Rem escorts the twins to one of Ship Five's Plant rooms to introduce the boys to their sisters, and to tell them the reason she believes they were born: to help Plants and humans to understand each other.
July is being torn apart by Vash's roots, and Knives has entered the higher plane, while Vash seems unresponsive. Meryl desperately calls out to him as he remains trapped in the memories Knives created. Then a red geranium flower blooms in Vash's hand, leading him back to reality as Rem calls for Vash.
As he rejects Knives from his Gate, Vash takes the energy forming his roots and manages to condense it into a cube. He tells Knives his plan has failed and the two brothers clash one final time in a race to control Vash's power before its unstable energy tears itself and the planet apart.
Tropes that appear in this episode:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Even with the horrible things he did to try and achieve his goal, all Knives want was a place for him and his brother to exist without fear of being hunted or abused by humans.
- All for Nothing: Vash tries desperately to save the city from his Angel Arm and avoid killing Knives at any cost. He ends up destroying July and 90% of its population from falling back to the planet when trying to safely discharge his Angel Arm. Knives ends up killing himself trying to grab at the core of Vash's Angel Arm, still promising to create a paradise for him and Vash alone. At best, Vash managed to prevent Knives's plan being carried out, but the emotional cost and death toll was ruinously steep.
- Arm Cannon: Vash smashes the cube into his gun, which also takes his prosthetic arm and merges all three together to create his Angel Arm.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Vash, in one day, endured Knives's attempt to rip out his memories and take control of his powers, destroyed July and killed 90% of its population, and saw Knives burn himself alive in front of his brother's eyes, blaming Vash for his own destruction — all on his birthday.
- Conscience Makes You Go Back: Despite being resigned to whatever fate would have in store, all it takes it looking down at the pack of cigarettes he looted from Roberto's body for Wolfwood to go back to July and save Meryl, claiming he was doing it as payback for the cigarettes.
- Crisis Catch And Carry: Wolfwood snatches Meryl off the battlefield as Vash and Knives's battle becomes more heated, hauling her around like a ragdoll while hightailing it out of the city.
- Dodge the Bullet: Knives rounds the corner to find Vash has vanished and scrambles to dodge the bullet his brother shoots at him.
- Double Meaning: Knives keeps screaming at Vash to "Take me back!" Initially he means being taken back to the higher plane. Over time, however, it's clear he also means "take me back to the way things were" — to the last time he remembered feeling safe and was together with his brother.
- Dream Tells You to Wake Up: Meryl's voice calling out for Vash helps invoke Rem in Vash's memories, and ultimately allows him to awaken and break free from Knives's control.
- Due to the Dead: Meryl visits the crater of July to drop off a new packet of cigarettes next to Roberto's flask.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Twice. When Vash wakes up, his hair has been blown back to his original spikey-haired look from past incarnations. Then, as Eriks, he's grown his hair so much that his bangs cover his eyes, due to his depression and desire to hide.
- Fantastic Nuke: Vash draws back the mass of roots and flowers created from his Gate and compresses all its matter into a portable crystalline cube about as big as his palm. Unfortunately, that form is temporary, and the moment it breaks down all the energy will be released as pure destructive power. Even after Vash bleeds off most of it safely into space with his Angel Arm, the final burst when Vash crashes back into July utterly erases not only the city but the ground it was standing on.
- Foregone Conclusion: In both the original Trigun manga and the '98 anime adaptation, July had already been destroyed (in the manga this was revealed in the prologue, also titled 'High Noon At July'). Anyone familiar with either knew the city wasn't getting out of Stampede intact.
- Former Friends Photo: Above Roberto's makeshift grave is a photo of the group.
- The Ghost:
- Meryl's superior threatens to send her to the insurance society if she keeps acting out of turn and informs her she's getting a newbie under her wing. Although she doesn't make an appearance, the girl's name is Milly Thompson.
- Chronica's voice can be heard in The Stinger of the episode, but she doesn't appear.
- I Am What I Am: Vash interprets his title as "Vash the Stampede" in his own way: someone who will run as long as he needs to be with humans until they quiet down and he goes back to rejoin them. As he cries, Vash smiles as he declares, "I am Vash the Stampede", accepting and embracing his identity independent of his brother.
- I Shall Taunt You: After launching Knives into the opposite wall, Vash proceeds to slowly reload his gun so his brother hears every click.
- Leitmotif: Still trapped in his mind, Vash starts to hum a song and the other Plants sing along with it. In his mind, Vash's child self is also singing this song, telling Knives it was something he sang to calm himself but doesn't know why or where he learned it. This melody is part of the song Knives obsessively plays on his piano.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The fantasy Knives traps Vash in is simply the twins as children, sitting together in one of the gardens aboard Ship Five. It's implied that Knives's idea of paradise has never been anything more sophisticated, and he sincerely believes it's all Vash needs to be happy.
- Man Bites Man: Or Plant bites Plant, technically. With his gun in one hand and the energy cube in the other, Vash has no means to stop Knives grabbing the cube besides sinking his teeth into Knives's wrist, which is what he does.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: As Vash runs from the dream Knives had trapped him in, he sees a geranium-red spirit that looks and speaks like Rem, encouraging and comforting him as she would have. After waking up, Vash thanks Meryl for allowing him to hear Rem's voice. Did he mean that Meryl gave him the will to imagine what Rem would say and galvanise himself? Or was Rem really there, her spirit guiding him even long after her death, and Meryl's voice brought her into contact with him?
