EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! I LOVE this episode! It's the best episode ever! Evereverever! Even better than that time in Fushigi Yuugi...well, never mind.
All right. Last time, Van had lured the Dragonslayers away from Hitomi and the others using Escaflowne in its flying dragon form. This episode opens with that chase continuing. Van eventually crashes into a mountain, where my sadistic darling proceeds to set flames to everything and then beat the hell out of Van. Folken stops him before he can do any real damage (spoilsport...no, really, I do like Van.), and they take Van and Escaflowne into the floating fortress.
Back on the Crusade, the fighters have found where Van fell, but can't find him anywhere.(Obviously,because he's not there, but anyway...) Hitomi talks Allen into testing her ability to see the future so that, if he believes her, she can search for Van. She does a tarot reading for Allen, and discovers that he blames his father for everything bad that happened in his life, and that he and his father will be reunited soon. Allen allows her to try and dowse for Van, who has finally awoken in the floating fortress, and discovered his captor, Folken, is his older brother who had dissapeared ten years ealier trying to complete the right of dragon slaying.
Allen, Hitomi, and the others finally discover where the floating fortress is, and launch an attack to rescue Van. It's really cool, complete with the knife guy killing two people with one knife. Dilandau, meanwhile, had tried to open Escaflowne but the guymelef reacted to his prescence in a very bad way that sort of makes him go a little more crazy. And it is possible. Trust me. Hitomi has a vision where Dilandau kills Van and does this unnatural long jump from the Crusade to the fortress, complete with heroic music and a great quote from Merle: "She's some sort of freak..." Hitomi finds Van, who has been rescued by Allen, hurrying to Escaflowne, when Folken arrives. As Van yells for his brother, Hitomi notices Dilandau's shadow in the background, and warns Van in just enough time. Van blocks the attack, which continues with one of thebest speeches in the entire series given by Dilandau in a screaming crazy tone ("I should've killed you when I had the chance...I hate your guts! I hate you! I can't stand you!") Van retaliates by slashing Dilandau's face,causing my poor scarred baby to start twitching and fall down, crying all teh while, "My face...my f-f-face..." Van and Hitomi hurry back to the Crusade in Escaflowne, and Allen and the others retreat. As the Crusade leaves on the way to the capital of Asturia, Dilandau leans out of the Vione and says that Van will pay for damaging his beautiful face.
Best episode ever! Best tape ever! Oh, I could watch this one for hours....
