Sailor Stars Episode 4 (170): The Fateful Night! The Agony of the Sailor Senshi
Click, click. Click, click. Click, click. Dun-dun dun-din DEN du-dun du-dun du-dun, dun-dun dun-din DEN du-dun du-dun den, dun-dun dun-din DEN du-dun du-dun DUN, du-du-du-dun DU-dun du-dun!
Just teasing you. That will have to wait for three more episodes, which are, basically, one overstretched episode. Let's start with the first part.
The subtitle-makers, it seems, can't decide what to use for the opening sequence. So far, we have had the English translation of the song, no subtitles at all, and the Japanese-in-Latin (Romaji) original text. Now, they have used the original Japanese script, which is rather pointless in English subtitles.
First, there is a recap of the previous episode's ending, then Chibi Moon goes not only pink, but glowy-pink, which is even more unbearable. All the Senshi are present, including Outers — even though they were supposedly left behind. They all look at Chibi in horror — except Moon, who's staring at Saturn, and Jupiter, who's staring at Moon's legs.
Chibi transforms back. Well, the less pink, the better. Falls unconscious (yay).
The entire group, instead of trying to figure out how to follow Mamoru and Nehellenia through the mirror, goes to Rei's shrine, where they hold a conference titled "And How Are We Supposed to Live Now?" Setsuna pulls a Dr. Emmett Brown and explains that Mamoru's drug... I mean, mirror addiction can lead to Chibiusa never being born, causing a time paradox. As always, she says she knew it all along, but didn't pay enough attention.
Usagi, scared of the thought of using a DeLorean... I mean, Time Gate to travel to the past and correct the space-time continuum, decides to try another way. Haruka goes Admiral Ackbar on her.
Usagi decides to solve the problem by doing what she does best: crying. Surprisingly, it helps: her tear has the exact chemical compound needed to start a reaction with the transformation brooch.
Transformed, she flies away by means of pixie dust. Rei tries to stop her, but only ends up grabbing the air because she's aiming at the wrong point.
While the remaining Senshi (including, unfortunately, Chibiusa) debate whether or not to go after her, we're shown the consequences of the "apathy disorder". Although the only people on Earth of any interest to Nehellenia are one lousy 16-year-old girl and her lover, as always, the entire Tokyo has to suffer.
Sailor Teleport! This power actually does look cool, although somewhat recycled.
Usagi is in vast nothing. Well, at least not IN SPACE! Although she flew as Sailor Moon, she's now detransformed. Nehellenia insists on the title "White Moon Princess". Why can't villains ever call anyone by their real names? She induces a flashback from the Cheesy Season in Usagi's mind, then teleports her to... the north pole? Been there, done that. Looks like she didn't read Beryl's diaries after all.
Hmm. That pose sure looks familiar. Even if it doesn't, we'll see it later in the season. Nehellenia continues the vampiric associations by drinking some red liquid.
Hey, put your Snow Queen references away, Toei Animation! Seriously, they stink!
Interested which sort of glass it harder to break, Nehellenia throws the now-empty glass at one of the mirrors. (Stupid ambiguous word "glass"!) The mirror glass, as it turns out, is more fragile. Maybe that's because there's vacuum behind it, into which the mirror shards are immediately sucked.
The Senshi are flying, hands held, through vast blackness that suspiciously resembles the previously-seen scenery IN SPACE!. Why they're flying while the power is called Sailor Teleport is beyond me, but let it be so. They encounter the mirror-shards, and, afraid of a few scratches, they separate hands and immediately lose each other, R-season-style. Hmm. Is this arc about recycling the worst plot ideas from the previous seasons?
Uranus and Mercury find themselves stranded in some antique ruins. To signify the dramatic importance in the moment, we're presented with a misspelling in the subtitles.
They run, unaware that no problems can ever be solved by running in fiction. But at least it provides a nice opportunity for another meaningless S-season-style Neptune flashback.
Who is this? Nehellenia? Not an NC-17? Wow. She decided to personally took care of these two. The two are also unaware of the "attacking the Big Bad directly never works" principle, so they get hit with their own attacks. Another reference to R, and to the same episode no less.
This encounter anvilliciously tries to present us the question of "what's better, to act or to think first?", so we'll skip all the flashbacks from Ami's childhood, which wouldn't make much sense in a real basketball game anyway. Instead, we'll move directly to the "And now, young Mizuno... you will die" part.
Force Lightning never works on important characters. Remember that, villains.
From Return of the Jedi to A New Hope, with primitive vector graphics suggesting Mercury to blast that space station. No, wait, that's no space station — it's a moon!
Uranus does as Mercury requests and blasts the moon (meanwhile on Earth, Alexander Hartdegen sees the blast and quickly gets back into his time machine), exposing the false Nehellenia as an NC-17. Ewww.
Without her protective clothing, she's vulnerable, and the Senshi destroy her. Now, what answer would you expect from Mercury when Uranus asks her how she learned it was a fake? "I actually didn't"? "My computer told me so"? "Because she was just standing still down there and not making speeches about how she pwns us all"? All wrong.
Well... iron logic, indeed. Too bad it was all for nothing, and they get encased in mirrors, demonstrating Nehellenia's UNLIMITED POWAH.
Meanwhile, Usagi is going through the snow, barefoot. As a rabid supporter of the "act" side of the "think or act" dilemma, she didn't think about the possibility to transform — if not to fly, then at least to get some footwear that comes with the Sailor Moon costume. Hmm, I need to submit this one to the TV Tropes Wiki.
Still meanwhile, Mars throws one of her unlimited "Begone, glitch" papers into the bush somewhere in a forest. Neptune remembers her pyromaniacal tendencies and runs quickly in the other direction.
Nehellenia — another fake, as we can guess by now — appears from behind a tree, leszy style, and surrounds both with a circle of violet flame. Somehow, they are much closer to each other in the next shot than they would be judging by Neptune's speed.
Dang. Another cliffhanger. Well, only two more left to endure.