- Mythology Gag:
- The episode title is the exact same title of the prologue to the Trigun manga (#0. High Noon At July), which also definitively marks Stampede up to this point a combined re-imagining and prequel to the Trigun story at large.
- The twins growing a wing each from opposite shoulders is from a scene late in the manga's story.
- Vash's Angel Arm looks more demonic than angelic, black and chitinous, with eight long spines encircling its emitter. It looks, in fact, like a spider, which is what Knives referred to humanity as in his "spiders and butterflies" metaphor back in the '98 anime. Vash has chosen the side of humanity and his Angel Arm is the proof.
- In the group photograph nailed to Roberto's memorial at July, Vash is sporting the cross-fingered Love and Peace symbol his previous incarnations loved to flaunt around.
- Meryl's boss issues her a threat that if she keeps going off on her own, she'll be sent to work at the Insurance Society. The occupation of her previous incarnations was working as an insurance claim agent.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: After quaking at the mere idea of Knives all season, a reborn and pissed off Vash has finally accepted words won't work on his brother and he puts up a proper fight.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Vash relentlessly unloads every bullet he has onto Knives without the slightest sign of his usual hesitation, expending more ammunition in the final battle alone than he has in every single previous episode put together.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Knives and Nai both start begging for Vash not to leave the illusionary world, claiming he'd be so much happier with him. Vash doesn't stick around and continues to flee, leading Knives to scream for his brother.
- Power Gives You Wings: Both twins sprout one wing from their shoulders when fully activating their powers.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Vash points his gun towards Knives, declaring his plans to have failed and it's time to finish this feud between them.
- Relocating the Explosion: Knives and Vash's climatic fight comes down to Vash trying to get the cube of compressed energy from his Gate somewhere safe before it decompresses all at once, and Knives trying to take it back so he can use it to force Vash's Gate open again.
- Say My Name:
- Meryl desperately calls out to Vash while he's still in his Plant form and manages to finally wake him up.
- Despite all of the torture and pain Knives brought onto Vash and all the people Knives has killed, Vash still can't help but call out for his brother in desperation and grief as he watches him disintegrate in the Angel Arm's discharge.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- As the roots from Vash's Gate start to swallow up July, Zazie does a quick cost-benefit analysis and makes a beeline out of the city.
- After saving Meryl, Wolfwood points out the insanity of fighting Knives and decides he and Meryl are better off getting out of there.
- Sequel Hook: Many elements of plot points yet to come get teased or set up in the final minutes of the episode.
- Zazie gives Meryl a cryptic warning that forces from Earth will be coming to their planet. She's also told by her radio contact that she will be assigned a new partner named Milly Thompson.
- In an unknown location, a girl is seen trying to jog the memories of a seemingly near-catatonic man with blonde hair named Eriks, who the audience should be quick to realize is Vash under a different name, possibly rendered amnesiac by the trauma.
- A transmission is heard in space detecting a 'fluctuation in the gate', by a woman named Chronica.
- Conrad successfully detached his lab and its tank full of impregnated Plants from the tower, escaping July's destruction. Even with Knives himself out of commission, his people have cards to play.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: As Knives tries to argue with Vash over what the cube is capable of, Vash instead elects to ignore his brother and toss him into the opposite wall.
- Significant Birth Date: Vash and Knives's birthday becomes the anniversary date of the destruction of July.
- Spiteful Suicide: Knives's charge into the Angel Arm is as much a means to destroy himself rather than live without Vash as it is a last gasp attempt to complete his plan. He mocks Vash in his final moments, laughing at him and claiming Nai's death is Vash's fault.
- Spotting the Thread: Child Vash realizes that he's still dreaming when Nai tells him he'd always protect him — something Nai never said, but Rem did.
- The Stinger: The final scene after the credits depicts a fleet from Earth detecting the disruption caused by Vash's Angel Arm, drawing their attention to Noman's Land and realising something remains of Project SEEDS.
- Stripped to the Bone: Knives refuses to let go of Vash's core even as it burns and strips him of his skin.
- Super Window Jump: Vash tucks and crashes through the window of the July building to try and dispose of the cube somewhere safer. Knives follows the same way, but less successfully than Vash, slamming face-first into the metal decoration at the center of the window and nearly knocking himself out.
- Tender Tears: Vash begins to cry as Knives begs him to join him in wiping out humanity, realising that Knives will likely never see eye-to-eye with him and give up on his genocidal crusade. When he speaks, it's not to argue, but to sadly ask Knives when they stopped being able to understand each other.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Eriks has this expression as he listlessly plays a couple of keys on the piano.
- Time Skip: From the destruction of July on July 21st to Meryl marking its anniversary two years later, leaving an offering at Roberto's memorial.
- Villainous Breakdown: Knives goes berserk when Vash throws off his control, his façade of icy rationality gone in favor of desperate screaming and clawing to take back the cube of energy produced by Vash's Gate.
- Voice of the Legion: Knives and Nai's voices start to blend together when Vash calls out the fantasy they're living in.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Wolfwood's whereabouts after the destruction of July are currently unknown. It's also unclear if Meryl has still been in contact with him for the past two years.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Knives's reaction when he hears Vash's plan to live among humans is the same thing he's been doing for the past hundred and fifty years.
