Now that I know what to look for, Jaune's hardlight shield is shown off in the titles, as his team and the Ace Ops fight exactly that Geist. Also Weiss and Blake were definitely fighting Centinels in a mine tunnel rather than any sort of subway.
Some trucks drive out to somewhere in the middle of the tundra. I think it's the mine, because Amity Colosseum is following them. A couple of random folks with binoculars are taken aback as Amity's huge shadow passes over them.
It is the mine. As the trucks arrive, the Ace Ops and Qrow emerge from the mine. I'm not sure when Teams RWBY or ALN got out of the mine, but they're starstruck, probably by Amity.
Okay, maybe Jaune is starstruck by the Ace Ops. I think he's embarrassing himself in their professional context.
Okay, maybe it's not exactly the professional context I thought it was. ...Or maybe Marrow is just at the bottom of the social pecking order. I shouldn't jump straight to assuming racism, I really shouldn't. (Fun fact: Totem poles actually had the most important totems at the bottom.)
Nora now sees Elm, the Ace Op with the hammer, as awesome. Nora. Nora no. (Nora yes...)
And here we see a fundamental difference in outlook between Team RWBY and the Ace Ops. The former see intra-team friendships as the foundation of the team. The latter see the team as a purely professional entity, no friendships required or allowed. Given all of the show's messaging so far, I can confidently say that the former have the right of it.
Then Team WBY aren't at all interested in exploring Atlas like Ruby is. Oh Ruby.
Qrow manages to give Ruby and Jaune about two seconds of warning before Ironwood (who arrived on a truck, I presume) calls for the three of them. Ironwood's voice here sounds exceptionally like it was recorded indoors, which is a somewhat unavoidable reality of production, but this particular clip moreso, so it jars exceptionally terribly with the animated snowy tundra.
Ironwood instructs Clover, for presumably his next mission, to "be subtle... and don't take Marrow". Must not assume racism... Anyway, with Clover joining the Ace Ops on their flight out, Ironwood turns to Qrow's question and explains that Mr Tinfoil (real name Forest) is just the latest of the public opposition to Ironwood who's now been found dead. Jaune recognises the guy. (Ruby is saddened to think she was listening to a man who was about to die.) Ironwood is pretty sure he's being framed - successfully, given tensions in Mantle. Jaune points out Ironwood started the pattern by embargoing Dust exports. Ironwood is naturally slightly irritated, but concedes the point.
Ironwood's speech about his belief in the usefulness (maybe even better natures) of Teams RWBY and ALPN is somewhat interrupted by the arrival of everybody's least favourite father by personal air transport. Jacques, being Jacques, is real mad about the expropriation of the private property that he didn't care about yesterday or for years before that. Ironwood informs him that contrary to his (Jacques') assumptions, the Atlas Council already knows, and furthermore no Council vote occurred because it's a "classified military operation". Welcome back, my conflicted feelings about these two guys, accompanied by my fresh new negative feelings about the governance of Atlas.
Jacques is apparently a candidate in upcoming elections to the Atlas Council, which is its own burning bad thing for everyone else. Even if somebody there needs to push back a bit on Ironwood and I trust Jacques to do that, I don't trust Jacques to do anything else associated with the position, on top of my usual antipathy to the worst of big business seizing the means of government.
Ironwood tells Jacques he shouldn't expect to be able to land here again. Jacques fumes about his soon-to-be-ended lack of hard political power before cutting himself off when he sees Weiss.
(dons fireproof suit)
Suffice to say that Jacques continues to Jacques - at first ramping up towards physically abusive, then when he remembers Ironwood's there, ramps down to merely emotionally abusive. H*ck off, we just got rid of Adam.
Jacques isn't actually 100% mad about the private property he just remembered, he just reckons Ironwood has "personally hand[ed] me the noose to hang you", which I both hope and don't is an electoral metaphor. He then manages to restrain himself from flipping his lid again when Weiss calls Team RWBY her "family". Go Weiss!
Jacques leaves to do whatever slimy things he does when we're not watching him. His shuttle is replaced by a truck containing Winter, who disputes that she "missed" Jacques, before Team RWBY are blown off their feet by the sudden arrival of Penny. "
(banner reading "CONGRATULATIONS!") Surprise! ... ...uh, did we not start yet?" They did not.
They start, which involves the eleven of them in the center of Amity's arena as Ironwood gives a speech about everything Teams RWBY and ALN have already done. It's kind of a lot.
Penny, who has been struggling to contain her excitement the entire time, is eventually cued to walk in front of the line of former Beacon students and mark an electronic clipboard entry for each of them. Each, in turn, pulls their Scroll to see their Hunter license has been amended from student to full. As far as Ironwood (an Academy headmaster in addition to everything else) was concerned, this mission was their final exam, and they passed.
Ironwood is not great at ending speeches, and apparently he used to be worse. Relatable. (I vaguely remember his very deflating speech in V03C10.)
Yang had forgotten that graduation was even her goal. Oof. Blake had
merely given up hope of it. Apropos of having made it there somehow, some music (a full hour of it):
Ironwood mentioned cake, and later there actually is cake. Penny slices it with her weapons. Then Yang does the old detaching-arm prank on her - Penny may herself be mechanical, but she knows that biologicals aren't normally capable of that.
Away from the festivities, Ruby and Qrow talk about her doubts. (Really? Go eat some cake, you two!) Ruby is particularly doubtful about whether she's turning out like Ozpin with regard to secret-keeping. Qrow says she's not, she's just verifying before she trusts. Next doubt is whether she's learned much since Beacon; Qrow's wisdom is that
that doubt sticks around. He says Summer (by name) would be proud of her, leading Ruby to ask if Summer's last mission - that she never came back from - was also an Ozpin secret. Qrow is pretty sure not - Ozpin seemed to know as little as they did. Of course, that's not a guarantee.
"What do you think she would have done if she learned the truth about Salem, that she can't be destroyed?"
"Pressed on, I think. Like you. She was always the best of us."
Yang calls Ruby over to check out a mission board. "It's an app now?!" Mood, Ruby. Ruby Rubies all over the prospect of unrestricted missions (V02C08 flashbacks intensify). This, and her inadvertently shaking Penny about (as Elm [I think] did to Ruby - circle of life), are interrupted only by the arrival of Elm, Vine, and Marrow, the latter of whom pronounces the new graduates to be "fresh meat", a joke that Vine and Ren completely miss. (Wait, when did they get back?)
The newly arrived Ace Ops are disappointed that the new graduates are already looking for missions elsewhere, Vine saying that the real mission here is the Amity launch. Ren has to remind him that they can continue to train and improve their skills in the meantime.
Marrow points out a high-priority mission. Everybody puts their hand up. Marrow explains the mission as escorting some kids in Mantle to preschool - no danger, but fretting parents attract Grimm. Jaune is the last to put his hand down and gets stuck with it. Marrow doesn't remember Jaune's name.
Elm, being Elm, shoves Marrow out of the way and reads off the next high-priority mission, dramatically. It's considerably more dangerous, and therefore attractive. Everybody laughs at Jaune when he protests. Being Jaune is suffering, just like old times.
Jacques lurks in his main study, drinking in self-isolation. He's not happy when Whitley tells him he has a visitor, but it wasn't Whitley's fault - Watts, being Watts, just went ahead and let himself in. Watts proceeds to creep about the study. Only on Jacques' direct order does Whitley leave and shut the door.
Watts, says Jacques, is supposed to be dead. "That
is what I wanted people to think," Watts replies, before offering Jacques a yet-unspecified way to win election to the Council without having to keep Mantle on side. Probably election interference.
(sighs)
Next time: Tension.
