Episode
                  26: The Eternal Flame of the Shooting Stars. 
                  Airing Date
                  2000-04-10
                 
            This is one weird episode. What am I talking about? Allow me to 
            express my thoughts in numerical form. 
            1) Right in the middle of the show there's a strange montage 
            recapping recent events. Since this isn't the beginning of the show 
            where the Cartoon Network might do something like, "Previously on 
            Gundam Wing..." I don't really get this. It's smack dab in the 
            middle of the episode and it threw me. Between you and me, I don't 
            like to be thrown. 
            2) There's a HUGE logic hole which is too stupid to believe. I'm not 
            exaggerating here -- it's actually too stupid to believe. What I'm 
            talking about (as if you don't already know) is the scene where the 
            OZ soldiers allow Heero into the cockpit of the Wing Zero with the 
            keys dangling in the dashboard. I nearly dropped my fig newton when 
            the thing came to life and started attacking everyone. How could 
            they have allowed the kid full control of the Zero is beyond me. I'm 
            thrown. I believe you already know my predilection against being 
            thrown. 'Nuff said. 
            3) There's a whole "Touched By A Gundam" moment at the episode's end 
            where Heero realizes that the Zero System has corrupted his young 
            mind. Feeling guilty at hurting Quatre, he jumps from the Wing Zero 
            and has a hallucination of Relena. Then Heero passes out and begins 
            glowing. Quatre comes to his aid and touches him. The moment they 
            make contact, Heero's glow fades and tiny stardust sparkles surround 
            Quatre's hand. 

            Excuse me but what the heck's happenin' here? (By the way, I caught 
            the family friendly 5:30 PM show -- I'm sure the "midnight run" 
            version was slightly different. Thanks in advance for your email 
            about the differences. Now back to the stardust...) I was half 
            expecting Tinkerbell to land on Quatre's shoulder and tell us that 
            if we all clap our hands for Heero, he'll regain his sanity. 

                  I love you, you love me -- waitaminute, wrong song. 
            What is this -- Barney or Gundam Wing? 
            So... why did I give "The Eternal Flame of the Shooting Stars" a 3 
            out of 5? Because I liked the fact that Heero and Quatre get to 
            switch Gundams and continue their previous battle. Because I love 
            the idea that OZ has split in two with "the Treize faction" backing 
            Mr. Khushrenada's desire that it's dishonorable to allow machines to 
            do what's clearly meant for human beings. And because I dig those 
            funky five scientists. In fact, I think those guys deserve their own 
            show. I'd definitely pay to see The Five Scientists On Ice should it 
            ever come to my hometown. 
            And finally, I give this episode a passing grade because I dig the 
            way Heero talks to Quatre when Mr. Winner loses all sense of who 
            he's fighting against. Heero was cool but clearly losing his 
            patience with someone he genuinely likes. Just like me and this 
            episode. Thanks for listening. I feel better now. 

            --Ross Brooks wrote this column from his shrink's couch.