Clover becomes the fourth character to appear in a title sequence after his (confirmed) death. (The prior three were Fennec Albain, Vernal, and Adam. Watts doesn't count because we haven't seen hide nor hair of him after that intra-Chapter cliffhanger - there hasn't even been dialogue to tell us his fate, unlike Fennec.)
Neo does Neo things, effortlessly dodging and redirecting attacks from every member of Team ALPN. There is a tense moment as she and Oscar both try to snatch the loose Knowledge, but Oscar grabs it again, and then ALPN make a tandem attack that goes better in that it forces Neo to leave by shatterclone. Sweeping the area for her will have to wait because a guard has found them, and you may remember that they all have arrest warrants on their heads. Oscar, who has already been through a small war, looks particularly tired as they flee from the guard.
Cinder does Cinder things, holding her own against Penny (uncharacteristically angry), then Winter (remember the bird swarm? here it is again!), then Penny, then both. Somewhere in there she has dialogue implying she has a grudge against "Atlas elites". Eventually she gets fed up with both of them keeping her out of the ward and uses Fire Maiden rocket powers to take them on a ride through the ward, through the far wall, and out into the open air of Atlas.
Winter is thrown away into the night. Cinder tries the same move on Penny, but Penny has rocket boots so it's less effective. Cinder shouts her displeasure at "some toy" (mech-racism alert!) before Winter, who summoned a spectral mount somewhere and somehow, hits her with a nice big chunk of ice. Penny and Winter combine to make tandem attacks against Cinder, who throws fireballs back. This must be an interesting sight for anyone who looks up.
Cinder defeats another aerial charge by Winter by dodging at the last minute and killing the summon on the way by. Winter goes hurtling into the night again, and Cinder meets her with an Aura-breaking fireball before zipping off to presumably where they just came from. Penny, given this sadistic choice, chooses to save Winter first. That sounds like Penny.
"What are you doing?! My life doesn't matter!"
"I disagree."
Oh gods Winter.
Oscar, already tired, is falling behind Team ALN as they try to escape the long arm of the law. ALN stop in an intersection as they see more guards down one path, giving Oscar just enough time to catch up to them, then double back, which is just a bit cruel.
Not long afterwards Oscar falls far enough behind that he loses sight of them. He still has Knowledge. It might have been a good idea to pass it to one of the fresher folks, but it's a bit late now.
Nora yanks him into an alcove just in time to avoid the guard chase. Spoiler alert, it's not Nora, it's Neo. Great work folks, I don't see this going well. Yep, Neo nicks Knowledge and books it; Oscar is powerless to chase.
Jaune realises they've lost Oscar and backtracks. Surprise
Nora Neo, giving away her identity by using her weapon, breaks past him easily. Neo's impersonation pick is brilliant because it makes Ren, the next line of defence, hesitate at the key moment and pull his melee strike. Jaune recovers, goes past Ren, and meets an Atlas gun line, the back officer of whom is probably actually Neo. He orders Team ALN to fall back; they are now accompanied by Nora, hopefully the real one. Ren is now entering emotional breakdown. Yep, that officer was Neo and she's gotten away clean. Great. Just great. /s
Cinder pries open Fria's pod, wakes her up, and starts gloating - for fairly good reasons given the Maiden succession rules. This is all seeming horribly familiar.
Fria may be old and deprived of human contact, but she's no fool; as soon as she sees Cinder's Grimm arm, she concludes - correctly - that this is not her designated successor, or even a worthy successor. Cinder, who expected this part of the job to be a trivial assassination, is somewhat unprepared to fight a Winter Maiden. Unfortunately, Cinder only has to force a battle of attrition, because Fria's not going to be able to sustain this for long.
Winter and Penny return just as Fria blows half the roof off. Winter states that they have to intervene, but cannot do so herself - the winter vortex emanating from the hole in the roof is far too cold for her to approach (no Aura left, remember). Penny, who has a significantly wider temperature tolerance, enters without issue, to Winter's dismay. Don't ask me why she's dismayed, but I'm pretty sure she is.
Oscar apologises, which Jaune rejects as unnecessary. Ren (in great emotional distress over his failure to stop Neo) thinks differently, doubting his entire career path, regardless of what Nora or Jaune might say about it.
At this point Pietro manages to unlock everybody's Scrolls. Maria, Pietro, and now Blake and Yang have managed to fight their way to an aircraft and get on board. Nora reports that Team ALPN are holed up in Atlas Academy's (main) training room, at which point the guards find them and start asking questions written on bullets. Team ALN take cover behind Jaune's shield - a questionable manoeuvre, ceding the entire initiative to the guards who can freely flank them - and are distressed to discover Oscar has decided to go do his own thing out of some sense of ...I don't even know what sense, but he's feeling it and nobody else is.
Penny pries her way into the centre of the winter vortex and finds Fria hovering about a metre and a half up. Apparently Cinder just can't get in here at all. The question is what impact this will have on the Maiden succession. Penny, being Penny (a cinnamon roll literally too good for this world), asks if Fria is okay. "I had a job to do," says Fria, which is about the same thing she told Cinder before things got real.
