Week 4 Synopses
Note: because of a small mix-up with Yugo the Negotiator, we viewed two episodes of Tide-Line Blue this week.
Episode 4 and 5 Synopses:
Episode 4 (Share): Todays transmission: complete. The space-suited man sits back and sighs, and we see that he has a long beard and a careworn, tired face. He seems to have been up there forever
Meanwhile, on the Ulysses, Isla is being the most helpful spreader of good cheer the crew could possibly wish for. She hangs the ships underwear out to dry (despite Goulds protests that white cloth above a ship generally signifies surrender), she washes toilets, she even makes friends with Joze (whom she appears to have a unique capacity for embarrassing). Keel, on the other hand, is um not being helpful. He sleeps in until noon, he refuses to do any work, he constantly swindles the crew out of what few personal possessions they have, and he has an incredible talent for sending Joze into furious conniptions. They try to make him prepare his own food, but he cant even peel a potato properly. (While they work, Aoi and Tean are in the helicopter discussing what is necessary for world peace. Aoi says its energy, and since the power plant in space was destroying during the Hammer of Eden the world has a terrible energy crisis. Gould tells Keel as he peels potatoes that the primary necessary for world peace is food: people are naturally cranky when theyre hungry, as Keel himself proves.) Gould tells him that those who dont work dont eat, and Keel whines that this is spoken like a true geezer. At this point Goulds nasty side comes out, and he has Keel go take care of the ships chickens while he and Joze come up with something really nasty. Keel fails at this task, of course, letting the chickens run wild; but he does find a little handheld computer in the process. (He is one of the few people on earth his age who actually recognizes and know how to use a computer.)
On the other side of the world Aoi is having a very important meeting with the worlds oil magnate, Mister King. This is Mister King:
Mister King is a good old-fashioned American stereotype, who really likes beer and big hugs and has a bit of a self-image problem. (His image of himself is: God.) But Aois too clever for him, and after maneuvering him into cussing Gould out for being an American and a traitor, she points out that Kings refusal to support the New UN actually works strongly in Goulds favor. Before he knows it, Mister King discovers that he has agreed to join Aois side. Tean seems simultaneously impressed and disgusted by this display of Aois negotiating skills.
As Mister Kings longhorned limo conveys Aoi and her crew to their next destination, Gould and Joze tell Keel that theyve finally found a job for him: cleaning. Keels thick enough that he doesnt realize the things hes cleaning are the very type of Tomahawks that destroyed Yabitsu until one of the men hes working tells him as much, but once the truth does dawn on him he freaks out. Pelting through the shipss hallways until he finds Isla (who has being cleaning for the doctor), he locks himself in the missile room and barricades the door. Gould, who really does sound like a geezer sometimes, points out that Keel cant stay in there forever and tells everyone to leave him alone. Inside his hiding place, Keel and Isla have an argument about Goulds true nature: Keel says that hes manipulative and deceiving, putting on a kind face while really planning atrocities of the kind that destroyed Yabitsu; Isla maintains that Gould is someone she knows, and that the real Gould would never do those kinds of things. Keel simply cant argue against this kind of logic, but Isla keeps him from going into a pout by asking him to teach her how to read. Keel plugs in the computer, and the first characters he shows her are those for her sons name: K-e-e-l.
But Islas been carrying around a child and cleaning all day; shes in no shape to be sitting up late to learn how to read. She faints, and Keel desperately rushes her to the doctor. The doctor says that all Isla needs is a rest, but he, Gould, and Joze all chew Keel out for being degenerate scum who not only bails out on the one job hes agreed to do but drags a week new mother into his self-created mess and endangers her life. Keel, unable to respond to these charges, doesnt even ask Gould why he attacked Yabitsu.
