An excellent observation, and something I didn’t really stop to think about too much. That’s kind of a rare misstep for Lelouch to not take into account the Geass that he’s placed on different people when considering tactics. I guess he must have really been rattled by all of the recent events of this last episode.

As far as the three you mentioned that could be responsible, it seems that at least Suzaku and Lelouch will be depressions next week, but I’m most interested in seeing what Nina will say. Shirley’s death did affect her, but maybe she’ll be more angry at the fact that Zero didn’t die from the explosion?

Now that Lancelot had the shit kicked out of it, it’s only natural that in 2 weeks we’ll see the debut of Lancelot Albion and thus be the only Knightmare to go on par with Guren according to specs. Oh noez, MOAR GUN DAMNS!

And the Kuro no Kishi-dan…if Asahina did indeed manage to convince Toudou, then we could see things starting to fall apart withing the organization next episode as well…or maybe Lelouch redeems himself and they continue following him under the motive to put Lelouch on the throne and remove Britannia’s Areas?

Best one-liner? Jeremiah: “Orange? For that is the name of my loyalty!”

@ blissmo: Schneizel is FABULOUS indeed, but I want to see the reasoning behind his brain. Everything seems to play out perfectly to his scenario, but unlike with Lulu, we never get to see why.

@ Mikoto: Yea, and there is a serious lack of Anya wallpapers floating around.

@ Vadigor: There was no way he could have avoided Guren’s oncoming attack, though it is believable that he could manage one last desperation shot with Freya, so I think its firing was justified under the whole geass thing. As for the whole SCIENCE behind Freya, that’s something best filed under suspension of belief.

@ ItAintEazy: Many things can happen to matter based on how the explosion interacts with it, what type of matter it is, etc. Given Freya’s mechanism (they described it as destroying all matter withing blast range) more probably they meant it would decompose all matter in its blast range, which means that all matter would be turned into energy in the form of light, sound, heat, etc.

I had a feeling that Lulu’s geass on Suzaku would trigger some bad stuff, but I don’t really see why he activated Freya for it. It only triggered because he was about to be demolished by the Gurren Seiten, a blow which turns out he could have avoided when we see him do so under the effects of Geass. I think that a Geass stating “Live!” would sooner make him retreat off the battelfield than fire a tactical nuke 10 feet in front of him. About that nuke, how the hell did they even manage to create something like that and then make it the size of a small caliber tank shell with propulsion and float generator and everything. Although I’m sure any attempt at explaining it with Sunrise’s SCIENCE would only break my brain.

About the emperor, I wonder what he’s up to now, so far he hasn’t done much but stand fixed in place and look important which he’s arguably very good at ( http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii98/1181_Lilith/motivator7033819.jpg ) but that’s getting kind of boring.

This pic is effin’ wallpaper material. xD

All I could say about Nunally’s death was “FINALLY SOMEONE RATHER IMPORTANT AND INNOCENT DIED!”

But I’m not certain that Nunnally really died. In fact, I have a pretty good “hunch” that she may not have. Lelouch obviously thinks so, naturally, which should fuel his character development in the direction of further self-absorption and rage, but it would not be a surprise to find out that she lived. Will that be enough or too little, too late? Who knows, time will tell.

I just hope the eventual explanation is okay, or at least passable with some suspension of disbelief. Maybe that would still be anti-climatic, if not handled properly, but it depends on the circumstances.

But regardless of that, Suzaku is going to have a lot of guilt on his shoulders from now on, and I can’t see Rolo being around for long either. Schneizel and the Emperor have set their plans in motion (even if Schneizel couldn’t predict every detail, he could well have expected the device to detonate in the middle of battle). Anya’s story should also be explored eventually, even if briefly because the series is nearing its end each week, since all these bits must be building up to something too. How well it is executed is another matter.