"I was supposed to protect the power of the maiden, until I was ready. I worry I may have lost track of time. But you can tell James that I'm ready, now."
"Ma'am, if you do that-"
"I'll be gone. ...I know I have a hard time remembering; but I remember that."
Fria starts making pained noises and falls from the air, Penny catching her on the way down. I know I said Penny pried her way into the vortex, but as the vortex dissipates I see Cinder will have to pry more literally - the vortex has left a solid ice wall around its outer radius, through which only the outlines of bright things (like one of the aura transfer pods) are visible.
"What's your name?"
"...It's Penny, ma'am."
"Penny. ...Are you the one?"
This has Implications - Fria is pretty sure she's now dying and therefore aura transfer will not be necessary.
Penny looks up. The vortex has frozen a new roof as well, which somewhat explains Winter's continued non-presence. Penny is going to have to answer on her own. She struggles.
Ironwood is at the Vault of Creation awaiting the arrival of the Winter Maiden. When the lift signals its imminent arrival again, he starts addressing Winter (Schnee), before turning around to see only Oscar, who is using his cane for support.
"And whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"
"Still just me."
"It was smart of you not to bring the lamp down here. I wouldn't trust me either, right now."
So is this Ironwood starting to climb out of his psychosis, or is the psychosis just comfortable with self-deprecating humour? Oscar starts what looks an awful lot like an Ozpin speech, urging Ironwood to rescind the arrest orders and bring his allies back into the planning loop. Oscar carefully does not mention the real reason he didn't bring Knowledge.
Ironwood asks Oscar if he's here for a fight, perhaps because of the deployed cane. Oscar says no, it's a comfort item because of bleedthrough from Ozmas past. (During this, "Oz" is mistitled as "us".) He stows it anyway. Ironwood takes offence to Oscar insinuating that Ironwood is afraid.
Yep, still psychosis.
Ironwood signals that he will go full authoritarian for the sake of what he perceives to be keeping (some) people safe. To which Oscar accuses him of being "as dangerous as She is, James". Ouch. Those are some words that can't be taken back. In other things that can't be taken back,
"'James' is what my friends call me. To you, it's 'General'."
And shoots Oscar, breaking his Aura and knocking him back off the side of the bridge to the Vault proper. Oh dear. I'd say we'll see how it goes with the next Ozma, except people have survived being attacked and thrown off Vault bridges (1/1: Cinder in V05C13), but on the other hand Oscar's no Maiden, so who can be sure.
Penny has still not come up with an answer for Fria by the time Cinder bursts in through the ice wall. "She's mine!" roars Cinder, and grabs with her Grimm arm, which disintegrates after crossing half the distance and leaves Cinder in great pain. Winter cut it off. Go Winter!
Winter is distressed to see Fria in bad condition under Penny's care, but doesn't do anything about it before Cinder regrows the Grimm arm and charges for Winter (Schnee, to be clear). Winter has no Aura, and soon starts accumulating wounds.
Fria closes her eyes and Aura flows from her to Penny-
Now back to Oscar, who falls. This isn't nearly as funny as Cinder falling. The cane, loose from his belt, falls at the exact same pace. Some way down, as Oscar threatens to fall unconscious, Ozpin decides he's not going through this again this soon and makes his mental presence known again. Oscar reaches for the cane, just far enough away to make that difficult.
Now back to the ward. Winter has been thrown across the room by Cinder. As Winter groans and writhes in pain, Cinder wanders over to kill her, but stops halfway as she (Cinder) sees an inexplicable snowflake. There are more as she turns.
Now back to Oscar, who grabs the cane and deploys it.
Now back to the ward. The million-Lien question is 'is Penny Polendina a valid target for the Winter Maidenship'. The answer is yes. Apropos of a mechanical Maiden, some music:
Now back to Oscar, who activates some emergency mode of the cane, function yet unknown.
Now back to the ward, where Cinder is incandescent with rage. It is to this scene - Winter prone and wounded also - that Ruby and Weiss arrive, to Weiss' obvious distress.
Now back to Oscar. The cane starts glowing from the top of its haft.
Now back to the ward. Cinder pulls out enough fire to kill everyone in sight, or at least Winter. Cinder gets hit with silver eyes again before she can actually burn anyone. Does it hurt any less this time? I hope not.
Now back to Oscar, who is finally approaching the floor of this shaft he's been falling down (as the score crescendos). He roars and swings the cane in some kind of pattern. It is unclear exactly what happens in a burst of green light and blast sound as he reaches the floor, but I only give it at most 50% that he went splat.
Cut through black, during which Ozpin narrates to us that every living thing feels fear.
Oscar falls through a pink-tinged sky. Is this a metaphor for being reincarnated?
Ruby slumps to her knees. Forensic evidence indicates Cinder blasted off through Winter's hole in the ice roof to avoid further obliteration. Weiss goes to check on Winter. Winter is bruised and battered worse than Oscar was, but conscious, and quite capable of asking Weiss for herself "
What did you do?!"
And here come the lyrics.
