Yes and no.
The focus of the episode is an operation by the AEU (finally doing something...) that's specifically designed to draw out CB. And it's pretty obvious to everyone - AEU, CB, and the rest of the world - that drawing out CB is the entire point of the operation. That means that CB will be facing many more mobile suits - and high quality mobile suits at that - than they have in any previous operation. And this time CB isn't actually intervening in a conflict (they "interrupted" a joint military excercise), which means that the people that they're attacking won't be distracted by non-CB units on the battlefield. So providing customized equipment to help the Gundams out makes sense.
And the upgrades seem fairly minor. We're not talking "full-vernion" level stuff. The Dynames (the Gundam piloted by Lockon and his Haro) only received huge armored plates to better protect it from incoming fire. Exia got two new blades. I don't remember seeing anything specifically added to Khyrios and Virtue, although Virtue did use two new shoulder-mounted pop-up cannons that I don't remember it using previously (then again, Virtue has spent most of its time in the series so far repowering Ptolemais, and not in combat).
As for my own comments on the episode...
One of the themes this time seems to be "Small World". That, and "Everyone has a screwed up past."
We learn two little bits of information about "Billy" Sumeragi this episode. She knows Graham's pony-tailed friend from way back when, along with the professor that's leading Union's anti-Gundam unit. And she was apparently the strategist for some incident that the three of them as well as Graham all know about. If it went bad, her love of alchohol may have come as a direct response to it (though so far as I can tell she's never actually appeared on-screen while drunk to date). One also wonders if it might be possible for her friends to recognize her handiwork in the strategies given enough time and data.
And in the second cliff-hanger of the series, we learn that Setsuna and the mercenary employed by AEU (introduced in this episode) have a common past. I'm guessing that the mercenary trained and led Setsuna's squad for a while. It appears that the normally emotionless Setsuna isn't happy about having to fight him, although it was hard to tell since he only realized the man's identity in the last seconds of the episode. He's also looking at least slightly out-classed, since the mercenary isn't having any trouble predicting his movements (which might be a result of their shared past). Another item to note - the advanced "tweaked to fight the Gundams" mobile suit was given to the mercenary, and not the AEU's "ace".
The HRL has evaluated Soma, and made the fixes that they hope will keep her from having another breakdown if she runs into Allelujah again. The doctor mentioned adding something to her suit, which raises questions on whether she normally relies on "clothing" to remain stable.
Two members of the Ptolemais's bridge crew are finally given enough screen time to be more than just faces on the bridge. They're still mostly stereotypes at this point, though.
Marina wants technicians to help her country have access to solar power. Presumeably that means that she wants to hook the country up to the power network coming from the elevator. No one is currently willing to send technicians, however, with the reason given being that the country isn't safe for technicians to enter.
Simultaneously darkly amusing and sad comment on AEU attitudes regarding military deployments. At least one of the member nations won't permit it (an event 300 years prior is mentioned, which probably means that it was Germany that won't allow the deployment, and the "event" was Nazi Germany in World War 2). It's sad in part because it mirrors modern-day attitudes toward military deployments in some of the European countries (deployment of troops from some European nations in areas of Afghanistan where they might have to fight Taliban forces is prohibited by the nations because of the fear that a single death of a soldier might cause the nation's population to force the withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan). And there's another reference to the incomplete status of the AEU's elevator.
The nation attacked has 180,000 citizens, and 4,000,000 foreign workers.
>.<
That latter number seems awfully high... How is the government maintaining control without granting citizenship to more of the foreign workers?
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- Re: [RE][gundam] Episode 6 spoilers Joseph Riggs
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