Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Episode Four: Unseen Trap
Written by: Ichirō Ōkouchi
Directed by: Shouji Ikeno
Storyboarded by: Susumu Nishizawa
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Episode Four: Unseen Trap (みえない地雷, Mienai Jirai) is the fourth episode of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.
The viewers of Suletta and Guel's second duel across the school watch his impromptu proposal in shock, with Guel's words catching up to him just in time for Suletta to reject him and flee the field. In the Earth House dorm, Chuchu, after originally being excited for Suletta's victory, expresses her disgust over the entire affair being nothing but a "Lover's Quarrel" between privileged Spacians.
In the aftermath of the duel, Vim Jeturk's associates mock his son's loss and drop in status, expressing concerns over the company's future. Attending class, Miorine changes Suletta's uniform colours to that of the Holder before she is swarmed by gossips asking about Guel's proposal; the former-Holder himself then appears, apologizing to Miorine as agreed. Despite his sudden proposal, he awkwardly insists that he does not actually like Suletta before taking his leave. Later that day, a mobile suit examination takes place, in which students must work as a team to use a radar to avoid mines in the drill field before completing a shooting challenge. Suletta is instantly failed due to lacking any support staff. Chuchu, taking the exam with support from Earth House, is likewise failed after black paint appears over her camera, causing her to fall into a valley and step on a mine. This "prank" was carried out by two bullies who make snide remarks against Earthians while watching the spectacle.
Searching for supporters, Suletta encounters Nika and two of her dorm mates, asking for their help with her make-up exam. Nika regretfully declines as she has to aid Chuchu with her make-up exam, but offers to introduce Suletta to the rest of Earth House who may be free to help. Taking her to Earth House, one of the boys, Till, agrees to serve as Suletta's spotter. However, Chuchu arrives and scares Suletta off, furious at having a Spacian in their Dormitory.
Watching the ruined Darilbalde being repossessed, Guel and Lauda discuss the former losing his Ace status, with Lauda advising his brother to avoid angering their father any further. Meanwhile, Suletta is approached by Elan, who offers her the support of his House, when Miorine suddenly appears, declaring him among her (and thus Suletta's) enemies. Learning of Suletta's situation, Miorine offers her support instead, taking Suletta back to her room. Memorizing the basics of support staff in short order, she then moves on to helping Suletta study her own textbook basics.
After nightfall, Earth House watch a news broadcast about a worker's rights protest on Earth which was violently shut down by armed corporate forces. Several of the boys discuss the media bias and Spacian control over Earth, while Chuchu takes a call from her family on Earth. She expresses concern over the protests which they reassure her about, telling her to look after herself in turn. Waking to the sound of Suletta studying late into the night, Miorine learns that she wants to establish a proper school back on Mercury to try and bolster the aging population.
The next morning, Suletta and Miorine prepare for the make-up exam, not knowing the same pranksters had sabotaged Suletta's test suit the night before like they had Chuchu's previously. Encountering Chuchu and Nika, Miorine calls Chuchu out for her abrasive attitude towards Spacians who have not done anything to her being little better than the discrimination she faces herself. The make-up examination begins, with Suletta soon succumbing to the sabotage leaving her unable to see. With the instructors refusing Miorine's request to perform maintenance, Suletta fails again when her timer runs out, but Miorine points out she can repeat the make-up exam as many times as necessary. Despite making steady progress blind, repeated failures eventually reduce Suletta to tears, almost causing her to give up entirely despite Miorine's encouragement.
Overhearing Suletta and Miorine's exchange, Chuchu grows sympathetic, recognizing similarities between her and Suletta's circumstances. Having observed the bullies mocking her throughout the examination, Chuchu leaves her Demi Trainer, immediately knocking one of the girls out with a punch to the face, condemning the other for interfering when they don't have anyone depending on them. The altercation quickly draws the attention of the rest of the make-up group, with Suletta taking a punch from the conscious bully when she tries to break up the fight. Taking the opening, Chuchu knocks the second bully out too.