As the episode ends it becomes apparent that Gould has another attack in mind: a crewman reports that they are within range of New Peking, and the Ulysses missile hatches begin to open and at the shows close, the man in space watches the young Tean and Keel on his monitor in a constantly repeating loop, as they wave at him from the past
Episode 5 (Attack): Gi and Tengeru are at war. The two nations, occupying what remains of China, have been bitterly attacking each other almost since the Hammer of Eden itself, and the people have been suffering. As Gould explains in a staff meeting, he plans to end that war: two teams will head out to the nations of Gi and Tengeru. The Ulysses will destroy Tengerus primary border base once the first team has tagged it with lasers, and then both groups will enter into negotiations: Tengeru will be told that Gould will ally himself with Gi and annihilate them unless they agree to join Goulds party, and Gi will be told that Tengeru has already surrendered and the Ulysses will add Tengerus forces to its own in order to take over Gi unless Gi surrenders. All teams have seventy-two hours to accomplish their objectives. Joze will lead the Gi negotiation group—and at this point Keel bursts in and sort of messes everything up. With his usual emotional violence he tells everyone that he now realizes how horrible a person hes been and wants to help in any way he can. Gould tells him that Gi and Tengeru between them control the majority of the new worlds food supply, and that he will be going on a very important diplomatic mission so that that food can be more fairly rationed. Keel is to go with the Tengeru team.
Before Keen leaves, Isla gives him a cute little medallion shes made for him with the name Keel and an image of him (what else?) gambling. Each group takes a mini-sub, but as soon as his team starts going over their objectives, Keel becomes a problem: the minute he hears the word missile he becomes convinced that the Ulysses will attack another innocent town. The team locks him up in the sub and leaves.
Aoi, meanwhile, has traveled to what appears to be Central America for a meeting with a man named Sanjun, who is in charge of a secret facility accessible only via a small underwater tunnel below the Ulysses maximum depth. There she has hidden the most precious thing the New UN possesses: somehow, against all reason, they have a virtual map of the new Earth. Its not quite complete yet, but its getting there; furthermore they have extremely powerful communications systems that can, under certain conditions, reach vessels as far as a third of way around the world. (Tean, of course, is put in a guarded room and not allowed to discover this information.)
The missile attack goes well and Tengeru quickly surrenders. Gi, however, is not so forthcoming: Joze issues an ultimatum while the Ulysses sails up the New Yangtze: either Gi surrenders, or Gould will attack them using nuclear warheads. Gi has one day to decide.
No locked doors can hold Keels hyperactive self, and he breaks out of the minisub to discover that Tengerus base is still burning. Mistaking it for a civilian town, he wanders into the countryside cursing the vile Gould. There he finds a village where, after beating him up a bit, the inhabitants tell him that the missile strike hit only Tengerus base, and the civilians are actually pretty happy about it because it means that the regular shelling has temporarily stopped. The matriarch of the village keeps the chain Isla made for Keel, and Keel agrees to work in exchange for the return of the chain.
Meanwhile Tean is also having a bit of a revelation: after knocking out a guard he takes Sanjun hostage and makes him open the map room. Tean is swiftly recaptured (of course it was the ostrich feathers that gave away his presence freaky eyebrow-ostrich), but hes piping mad: why, he demands to know, has Aoi not shown the map to the world? Aoi tells him that he is being naïve: there is only one map, and the battle for its possession would throw the world into chaos.
Gi has finally made its decision: it will maintain its own supremacy by using Gould and the New UN against each other. They call in Satoyamas fleet to destroy Gould and tell Joze that theyll acquiesce to Goulds commands. With any luck, the two will destroy each other and just in case, Gi will send in its own secret submarine to pick off any survivors.
Regardless of Gis true intentions, the effect of the peace is mind-boggling for Keel: after sweating his butt off with manual labor at the village, he witnesses a near-miracle as the soldiers come back to the city (with the food they looted from the burning military base). With a decent population and no bombings, the town hes been helping might actually thrive again. Unable to believe that Goulds strike genuinely ended a war, Keel ends the episode dazed and confused, dancing around the celebratory bonfire.
Meanwhile, a humiliated and slightly crazy-looking Satoyama makes a dreadful vow concerning his upcoming engagement with Gould
