Cross Ange Episode 19

Before I begin, my apologies for not doing this sooner, but unexpected illness has left me trying to recover my strength, still trying to recover from a stomach virus at this time.
Anyway, we begin where the last episode ended.Salia and co. are trying to sink the Aurora, whose personnel are still trying to recover from the sleeping gas Tusk set off. Thankfully, Jasmine is on hand to maintain order, since Jill is KO'ed as Ange and co. try to buy the Aurora some time. Unfortunately, Team Salia is doing better, and Momoka almost hits the waters until she activates her Mana powers (giving us a de jure panty shot). Regardless, the Aurora manages to dive again in time.

Unfortunately, that's what Salia was hoping for, and as Ange goes back to get Momoka, Salia surprises her with a bullet (tranq dart) to the chest.

Cue intro credits.

Afterwards, Ange is in dream state mode, bemoaning her screwups, and falls into a bed of roses she remembers from childhood.

Then she wakes up as Momoka is calling for her.

The shocker: Right back in the same palace she was exiled from.

As Momoka is cheerfully gives her the "good news", Ange is "WUT?!?!" mode, and a nearby letter on the bedstead informs her she has Embryo to thank for this (to her aggravation). Later, as Ange is getting dressed (or letting Momoka do it at her insistence), she's still in shock, wondering why Salia spared her and brought her here, which Momoka doesn't know either (she was KO'ed and woke up here too). After getting dressed, it seems Ange has really gotten used to being a badass action girl and starts stashing a letter opener and few other pointy implements in her dress so she can garrote Embryo (she really HATES him at this point, with even more cause than Jill).

And that's when Salia and some other girls pop in wearing black outfits (oh lol, a reference to the Titans from Zeta Gundam, with Salia and her groupies being the female goons to Embryo's Paptimus Scirroco) to make sure Ange doesn't do that, and Salia responds with the most cliche line ever for turning traitor on Jill. We also find out after Ange kicked her ass last time, Embryo resuced her, did the same shit Scirocco did to get women to fall all over him that used to be his enemies to her (yeah, I'll admit it, he's good at the whole seduction thing), and she basically defected because Embryo played on her insecurites and made her a willing pawn in exchange for making her feel needed.

Even better, he basically gave her the evil counterpart to the Vilkiss so she could help him be his own proxy in burning ANOTHER world to ashes.

Before I go on, this is EXACTLY the same shit Paptimus Scirroco professed to believe: that the power to dominate the universe should rest in a woman's hands.....or, in this case, to fuck one up.

And Ange responds with a "Tl;dr, you just found someone else to latch onto and be the willing pawn of.", which earns her a slap from Salia, and which earns Salia and her goons Ange pwning the fuck out of them and more quality trolling as Ange tells Salia she looked better cosplaying as a magical girl. Ange and Momoka then escape via a secret panel (Ange still remembers the ins and outs of the place.

Later, we see Ersha and a bunch of kids, and as Ersha explains, Embryo got her loyalty by using his hax to bring them all back from the dead, letting Ersha being the mommy figure to them, promised her he's going to make a world where all kids can live without fear (without mentioning he'll have to nuke the current one in the process), and Ersha reveals a creepy side to herself when she reveals she traded her conscience for defending said kids on Embryo's behalf. And that's when Chris pops in, cueing next scene cut.

As Chris leads them to Embryo, her reasons for defection are simple:she felt abandoned (remember, Embryo brought her back to life, she kinda owes him big for that) and thus owes Embryo for being there for her. Also, she doesn't realize Embryo wasn't in any serious danger when he revived her, but she obviously can't know the full scope of why.

And, as we pass by the library, we find Riza, trussed up naked and muzzled, Sylvia whipping the shit out of her for nearly killing her, and we basically learn Embryo left Riza alive for the lulz and let Sylvia vent her frustrations on her almost killer. She thinks Ange still wants to watch her die as Momoka and Ange see what's going on, and she incorrectly thinks Ange is here to kill her like the rest of their family.

