Episode
                  3: Five Gundams Confirmed 
                  Airing Date
                  2000-03-08

            This is an interesting episode of Gundam Wing because, depending on 
            how you look at it, either a lot happens or nothing happens. It's 
            probably more fair to say the truth is somewhere in between, though. 
            Let's review, shall we? 
            Heero awakens in an Alliance Military hospital where he's being 
            carefully watched and treated as if he's an alien. Duo breaks him 
            out of the place and the two young men forge a tentative 
            partnership. Zechs is determined to learn exactly how many Gundams 
            there are on Earth and what their next move is. He strongly desires 
            to get another chance to battle one and defeat it. His chances of 
            that are improved by the discovery of what's believed to be the 
            prototype for the Gundams, called the Tallgeese. 
            Around the same time, Trowa Barton and Quatre Raberbe Winner (along 
            with his forty personal soldiers/assistants) take out an entire 
            Alliance unit including a group of Specials -- the cream of the 
            cream of young, hotshot pilots under the direct command of Treize 
            Khushrenada. Both Gundams annihilate the forces they engage, most of 
            whom are there to protect the Corsica Leo Mobile Suit production 
            facility -- an important part of the Alliance's military space 
            force. Once their enemy is vanquished, the two Gundams take each 
            other on. Before they do any damage, Quatre suggests they shouldn't 
            be fighting. Both men leave their suits to meet face to face. 
            Finally, Duo retrieves both his Gundam and the one which belongs to 
            Heero, who annoys Duo to no end. The two men look to their huge 
            Mobile Suits as the episode comes to a close. 
            So... what really happened? On one hand, due to the actions of Chang 
            Wufei, who did some impressive damage of his own, Zechs and the 
            Alliance can now be sure that there are indeed five Gundams and that 
            even one of them can no longer be taken for granted. They're 
            machines of enormous destructive power. One can wipe out a unit of 
            top-flight pilots. Two are unstoppable. 

                  Don't move or I'll... uh oh. Sorry, dude. 
            On the other hand, big deal. Weren't five "shooting stars" detected 
            in the first episode? Treize and Zechs still don't know who the 
            Gundam pilots are or what their true purpose is. They're not even 
            sure if these five are the extent of the Gundams. There might be an 
            entire army of them in outer space -- these five might be a 
            precursor to an all-out attack. So the confirmation of the five 
            isn't really much to hang your hat on, eh? 
            Other points? We still don't know the origins or the purpose of any 
            of the Gundam pilots. We don't know who's instructing them or why 
            they're on Earth. We don't know why or how Heero has near-superhuman 
            powers and whether or not the other four Gundam pilots share the 
            same abilities. In other words, this is merely the start of a long 
            road ahead. As long as the pace continues to slowly gain speed, 
            we'll stick around. Tune in tomorrow for the next step. 

            --Ross Brooks thinks the truth is usually in the middle.