Pumpkin Scissors – 05

Summary:
Because he went out to feed the cats, Oland gets his hospital stay extended since his wounds suppurated. Although Alice is furious at this and vows not to come visit again, Oreld tells Oland that she was very worried about him when she first found him gone. The nurse on duty Rosetta has assigned another patient named Wantz to the same room in order to watch over Oland. Oreld starts hitting on her, but loses interest as soon as she tries to get him to get a urine sample from Oland. Wantz meanwhile introduces himself as a guy who works in a briefcase factory, but he admits that none of his co-workers have come to see him. As Oland is going out to the bathroom to give his urine sample, he bumps into a man who’s coming to see Wantz.
Over at the Intelligence Department’s Data Room, Machs is trying to see what he can find on Oland and the ATT group. He tells Oreld that he likes the section they’re in, but he’s worried that Oland’s existence will threaten it. Oreld, however, feels that Oland’s past has nothing to do with them, so they should just leave it alone. Still, the two start talking about the Invisible Nine, though they get interrupted by a girl named Mireille from the personnel department. Oreld figures that the personnel department wouldn’t not know about the unit Oland is from, so he charms Mireille into letting him see the classified files. He learns that Oland was placed in their unit with the backing of a certain organization: the Imperial Science Institute – the Kauplan Organization. However, Machs realizes that he wants to hear the truth from Oland himself.
That night, Rosetta hears the bell she gave Wantz to ring if Oland ran away, but she finds out that it’s actually Oland ringing it because Wantz has disappeared. The two of them see a briefcase stuffed in the trash, and then Oreld comes with news of someone on the rooftop. They rush there and find Wantz about to jump because he lost his job at the factory because of one week off at the hospital after 20 years of work. As Wantz despairs about his life, Oland steps forward and declares that he’ll work hard to make the country a better place. Wantz feels that this has nothing to do with Oland and wants to be left alone, but Oland refuses. Though, he had his own doubts about being able to do anything with the Pumpkin Scissors and about getting well acquainted with them, Oland got some confidence today with how Wantz characterized his friends as coworkers. Oland doesn’t want Wantz to end his life this way, and Wantz finally realizes that he’s needed and that he can get another job.
However, a strong wind suddenly blows through and causes Wantz to lose his footing. Oland rushes forward and uses his momentum to push Wantz back, but doing so propels him off the rooftop. Oland is caught by Machs and Oreld, who are then helped by Rosetta and Wantz, but the four have a hard time pulling him back up. A new set of hands helps them pull Oland up, but only Rosetta got a glance at whose they were: Alice’s. She’s gone by the time they’re all back on the rooftop. Meanwhile, their captain Hunks leaves a meeting when he’s approached by a woman who tells him that no one will believe that a soldier defeated a tank. The woman introduces herself as Muse Kauplan of the Kauplan Organization.

Preview

Well the animation quality was much lower this episode than in previous ones. Then again, this wasn’t action-oriented like last week, so maybe they’re saving budget for more important episodes. It also didn’t help that the plot of this episode wasn’t that interesting – I really want more plot movement more than Oland feeling that he belongs in the Pumpkin Scissors. Still, this episode wasn’t all bad since it had some funny moments at the beginning and end with Rosetta and the urine samples. And I guess you could say that the appearance of Muse Kauplan might be an indication that we’re headed somewhere in the story. We’ll see what happens…next week, the group gets a baby.