Before we go on, here's the blood supposedly on Ange's hands:

Mom: Tried to prevent her daughter's murder and got killed in the process.
Dad: Killed off screen without Ange's involvement.
Julio: Embryo iced him personally.

So yeah, Ange is pretty guilt free.

Anyway, Salia and co pop in, and just as Ange is about to open fire, Embryo (who was quietly curled up with a book) pops up at the top of the library stairs looking like that smug smiley face icon used on Something Awful.

Cue intermission.

We get confirmation Embryo brought Ange here because he wants her side of the story (and to answer any questions), then tells Salia to leave them alone, and Salia quickly relents after Embryo dismisses her security concerns.

We cut back to Aurora, where Jill finds out Ange was captured, Tusk and Vivian are MIA, then looks over to Jasmine in the infirmary with a "go ahead, laugh at me" expression. We also find out Jill isn't so different then Embryo in have wanted Ange to be an obedient pawn. Later, as Hilda and Rosalie are chilling in their pink lacy underthings, they are going over WTH has been going on, and Hilda tells Rosalie they'll have to bust Ange out of captivity for Libertus.

When we cut back to Ange, we find out Embryo brought her to Aura, and basically confirms everything she learned from Sala, and when Ange gets pissed, Embryo defends it as necessary to maintain the current order (despite throwing Humanity 1.0 under the bus in the process). Ange puts a gun to his head at this point, and when he assumes she's on the DRAGON's side, she clarfies she just hates his ass for killing Julio, trying to murder Tusk, and yeah, the DRAGON's as well.

Basically, she consider him the reason her life and everyone connected went to hell period, and wants him to die for that. He wonders what happens if he refuses, and a bullet exits his skull in response.

And Embryo is like "feel better?", none the worse for wear.

She shoots him again, he's back up again, and when Ange wonders if he's really God (he doesn't like that expression), we find out he pulled a Doctor Who and turned himself into the Jack Harkness of the current world. Basically, he's the "Tuner", or the fact of the world, and thus killing him is like trying to kill what makes reality possible. He also partially admits Ange is right the Norma are screwed into not being welcome in the world, hence the current setup where they fight DRAGONs as a compromise solution, and basically channels Mustapha Mond from Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and tells her the current world was engineered with everyone having discrete roles, and destroying that means everyone suffers.

He also uses his Scirroco like mind hax on her (yeah, he's basically Paptimus Scirroco with even MORE hax powers), and as she tries to resist, he tries to convince her to serve him with a Hannibal Lecture on how she needs some stability in the world, and in a scene that is frankly creepy as fuck, complete with Mind Control Eyes, he tells her to remove everything she's wearing, and she's half naked, her will is fighting back against the hax, so he pours on more mind control, and as he basically attempts to pull off everything in the rapist with mind control powers playbook (yeah, you can basically assume he did this to the other girls, for your extra dose of horror), he tries to kiss her to seal the deal.

And that's when he's tasting his own blood from his bit through tongue as her commitment to Tusk overpowers his mind control bullshit.

In response to Ange reiterating her desire to watch him bleed out, he then goes for Plan B: drop to one knee and attempt to offer to serve her since he can't break her will.

And that's when we cut to the Aurora again, where Hilda is attempting to knock on Jill's door to ask her about their strategy, and we find out via Jill's dream state that mind control rapist shit was pulled on HER (around the same time Libertus was aborted the first time, he basically tried to get her to be his pawn in exhange for abadoning the idea, she refused, and in response, he let her go, minus her right arm, Dracunium ring, or any chance of being a real threat.......yeah, he's an asshole), and Hilda unfortunately overhears where she kinda regrets that (given she apparently almost did become his pawn and only backed out once her conscience asserted itself, she's obviously been tormented ever since) as the end credits begin.

The preview has Rosalie and Chris bitching about the raw deals they've gotten over the course of the show, Embryo trying to win Ange over in a more conventional manner, Ange still not falling for it, and Jill apparently coming clean about her past (the betrayal part she edited out).


.....well, this episode confirmed it, Embryo is a scumbag, in the Paptimus Scirroco mind hax rapist mold, which I kinda suspected, nice to be confirmed, love to see where they go with this.