Noir, Lag, Conner, and Zazi launch their assault against the Gaichu Cabernet in an attempt to prevent it from reaching Yuusari Central, but find that it has no holes in it’s armor. It assaults the Bee Hive, only to find it empty, with Dr. Thunderland having nursed the sacrifices back to health and evacuating them. Largo and the Maka then arrive and the Maka, Niche, and her sister damage Cabernet enough to allow Noir and Lag to stop it. However, Lawrence sacrifices himself to revive it, and Lag has to use all his heart to shine as bright as the artificial sun to attract the Cabernet’s attention and completely destroy it.

Lag dishing out a healthy serving of heart

So that ends Letter Bee.  A few things are left unresolved, such as whether the artificial light is bad after all (and if it is, what to do with it), as well as what exactly is Lag.  Niche’s sister said previously, and noted again that Lag merely had a human form, indicating that deep down he isn’t human.  The question, though, is what is he?  Just pure heart, or what?  At least he knows his mother is in the central city, contrary to what Lawrence had told him.  We still don’t really know why she was brought to the central city, though.  I think it’s suggested, though not stated explicitly, that she may actually be the empress (or whoever it is who leads Amberground).

Overall, I think this series was pretty good.  I think it could have had a little bit more direction, but the story was good and it didn’t overdo the action, and the action that it did have was done well.  It perhaps dragged on for longer than it should have at times, but I don’t think it was too bad.  It was fun watching Lag develop, and one kind of gets attached to all the Bees, whether it’s Lag, Zazi, Conner, and yes, even Jiggy Pepper.  It was also good to see Lag turn Noir around from his cold original self into someone more like Gauche. In any case, I seem to have a more positive feeling about Reverse than the first season.  At least there wasn’t as much crying it seemed.

This series had to recover from a mediocre first season and a slow start to the 2nd season, but I think it did so pretty well, especially once we started getting down to it.  The last half of Reverse especially seemed pretty focused and well thought out, giving one enough hints to answer some questions while still leaving others unanswered or even creating new ones.  While the remaining questions do drive me crazy, I guess I can live with them.

So we get down to it. We finally discover what Lawrence’s plan is, and who appears to be behind it.  Lawrence plans to use all of those Unable to Become Spirit to serve as sacrifices for Carbernet so that it may become strong enough to destroy the artificial sun.  Noir is against this, and thus Lawrence tries to kill him.  Meanwhile, Connor, Zazie, and Lag try to intercept Carbernet but are fooled by a decoy Gaichu instead, and are only saved by Noir.  Meanwhile, Aria, who is left in charge after Largo goes off for a trip, discovers the sacrifices hiding in Dr. Thunderland’s lab.

Noir has a change of, erm, heart

Well I was definitely wrong about the bees seeing how the government was wrong and joining Reverse, not with Lawrence’s plan. In fact, his plan is so sinister that Noir has revolted against it himself, seeing that having more sacrifices is not the way to defeat the government.

Meanwhile, there are two big outstanding questions left: is Largo in on the Reverse plan, since he seems like the logical culprit as the one who stole the Bifrost key, allowing the two twins there to escape, or is he some sort of double-agent who Lawrence thinks is working for Reverse, but actually is working underground to undermine his plan? Meanwhile, did Reverse bring the sacrifices to the bee hive? If so, that would suggest that Dr. Thunderland is involved with Reverse, or were they brought there after either escaping or being rescued?

I tend to believe in the theory that they were rescued and brought to the bee hive, probably by Noir, and that Largo is some sort of double agent whom Lawrence only thinks is working for Reverse but is actually trying to undermine him.  It seems clear that the top priority is going to be stopping the sacrifices, but that doesn’t address the issue of what should happen to the artificial sun.

Gauche’s return appears to have been an act by Noir, and he returns to Reverse after persuading the double-agents Valentine and Garrard that he’s Noir by attacking Lag (whom the agents kidnapped thinking it was Sylvette).  After Noir mistakenly believes Lag is dead, Jiggy Pepper shows up and returns Lag to the Hive.  Meanwhile, Zazie catches up to Cabernet but is stopped by another Maurauder while Noir and the agents head to a an abandoned research facility and find two survivors.

