The target audience for these summmaries are those people who haven't seen it all, but are so hooked they have-to-have-it-all-NOW. You know who you are. Don't mind my dry sarcasm, and I'll try to keep my personal comments separate.
Please note that more often than not, all 'quotes' are paraphrases- not exact quotes.
On the plane- Shinji talks AS stuff with Sousuke while an excited Kyouko pokes Kaname and asks what's wrong. She denies it has anything at all to do with Sousuke, when violent turblence rocks the plane.
*Kidnap*
A shot of the cockpit door's lock blown out- blood on the co-pilot's face. Gaulun is in there, armed, and has shot the pilot, and is threatening the co-pilot. He's quite cheery. Gaulun's associate approaches him, angry about the death of the pilot, and tells him not to forget what country is helping Gaulun out.
The co-pilot is terrified, and accepts Gaulun's orders to fly to Khanka (a small country located between Russia and China.
Later, Shinji is surprised to see a UN force F-16 flying nearby. Time passes, and the students are starting to wonder why they don't seem to be flying to where they are supposed to be.
Soon enough, the plane descends for landing, and it's clear that not only is it not Okinawa, they're no longer in Japan. It's a military base, with a force of oddly mixed arm-slaves and equipment.
The students are all quite upset, with the exception of Shinji, who's utterly thrilled.
Gaulun gets on the intercom, tells them where they are, and that they are all now hostages.
The teacher flips out, just now figuring out something was wrong.
Everyone gasps to see the military force now surrounding the plane, prepared to kill any who attempt escape.
On the Danaan, Tessa is upset that, although they've destroyed the lab, the situation is still going on.
Kalinin decides both the KGB and Khanka are both being used by an unknown third party, as neither have the resources to pull something like this off.
Khanka is particulary difficult to deal with, being a troubled dictatorship, and thus politics are useless in dealing with the hostages.
Kalinin concedes the act is very smart. On the plane, on his own, Sousuke comes to the same conclusion.
Tessa and Kalinin discuss the possibility of saving the hostages, but agree that Kaname is in serious danger. Tessa decides that only after the hostages are safe, can an attempt be made to rescue Kaname. Kalanin agrees, but adds that the enemy will still have to deal with something else.
They wait.
Sousuke is visibly surprised to see who the enemy is. Gaulun and his men are in the cabin, and have approached Kaname. Gaulun claims they've chosen to take her, to film her for a hostage video to release to the press. Kaname brushes it off (as casually as she can), but of course, Gaulun insists.
Sousuke can only watch.
However the teacher protests, and insists they take her, instead of her student. She gets in Gaulun's face, really insulting him, and he neatly targets her between the eyes. We have no reason to believe that he won't shoot her.
Suddently a crash breaks the tension- a tipped tray spilled in the aisle, and the clumsy student is trying to quietly pick it up. It's Sousuke, making the only sort of distraction he can, but it works. Gaulun doesn't shoot the teacher, instead he and his men leave with Kaname.
Gaulun gives Sousuke a long hard stare, but he only looks downward.
As soon as they leave, the teacher faints, and Sousuke heads to the cargo hold. There he finds his stuff (he's always pretty well prepared!), but only barely manages to hide when the cargo hold suddenly opens. He listens as some men make some suspicious comments while fooling around in a freight box- orders are given regarding 'the red wire', 'don't toch it anymore', and and not to use cell phones nearby. They leave...
Meanwhile Kaname's being tested in a makeshift lab set up in a truck- she's laying in a machine, wearing a visor that flashes words for her. Gaulun is talking with the lady scientist, he wants to know the test results as soon as possible. The scientist insists that the results won't be ready til the next morning, at soonest. That's not good enough for Gaulun, who wants the procedure sped up. The scientest protests, saying that even a higher dose of the drugs won't take affect for the next six hours. He threatens her, which angers her. They argue a little bit, he gets physical when she insults him.
Gaulun really is very nasty.