As the day ends, Suletta and Chuchu reveal they will be allowed to take another make-up examination, with Chuchu expressing annoyance she wasn't even allowed a run that day due to Suletta's repeated attempts. Nika, feeling the overall situation satisfying, offers Suletta a place in their House, which she accepts. Chuchu reluctantly accepts Suletta after getting her to refer to her as her senior.
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Unseen Trap provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless:
- At the beginning of the episode, none of the staff informed Suletta beforehand that she needed a spotter and a mechanic until after she attempted to start her exam, and they failed her on the spot, denying any responsibility for their negligence in the process.
- These very same people don't seem to notice, or even care, that two interlopers have sabotaged at least two Demi Trainers and are mocking a fellow student's plight because of it. Nor do they try to intervene when a fight breaks out between them and Chuchu, with the only punishment they dole on her is that she has to retake the exam with Suletta, while the other two seemingly aren't dealt with by the facility at all.
- Capitalism Is Bad: The Earthian protestors are spurred by Spacians exploiting Earth for labor and wealth without fair compensation, leading to widespread poverty and a food crisis (evoking modern corporations moving their manufacturing centers to developing countries with exploitative labor laws to minimize costs). Furthermore, all the major news companies are predominantly Spacian-funded, causing news reports about the situation to be slanted against Earth. Additionally, the police are at the beck and call to Spacian interests and are armed with military grade hardware and are more than willing of using excessive force against even peaceful protesters (once again evoking similar images of overfunded police forces in heavily corporatized countries).
- Everyone Has Standards: After Suletta breaks up the fight between Chuchu and the bully, the bully accidentally punches Suletta. The bully apparently regrets that as she pauses, and she is distracted long enough for Chuchu to deliver a finishing punch.
- Evil Duo: Two girls laughing while sitting on the stairs turn out to be the ones who sprayed some black spray over the Demi Trainers' cameras. Chuchu and Suletta fall victim to their ploy and end up failing both exams.
- Fantastic Racism: On full display in this episode, not only with the two girls who cause Suletta and Chuchu to fail their exams repeatedly and insult them at every turn, but also with a mob of Earthian protesters getting arrested and overpowered by a Spacian military force.
- Genius Slob: For Miorine’s intelligence in taking care of plants and being able to read manuals quickly, her living space leaves much to be desired.
- Kick the Dog: Hoo boy, those two girls who discriminated against Chuchu and Suletta are a real piece of work...
- When Chuchu ends up failing the "find your way through a minefield" exam, they mock her for her latest loss and blatantly call all Earthians "an eyesore".
- When they witness Suletta failing repeatedly, their mocking is made far worse, noting of her "poor" performance despite being the Holder and calling her a "country bumpkin" who should "rot away at home"... and that's not counting the fact that they sprayed on her Demi Trainer's camera just because they could, even though they got a kick out of doing the same thing to Chuchu's Demi Trainer earlier!
- I Gave My Word: As before, Guel abides by the terms of the duel he lost. The next day, he delivers a formal apology to Miorine, in person, without any reluctance or hedging.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Chuchu overhears those two nasty bullies mocking Suletta from her mobile suit and makes her way over to them to sock one of them in the face and brawl with the other, ending with punching the other girl's lights out. Sure, this is probably against school rules, but owing to what they did to her and Suletta's mobile suits and their outrageously horrible Kick the Dog moments, they really deserved that beatdown.
- Mythology Gag:
- Chuchu rushing towards the two racist bullies to punch one of them has something reminiscent to Kamille Bidan punching out a guy who thought his name was a girl's name.
- Suletta gets startled upon seeing a goat when she enters the Earth House for the first time before someone leads the goat away, much like Amuro Ray encountering a goat in Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island.
- Tap on the Head: Confronting the two bullies, Chuchu's opening punch seems to knock one of them out cold, as she doesn't move again for the rest of the scene.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Spacians think nothing of deploying Humongous Mecha to suppress a small crowd of protestors doing nothing but hold signs and shout. The Spacian-funded media subsequently reports they were violent extremists armed with Molotov cocktails, which is both patently untrue and still doesn't remotely justify such an excessive response.
- You Have Failed Me: For his losses, Guel has the Darilbalde taken away from him by his father.
