What They Say:
“Promise to Drink”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the show thankfully moving past the whole desert survival arc, which included three episodes of recap material that I understood the need for, the show feels like it’s progressing once again. Especially now that the teams are moving on to the next phase of what they have to do in creating their rovers in a limited amount of time. As we saw before, this puts Mutta’s team at a disadvantage since they came back so late, last place and all, but also because they’re just a bit tired. And we also saw that while some of the other teams were interested in a bit of down time after the desert training, others just barreled right into it and started to widen their lead more. The competitive nature of astronauts is no surprise – it’s more a surprise to see some wanting to ease down a bit – so ramping things up for the next phase here isn’t a shock at all with how they’ll react to what Vincent is throwing at them.
For Mutta and his team, there is a little recovery that comes into play though since Mutta was ill during the trek back and he’s enjoying the bit of nursing that Serika is giving him. But their team is also hampered early on because the engineer they get, Pico, is just intent on making things as difficult for them as he can by being out of the picture, quite unlike the other teams where their assigned engineer is helping. He just sits there and plays games. The challenge they have is pretty decent beyond that though as the limitations get put into play, such as what it has to fit into and more, but there’s also budget limitations placed on each team that’s different. Naturally Mutta’s team has the smallest budget which makes it all the more difficult, but it also means that if they succeed, it should mean more recognition for them.
The episode focuses a lot on the things that the team has to do to bring it all together, gearing towards their blueprint and finding what loopholes and other tricks they can find to bring it together right. Doing all of that under Pico’s watch, awkward as it may be with him sleeping at times, you also know that he is likely paying attention on some level. We get a small bit of back story on Pico along the way that helps as it shows some of his own struggles in his career earlier, bringing Brian back in briefly as well. But largely this is just a lot of fun to watch to see the team, all decked out in their white shirts at NASA, working through the technical, financial and intellectual problems of building the rover. There are some neat nods along the way and Mutta has some key moments that make an impact in a small way, but it’s the kind of thinking that comes from someone who was a designer himself and has a different view of how a project like this should go. And that’s something that other teams may not have in mind.
In Summary:
While I enjoyed aspects of the desert trek, this particular part of the arc is one that is definitely a lot more appealing. Having the team deal with a technical challenge that also involves other aspects is a big plus since it’s a cooperative event in a different way and there’s more time to talk it out and figure what has to happen before actually doing it. With a bit of really good background brought in for Pico, we get some good understanding of him and why he is like he is, but also why this team may be the one that changes his mindset along the way. There’s some real strong stuff in that back story that’s revealed over time and it makes him a lot more of an engaging character, but it’s the combination of his story and what Mutta’s team is going through that makes this a really engaging episode, even if it is relaxed in its own way.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