It is apparent to all who cared to look at Penny's flaming eyes that she is the Winter Maiden. (Ozpin narrates, over the lyrics, that people keep underestimating fear despite how common it is.) I'm not sure whether she (Penny) or Fria was the intended target of Ruby's look, but regardless Penny now has a spare moment to give Fria's corpse the respect it deserves.
As Fria told Penny she'd be gone, so Penny tells the others that Fria is gone. Winter disagrees - "She's a part of you now.". You can tell Winter's in a bad state because she's lost her hair tie.
Ozpin narrates a list of things that are feared:
- "Growing close to someone", as Qrow passively surrenders to the soldiers checking on the crash site. "Subsequent[ly]... loss", as they find Robyn as she awakens.
- "Failure", as Cinder hovers on Maiden rockets well outside Atlas and screams. Shut up Cinder. Lose your Clover and then we'll talk.
- No narration as Team ALN board the escape craft that Maria found for them. Yang asks about Oscar and Knowledge, to which ALN can't answer.
And fear, says Ozpin, is amplified by people depending on you. Qrow isn't in any state to say anything either - he can only clutch at Clover's emblem, recovered from his body, as Robyn can only wordlessly try (futilely) to console him. As they fly towards Atlas proper, a storm moves in.
Ozpin tells us that we shouldn't worry about fear itself, but "who we become while in its clutches". Oscar stows the cane on his back again as he serenely continues falling. I think he fell past Atlas proper, which would mean that he's not in a metaphor for reincarnation (yet...), he 'just' teleported to somewhere outside, away, and above.
Meanwhile in the ward:
Winter: (still in no state for a fight) "I suggest you surrender... and comply with the General's orders."
Weiss: (brief conference with Ruby and Penny) "We can't do that."
Winter: "Then... I suggest you run."
Weiss: "No, you're hurt! I'm not going to leave you like this-"
Winter: "You're not leaving me! I'm giving you... a head start!"
Winter then calls for medevac and reinforcements. Weiss wrestles with the problem for a moment before Maria and company arrive out the hole in the outer wall (the first one Cinder made during the fight). Yang trails off in alarm as she sees the aftermath. Ozpin's narration asks (re "who we become while in [fear's] clutches"):
- "Will you be proud of that person?" as Weiss somewhat reluctantly accompanies Ruby and Penny aboard.
- "Will you forgive them?" as, aboard later, Ruby and Weiss reassure Penny about I'm not sure what. "Will you understand why they felt the need-" as Pietro looks on.
- "-to do the things they did?" as Cinder lurks on a rooftop and scowls at the spire of Atlas Academy. But some things have unfortunately come up Cinder - Neo presents her Knowledge. "Will you even recognise them?" as Neo looks slightly miffed that Cinder doesn't recognise her contribution at all.
- "Or will the person staring back at you be the very thing you should have feared from the start?" as Ironwood gets a text message from Winter that "It's gone". Ironwood's screaming leaves little doubt as to what "it" is (or to what point Ozpin is trying to make). Congratulations, General, your plan sabotaged itself.
- "I suppose we all find out, sooner or later." as Watts turns out to be alive and languishing in a cell somewhere. He smirks as the storm approaches.
Overall, excellent Ozpin speech, 9/10.
Oscar is, once more, running out of room to fall. This time the cane doesn't help him, but he still roars and emits a blast noise and green light, which creates a shield that ensures that the sudden stop at the end leaves him recognisable, alive, and even undamaged (well, not any further damaged...).
Oscar asks Ozpin, rhetorically, if Ozpin saved him. "Actually, you saved us," says Ozpin. He tries to say something further but Oscar cuts him off and asks "how we save Atlas next".
The storm is really coming in fast. The gang (minus Oscar) overhear multiple Atlesian pilots on the radio wondering what the h*ck those hostiles are and what their sensors are playing at. The lightning (exclusively cloud-to-cloud) is red and silhouettes are visible in it. I'm guessing this is Salem's strike force.
If I extrapolate from what I think are Nevermores then that is a huge flying whale. Whales can't survive outside water - aside from the obvious breathing difficulties, they're too big to not collapse under their own weight, relying on their buoyancy in water to take up the slack - but try telling that to Salem, perched dramatically atop it.
As the credits music picks up very gently (not a reliable indicator of the style of the bulk of it), we see that supervising director Kerry Shawcross directed this last Chapter personally.
Apparently Vine's voice actor also voiced a pilot early on.
Yep, here's the electric guitar I was fully expecting.
Would you believe that this is a song about fear? Ozpin certainly would.
Honestly, it's a pretty good song about fear.
In the "Additional Security" section of the credits, where all the pets traditionally go, time has inevitably caught up with some - "Meatball", top of the right column, is marked with a dagger symbol which can only really mean that Meatball has died. Rest in peace Meatball.
We end with another in-memoriam notice to Monty Oum, dead for five years to the day as of the first airing of this episode. Rest in peace Monty, too.
For the first time, there is no post-credits scene.
Next time: Bad leadership, good leadership, somehow worse leadership.