Back on the plane, Sousuke can finally confirm what the men were doing- setting a massive bomb. The timer is counting down, and he's clearly upset, but all he can do is leave. Climing down a wheel, he manages to get away from the plane, and from as secure a position as he can get to, he contacts the Danaan. He shares what he knows. Sousuke figures they'll kill the hostages to disguise the kidnapping. Sousuke tells Tessa and Kalinin he's not equipped to deal with the situation, and Kalinin issues orders placing priority on the hostages (and not on Kaname). Before he goes, Sousuke tells Kalinin that the leader of the terrorists is Gaulun, something that looks like an unpleasant suprise to Kalinin.
Sousuke's packing up the communications device, when a gun is placed behind his head.
Kalinin is walking with Tessa, and he tells her what he knows of Gaulun.
He's very dangerous, a killer. At a time when Kalinin and Sousuke were with forces running from the KGB, Gaulun was chasing them. Gaulun attacked their camp, while the men were away, and killed everyone there, even the non-combatants. A couple of weeks later, they finally were able to attempt their revenge. Kalinin led Gaulun into a trap- Sousuke was in position to snipe. He takes his shot, and gets Gaulun in the forehead. They believed they had killed Gaulun.
But Gaulun isn't dead. Tessa decides they can't hope to ransom the hostages.
Sousuke's been caught, by Gaulun's associate from the cockpit. The man demands to know who Sousuke is, and as answer Sousuke flips the heavy communications device into the man, who loses his gun. There's a little bit of hand to hand combat (and almost a little foot to face combat). This man is bigger (and slower) than Sousuke, who does a pretty good job taking the hulk down. Sousuke whips out his trusty tazer, and, although he can barely talk, the big guy asks who Sousuke is. 'The garbage man' he replies, and the man passes out.
Kaname wakes, and tries to plead with the cruel scientist. The woman tells her that the test isn't teaching her anything, they are things Kaname already knew before she was born.
Back on the Danaan, Kalinin is briefing the rescue team on the operation- (Melissa and Kurtz walk in late, Kurtz (who looks like he's ...um, grabbing? himself?) blames a late taxi)-
Six AS will be sent, along with air support. The plane's bomb is the biggest danger, largely because they must assume it can be denotated anytime by remote. Two transport planes will land to collect the hostages, and need the AS for protection while on the ground. The planes can only be on the ground for five minutes.
If an AS, for any reason, must be left behind, Kalinin stresses it must be entirely destroyed.
Meanwhile Sousuke has made his way to the lab truck where Kaname's being held, but begins to stress out.
Two armed men guard the outside, and he's worried about rushing too fast and totally messing up. He thinks of the insane girl from episode 1.
Tessa is worried about Sousuke (they havent heard from him since he broke his comm in the fight)- Kalinin reassures her saying that Sousuke is the most professional there is. Never has he made a decision for emotional reasons.
Shots are heard from inside the truck, and Sousuke stresses even more, having to force himself not to be too hasty.
Tessa worries that this time might be different from the past.
Sousuke imagines Kaname, and of her in trouble, and of Gaulun being cheerfully nasty. He hears another shot, and then steps out from his cover. End
Well, the action is finally starting, and we're starting to learn a little bit about this 'Whispered' stuff, and what it has to do with Kaname.
There were some neat visual things in this episode, and some that I didn't think were so neat.
For example- the effect used when pulling back from the plane, moving across the base, to the lab truck, was kinda neat. It almost meshes invisibly- not quite, but almost, and much much more so than most other digital tricks.
What sucked? I didn't like the blurring during the fight with the associate. I think I know what Gonzo was looking for, in trying that, but I don't think it worked. I haven't seen Gonzo use it again, btw. Perhaps they agree with me.
What I really do like, is something the director uses at the end- cutting shots between different places and people. Showing Tessa and Kalinin discuss Sousuke, while showing Sousuke struggling with the very thing they are talking about...is interesting. It has been used earlier, too, but this was a good scene to bring it up with :)
Both Kurtz and Sousuke display really awful senses of humor.
I guess Gaulun's associate is from Khanka?