Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 - Episode 22

The last episode of Code Geass R2 took us to a place that many of us might have thought would be an ending point for the series, crowning Lelouch as the new Emperor of Britannia. Surely now he can bring peace to the world and everyone can live happily ever after?

Of course, this isn't how the world works, and it goes without saying that Schneizel amongst others was bound to look to rebel against Lelouch. That's exactly what we begin to see this episode, complete with an attack on Brittania by the Knights of Rounds, which allows us to learn rather briefly that the Knight of One has a rather rubbish Geass. "Haha, I can see very shortly into the future! Oh wait, the future shows Suzaku cutting me to ribbons... D'oh!".


With all of the big shake-ups surrounding Lelouch's rise to power, we find many factions unsure of just who they should be supporting, while the Order of the Black Knights are largely relegated to sitting around watching it all unfold on TV. It's certainly something that the average viewer can sympathise with - After over fourty episodes of hating Suzaku, are we supposed to start liking him now or not? I'm really not sure.

We may only be a few episodes away from the finale of Code Geass R2, but it seems like more and more questions are being opened up as others are closed. Exactly what is Lelouch trying to do? Why is he seemingly looking to rule the world wqith an iron fist? Is Kallen going to get lucky with Lelouch? Just what is Schneizel planning in retaliation? What about Nunnally? Come on now, you didn't really think she was dead, did you...

This last point is certainly going to take an awful lot of explaining away in the coming episodes, and a lot of the plausibility of the series may well rest upon it after she was seemingly 100% dead after the FREIJA explosion over Japan. I'll give them a free pass on that plot point for this week, but I hope a good explanation is forthcoming.

That aside, this episode of Code Geass does what the series can do best - Mixing action and politics, with twists and turns that no rollercoaster could conceivably manage, and just enough mystery about what's going on to keep me confused without ever being frustrated. I'm going to miss this series once it's ended (as I did the first season), but at the same time I'm more than a little intrigued as to how it's going to end.