of KKHC is revealed to have been an SAO survivor in the original game. She’s reluctant to fight, and not in a cautious way so much as a genuine distaste for violence/disinterest in the game. Well, until she vows revenge, and then she shows both surprise and amusement at the catharsis of taking out Pitohui (even as Llenn guns her down).Watching Pito when she truly thinks death has come from her is the most frustrating sequence I've watched in a long time. M clearly wants her to call off the game and resign before she actually dies, and she's punch-drunk on the adrenaline of barely surviving (and pain, IIRC).Lastly, I had thought that Memento Mori was going to be more of a challenge point than a frustrating "Hey, they're in the way AGAIN" plot point. Watching them get taken out at the end was slightly fulfilling from that angle.