Cybersix S1 E12

## Plot

Cyber 6 and Data 7 are running from a mysterious woman, who orders one of the Fixed Ideas with her to fire rockets at them. The woman has blue skin and is wearing black clothes. Her name is Griselda. She can use a device on her arm to turn invisible. It also has a sharp claw at the end of it with a rope attached to it, like a grappling hook. One of the clips from RetroCrush even refers to her as an alien, but she's actually another one of Von Reichter's creations, like Elaine. They even share the same voice actress, Janyse Jaud, who also voiced Lori. Cyber 6 and Data 7 can't fight an enemy they can't see. Do black panthers have a better sense of smell than humans? Even if Data 7 can't see Griselda, couldn't he hear or smell her? Unfortunately, Griselda's assassination attempt is foiled by the Fixed Ideas, who obviously can't see her either, and fire a rocket at them. Cyber 6 and Data 7 get away right as the rocket hits barrels full of something with explosive potential. Griselda is hurt, but she blames Cyber 6 for it and vows to pay her back. She tells the Fixed Ideas to take her back to the lab. Back at her apartment, Cyber 6 is tired and her left arm hurts. She tells Data 7 not to worry about it, and he should try and get some rest too. At school, Lucas reminds Adrian that they're going on a field trip the next day. She had completely forgotten about it. Lucas playfully hits her injured arm, and when she reacts in pain, he asks her what's wrong. She assures him that it's nothing, and she'll be better tomorrow. Back at her apartment, she finishes bandaging her arm. Data 7 arrives, and she tells him that it's not serious. He tries to stop her from going on the field trip the next day. He appears to relent when she tells him to stop worrying, but he secretly follows her instead. And Griselda follows *him* so he can lead her to Cyber 6. The field trip is at an absolutely gorgeous outdoor campground area with a huge waterfall. Before Adrian can explain a poem to her students, she hears and sees a bush rustling behind her at the tree line of the forest. She sees that it's Data 7. She tells him that he shouldn't have followed her. It's not safe for him to be out in the daylight. She rolls up her sleeve to show him her left arm and tells him that she's fine now. Griselda sees them and sees Cyber 6's name tattoo on the inside of her left forearm. Realizing that Adrian and Cyber 6 are the same person, Griselda attacks her after Data 7 leaves. Adrian accidentally falls off a cliff and into the water. Before Griselda can kill her, Lucas sees her and asks her what happened and how she fell. She sees Griselda run away. Lori shows up and also wonders what happened. Lucas wants to take her to a hospital. She refuses at first, and then reluctantly agrees. Griselda steals a man's car to follow the school bus. Data 7 sees the school bus on the road and follows it to a hospital. Lucas drops Adrian off in the waiting room. He tells her to take it easy and listen to the nurse. While she gets her a glass of water, she tries to slip away. The nurse gasps and drops the glass when she sees Griselda's weapon. Adrian avoids her shot and runs out of the room, and the nurse faints. She electrocutes her when she shocks her weapon with a defibrillator. However, she recovers quickly. Adrian jumps out a window and into tall grass. She sees someone in the tall grass, but it's just Data 7. Griselda goes after them… in an ambulance! When Adrian tries to jump onto a building, she grabs her hand with her grappling hook and drags her along the road. She takes damage like a champ though, and grabs a kid's skateboard to get on her feet. Data 7 jumps on the ambulance as it's going over the bridge by the waterfall. He roars at Griselda, who goes into the other lane and swerves left to avoid a truck. The ambulance goes over the waterfall as Adrian finally frees herself from Griselda's grappling hook. Data 7 jumps onto a gondola lift. Griselda's grappling hook is strong enough to hold up herself and the whole ambulance by itself… at least for a couple seconds, which buys her enough time to grab onto the other end before the ambulance crashes into the water. The claw part of it breaks, but before Griselda can fall, Cyber 6 saves her and starts pulling her up. Griselda asks her why she's helping her. Cyber 6 tells her to hang on and not give up, but then her arm starts hurting again, and there's a train on the tracks. Griselda tells Cyber 6 that she must survive, and thanks her before letting go, falling to her death and saving Cyber 6 from being hit by the train. As emotional as this moment is, I'd like to point out that Griselda probably could've lived if she had actively tried to climb the rope during any part of that, or if Cyber 6 had waited until the train had passed to pull the rope over the track. We didn't see it fraying like you normally would during similar tense moments in other shows and movies. Data 7 arrives, and Adrian gets her glasses back. She tells him that he's a sight for sore eyes. The police are at the hospital. The nurse is talking to them. Lucas sees Adrian walking down the road, and runs out to meet "him" as the episode ends. I loved this episode. It's easily one of my favorites, possibly even my top favorite episode of the series. I know that probably doesn't sound too hard when you only have to choose between one thirteen episode season, but still. One of the reasons for this is that it doesn't follow the usual formula of the show. Yes, another one shot character or monster goes after Cyber 6, fails, and either dies or is never heard from again after just one episode, but most of the episode takes place during the day and outside the city of Meridiana, whereas with the usual formula it's the other way around. My only complaints are that Cyber 6/Adrian never found an intelligent way around Griselda's invisibility like you see in other shows and movies. No paint, no mud, no glue, no blood or sustenance, no thermal imaging, no heightened sense of smell or hearing, etc. Not even when it's clearly shown to be a possibility, like in the tall grass or the shallow water. You can see where her body roughly is! Tackle her! The part with the defibrillator was pretty awesome though. And Griselda never finds ways around these minor problems, because subtlety when it comes to trying to kill her target is clearly not her thing, which was established in the very beginning of the episode, plus Cyber 6 never exploits those weaknesses, so why bother finding a way around them? The setting is just so beautiful, and the animation is so bright and colorful. It's like the car chase scene from the 1979 movie *The Castle of Cagliostro*, which is pretty famous for being Hayao Miyazaki's feature film debut. He's well known in the animation world for being a master storyteller and maker of animated films, as well as co-founding Studio Ghibli. I saw someone on the Cyber 6 wiki mention that they read a review that credited this amazing episode to its director, Hiroyuki Aoyama. It was written by Judy Valyi. Kenji Hachizaki was the animation director for episode 6, as well as this episode. There's a full list of the cast and crew on the Cyber 6 wiki: https://cybersix.fandom.com/wiki/Animated\_Credits\_(full\_cast\_and\_crew) Well, what are you waiting for? Go check them out!