The episode appears to be the beginning of the action climax and at this point, the show is getting overly ridiculous. The Chinese assassin jumping off that overpass into freeway traffic and not getting hurt was already the point of no return, but this episode continues to up the ante in outlandish anime logic. So without further ado, let’s recap this bonkers fight scene and the other things that happen that constantly interrupt the fight scene.

The episode begins with Doug driving Eleina around Islamabad. Her bracelet, which also has a function of measuring body temperature, shows that she has a fever and is succumbing to the effects of Hapna. The bracelet, despite being an American bracelet, appears to measure in both Fahrenheit and Celsius despite Americans being clueless about the Celsius scale. She lies about feeling well and hides her symptoms.

We cut back to the Axel storyline from last episode and the assassin power walks through the busy freeway that decided to stop because a weirdo is in the street. He goes up to Axel’s windshield and starts shooting. Axel gets out of his car and begins running. The assassin throws grenades and kills a bunch of people, but not the intended target. Axel proves he can one-up the assassin in ridiculous feats and jumps off an overpass to land on top of a moving truck going at least 70 MPH and does so without getting hurt and is able to stay on the truck without falling off. The assassin imitates Axel and they have a fight on top of the truck and do lots of fancy flips and spins, somehow able to stay on the truck without any effort This fight scene gets continually interrupted by the other plotlines, and the cuts to other scenes often feel jarring.

Meanwhile, Hersch decides to tell the government she knows the secret of Axel being used for a prison drug experiment, and she threatens to leak this information to the general public unless they tell the assassin to stand down. This does not end up being a good idea as the government decides to arrest her for in their words “treason or something.” The government apparently wants to do whatever they can to cover up the Axel experiments that they are willing to doom the whole world. They are going so far as to sending a kill squad to Islamabad to kill Doug and Eleina.

Doug tells Eleina that he’ll fight off the government goons while  she searches for Popcorn Wizard. He shoots a tire on one of the government people’s cars and the car is set on fire, like what always happens when tires are shot in anime. Eleina gets out of Doug’s car and continues to travel Islamabad on foot.

We go back to the Axel fight scene and now they are fighting on top of tram cars. The same knife on a string that killed lots of trained army commandos is easily intercepted by Axel and the fight has them on a dock. The assassin has a freakout when he sees Axel’s pendant as it leads to him having a flashback and being traumatized by all the killing he’s done. Axel’s pendant reminds him of the wings of a hundun, a mythical Chinese creature.

Meanwhile, the fight scene is interrupted again and Eleina chases down the gaudy van that Popcorn Wizard uses. Despite being gassed, she makes it to the van. Then we cut back to the Axel fight scene.

Axel and the assassin both throw sharp objects at each other. Axel throws a knife at the assassin and hits him in the leg while the assassin throws a harpoon at Axel’s torso and impales him. Axel is clearly losing the fight, but Chris comes guns blazing to save Axel and the assassin jumps into the river to escape the barrage of bullets. The episode ends and the next episode preview spoils that Axel survives and winds up in the hospital.

Well, two more episodes are left and let’s see how in the world this show ends. This episode provided all the ridiculous cheesy action expected of a Toonami show, but there’s still the plot about finding Skinner. So far the action has been the highlight of the show, even if the rest of the show hasn’t been super interesting.

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