Episode
                  45: Signs of the Final Battle 
                  Airing Date
                  2000-05-05

            Cupid must be hangin' in outer space in the After Colony days cause 
            Heero and Relena have got it bad. They each spend way too much time 
            looking out windows or staring at their Tang and sighing each 
            other's names. Poor Relena's no longer locked in her stateroom but 
            she's got nothing but time on her hands. At least Heero has all 
            these battles to take his mind off his heart's yearnings. You'd 
            think these two were pinned or something. Maybe that'll happen in 
            tomorrow's episode. Today, though, most of the action takes place in 
            the vacuum of outer space. 
            After White Fang's disastrous attack on Peacemillion, every effort 
            is made to return the Libra to a battle-ready state. Treize 
            Kushrenada, meanwhile, uses the opportunity to amass a huge force of 
            OZ Mobile Dolls around MO2, a natural resource satellite around 
            Earth (would that be the moon? your guess is as good as mine). It's 
            the perfect staging ground for the Global Nation forces to attack 
            the White Fang from. While everyone's getting ready for the final 
            battle, the White Fang makes one last desperate stab to knock the 
            Gundams out of the picture. I'd like to offer two words in critique 
            of this strategy -- bad choice. 
            While Zechs catches some Zs, super freak Dorothy Catalonia comes up 
            with what's actually a good idea. Two Mobile Suits which were 
            originally tested by Heero & Trowa have been reconstructed as Mobile 
            Dolls. Built by the same engineers who created the Gundams, these 
            MDs have been loaded with combat data of the Gundam pilots. In 
            effect, these are robotic copies of Heero & Trowa. Pretty cool, huh? 
            They're sent off and catch Duo off guard. The fight is tough and 
            it's a cool effect when Duo realizes that he's basically fighting 
            replicas of his friends. He prevails in the end as hordes of MDs 
            attack the Peacemillion. The other four Gundams knock all the robots 
            from the sky leaving Dorothy looking for a new side to join. Good 
            luck, twigbrows, cause the word's out on you -- you're bad news! 
            In other development -- Quatre shows some lameness (or else it's 
            good judgment -- depends on your opinion) by taking the Zero System 
            from the Sandrock. Duo's buddy Hildy steals some valuable data from 
            the Libra and Heero learns that -- sigh -- Relena's aboard the 
            Libra. 

                  I think I need a -- sigh -- haircut. 
            What's impressive about this episode is that it's nothing more than 
            a bridge between the two episodes that sandwich it. In the end, 
            nothing much happens but because of the advent of the two programmed 
            Dolls the drama is amped and we don't mind a bit of stretching to 
            get from here to there. The final battle is coming and it'll be a 
            doozy. In the meantime, we'll watch as the Gundam boys eliminate any 
            obstacle in their path. We'll also wonder if all those heart-felt 
            sighs of Heero & Relena will result in any serious mackin' time. 
            Forget the mile high club -- how 'bout showing some zero gravity 
            gyrations? 

            --Ross Brooks, who's looking out his window thinking about -- sigh 
            -- Britney Spears in outer space.