“End to Eternity”
What They Say:
The battle with the Administrator has been won, but the forces of darkness will not wait for Kirito and Alice to recover before invading the Underworld. Unless the pair can rally, the world will experience destruction of unimaginable scale.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Help has finally arrived! Klein, Agil, Silica, Lisbeth, and 2,000 other ALO players have joined the fight. Asuna, Lisbeth, and Silica embrace each other tearfully. Asuna is grateful for their help. However, she is sorry for making them sacrifice their precious accounts to be here. They may not make it out of this. Hey, what are friends for, right? Also, how did they get here? Lisbeth tells Asuna that it was obviously Yui that brought them here. Her impassioned speech convinced a lot of players to help. Lisbeth was no slouch either! She helped a lot, too. But enough pleasantries! Time to kick the butt of some American players! Asuna takes charge and assigns Silica and Liz to a support unit. She tells Renly to join the healing squad and help teach the ALO players the formal arts. Asuna, of course, will be fighting on the frontlines. Things seem to be going well as Asuna and crew are destroying the American players. I guess their terrible Engrish won’t be saving them this time!
Back on the Ocean Turtle, Higa is contemplating his carelessness. Could things have turned out differently? If only there was something he could do for Kirito! And that’s when he notices something peculiar. Kirito’s lost consciousness showed activity for a brief moment. Rinko realizes that those fluctuations occurred when Asuna and Sinon jumped into the game. As we know, they both made contact with Kirito in the game. Did meeting people he knew cause this strong reaction? Is that even possible? The damage Kirito sustained cannot be repaired this easily. Higa starts going over all the possibilities in his mind. The you that exists in others? In other words, a backup self-image. He thinks he knows how to restore Kirito’s Fluctlight! It’s inside the Fluctlights of the people closest to him. That seems legit. But in order to extract that data, they need an STL. And they also need the help of Kirito’s friends. Unfortunately, the only place they can do all of that is in the Main Control Room. On the bright side, at least there’s hope for Kirito! Higa suggests that he find a way there through the cramped ducts. If a distraction is provided, he may be able to pull this off. He’s determined to make this work!
Elsewhere, a one-armed Bercouli is still battling Vecta. Yup, he’s not dead, yet. Before I continue, I just want to state that this fight was amazing. The animation was absolutely stunning. It was a feast for the eyes! Alright, now that I’m done gushing over this fight, let us continue. Bercouli is pretty much getting his butt kicked by Vecta. He is managing to avoid any death blows though. But Vecta has grown tired of this fight. He wants to end it. Bercouli refuses to give up! He randomly starts slashing various places. What’s he trying to slash? Vecta isn’t even around him! Eventually, he finds where he wants to slash but he’s punched in the chest by Vecta before he can. Also, he’s got a huge hole in his chest now. That sucks. As Vecta stands over a fallen Bercouli, Hoshigami comes out of nowhere and attacks Vecta! That’s a good dragon! Vecta kills Hoshigami but his sacrifice gives Bercouli the opportunity to slash Vecta’s past with his time-splitting sword. And thus, Bercouli has just defeated Vecta.
Alice awakens a few moments later to discover that Bercouli has passed away. She can’t help but cry uncontrollably. Bercouli’s soul watches her weeping from above. He knows she’ll be fine. After all, she’s his daughter and only apprentice. Hoshigami’s soul is also there chilling with Bercouli. I found that to be quite nice. Unexpectedly, they’re joined by the soul of the Administrator. She admires that Bercouli has so many people that would weep for him. While she’s only the Administrator of his memories, he’s glad to see that she’s still able to smile. He asks her to join him on Hoshigami and they disappear into the horizon. Before they do, Bercouli apologizes to Fanatio. He’s sorry for leaving her alone and hopes that she’ll be able give their child a happy life. Well, dang. That’s a huge bombshell to drop at the end there!
Miller wakes up on the Ocean Turtle. Well, it looks like his Vecta account is done. No worries though. He asks Critter to convert his Subtilizer account into an Underworld account. Ahh, snap! The episode ends with an extremely creepy Miller smirk.
In Summary:
Stand back everyone, we’ve got a badass over here! And his name is Bercouli. Not going to lie, that Bercouli versus Vecta fight was one of the most beautifully animated fights of the series. It was that good and definitely the highlight of the episode for me. That bombshell at the end though. Just casually letting Fanatio know that he’s dead and that she’s pregnant with his child. Great timing, huh? All jokes aside, I’m sad to see Bercouli go. But at least he went out in style! As for the rest of the episode, Asuna’s reunion with the others, particularly Silica and Liz, was nice. It’s cool that Higa discovered a possible way to restore Kirito’s Fluctlight. Kirito won’t have to be a vegetable anymore! Maybe. And finally, it should be interesting to see how much chaos Miller is going to create with his Subtilizer account.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, VRV, Funimation