Has Zazie finally met his match?

So we learn that the AmberGround artificial sun is allegedly powered by people’s hearts, including Lag’s mother’s and Gauche’s. We still don’t know what caused the Day of Flicker, though it is alleged by Reverse that the government started their experiments trying to create artificial spirit afterward. However, all of their experiments fail, and all the subjects they experimented on – people without a spirit – are disposed of, bar a few who happen to escape, most of whom joined Reverse.

Of course, this brings up the problem that if Bees fight the Gaichu because they eat people’s spirits, how can they stand by and let the government do the same thing to power the artificial sun? Of course, this fact is hidden from them, and I think both Lag and Zazie would doubt the claim that this is the truth, but I have a feeling eventually they’re going to be convinced this is the truth and end up joining Reverse to stop the government’s activities.

Gauche appears to get his memory back, though all his confirmed memories relate to events regarding Lag or things Lag knew.  As a result, Dr. Thunderbird is concerned that, if Noir is still in control, he could potentially pull off enough of a deception as to pass off as Gauche.  This possibility is further made possible by the fact that Gauche suddenly disappears, though that could also be due to Roda suddenly appearing again, and perhaps kidnapping Gauche.  As it turns out, Dr. Thunderbird’s fears are true as it was merely Noir posing as Gauche.

You aren't Noir anymore, right?

However, Lawrence still seemed concerned that Noir wasn’t on their side anymore, so he sent out people to eliminate Noir, so things have become more complicated as Gauche/Noir may not really be on anyone’s side now.  One doesn’t know if this is due to Gauche and Noir having some battle within Gauche, or whether he was Noir all along, or what.

It does seem like Noir had lost Gauche’s memories, so it’s not like Gauche was pretending to be Noir, though I suppose that’s a possibility now if Gauche has Noir’s memories and came to sympathize with his goals.  Gauche also told Lag that he was sorry he didn’t look into what happened to his mother.  But what if he did, and that’s why all of this is happening now?  I guess we’ll find out soon.

Lag is recovering from too much heart, so Aria and Niche are sent out to deliver a letter to a man named Houdai Franklin, who worked on the airship that crashed while observing the artificial sun on the day of flicker.  However, he tells Aria what he saw on the day of flicker, suggesting a disturbing truth about the artificial sun. Meanwhile, Lag has an explosion of heart.

Aria can be a bad ass Bee if she wants to be

So we learn that all six of the surviving members of the airship had part of their heart stolen, as well as were injured physically, largely from going blind in one or both eyes and having parts of their memories erased.   Dr. Thunderland, who was on the airship, lost his eye and his memories from that day.  Signal, who works at the bridge at Bifront that is the gateway into Yuusari, was also part of the mission and was injured, along with his two triplet brothers.

Franklin suggests that that the artificial sun is sucking up the hearts of everyone in Amberground, and that is how it is able to continue shining, and when it flickered, he saw a “monster” (which rather looked like an embryo) calling out for it’s mother, inside of it.  This causes Franklin to conclude that the Amberground government knows and is hiding the fact that the artificial sun is alive and sucking up heart from everyone.  More disturbingly, while asking about what happened on the Day of Flicker, Lag starts calling out for “mother” much like the artificial sun appeared to.

It seems obvious that the artificial light and Lag have a connection somehow, and perhaps the artificial light somehow transferred part of itself to Lag when he was born on that day.  I’m also suspicious that the Amberground government knew the flicker was going to happen, and it seems that Franklin suspects as much now.  The question is: for what purpose.  They already thought the light was dimming.  Perhaps they needed to “reboot” it somehow.  Perhaps someone with a lot of heart – someone such as Lag – is needed to keep the artificial sun running?

One final thing.  I’ve had a bit of suspicion for a while, but going back and reviewing a few of the first season episodes have just heightened these suspicions, but I wonder if Lloyd is somehow working with Reverse.  Now that we know Signal is a supporter of Reverse, it makes Lloyd’s interactions with him, and perhaps his interest in Lag, more suspicious.