Guilty Crown - "retraction (Degeneration)" - Episode 10 Recap

After ending Jun's life, Shu has been shaken up to the point where he can no longer function in life. He fails to finish a mission with Funeral Parlor, stops going to school and isolates himself from society. Hare attempts to work with him, but this results in Shu freaking out. Shu is later approached by Ayase, who fails to convince him to return to Funeral Parlor. Gai declares that Shu is dead to them and that he should never show his face. Meanwhile it is revealed that the Chief Keido of Sephirah Genomics stole the "rock that started everything" (the item Gai was trying to obtain in episode 8) and has turned it in to GHQ, resulting in his capture. Funeral Parlor executes a plan to get the rock, but everything goes crazy when the Anti Bodies resurface and the rock is activated by genetic resonance. Suddenly everyone in the city starts breaking out in the Apocalypse Virus and Chief Keido is released from his cell, declaring that they will finish what they started during the Lost Christmas.

Episode ten started out pretty much just as I predicted last week. Shu is psychologically damaged after ending Jun's life. He thought he could protect him, but in the end he led him to his demise. This results in Shu seeing the virus crystals grow on everyone, which greatly unsettles him. At the beginning Shu can't pull out Inori's void, and later he starts screaming when a classmate offers to help him out. He also has a dream involving the girl that Inori looks like (and perhaps is). The girl is evidently his older sister and it seems as though she played a pivotal role in Lost Christmas. I actually genuinely felt bad for Shu for the first half of the episode. I even felt bad for him when Ayase confronts him and gets on him about pitying himself. Gai pointing a gun and almost shooting Shu was harsh, but Gai has always been a jerk to Shu. Shu returns to his apartment to find Inori still lingering around, despite being ordered to pull out by Gai. She approaches him and hands him a new song she wants him to listen to. Shu reaches out to take the device but he then sees the girl from his past covered in crystals, so he accidentally smacks away the song and calls Inori a monster. As a tear falls down her cheek, she leaves Shu and he is consumed in sadness.

Shu's actions towards Hare are unacceptable. She goes out of her way to comfort Shu, but he tries to take advantage of this by making a move on her. Fortunately Hare does not give into this mentality and smacks Shu, saying she isn't a replacement for Inori and this isn't the Shu she fell in love with. Hare hasn't been that great of a character on Guilty Crown, but she gets major props from me for not letting herself be treated like an object for Shu to take advantage of. Meanwhile, Inori is taken aback from Shu calling her a monster. She dons a white version of her red outfit and asks Gai whether or not he thinks she is a monster; he responds by asking if she fell in love with Shu. She doesn't give a direct answer, but her actions indicate that she has. I really find the whole Shu and Inori relationship odd, considering that she barely speaks and admitted to using him. But, she could turn out to be his older sister and that love would turn out to be familial love.  

I've been asking for a game changer, and the last four minutes of episode ten certainly changed the game with both the GHQ and Funeral Parlor being tricked. Chief Keido turned himself and the rock in so that it would be at the center of GHQ command. The remnants of the Anti Bodies that were absorbed into the main GHQ unit resurface under the command of Major Segai, injecting themselves with a vaccine that will protect them from the Apocalypse Virus. Meanwhile Gai's plan completely fails and they find themselves trapped on a decoy plane, where they thought the rock was. Major Segai starts the genetic resonance and people start to break out in the Apocalypse Virus, including Gai. Inori freaks out, claiming that if this doesn't stop "she" will come out. I imagine the "she" Inori is talking about is Shu's supposed older sister. When Chief Keido is released and assumes command, Shu's mother asks him what he is thinking of. He smirks and simply states "humanity's future." 

This ending was a chilling one that opened up a lot of new possibilities for Guilty Crown to explore. It started out as a simple mission to recover the rock, but then evolved into so much more. While exciting, it was also a bit confusing to figure out who is against whom. I was under the impression that Sephirah Genomics were with GHQ, but this episode established that they have a different agenda. Episode ten did a great job in bringing back the excitement to Guilty Crown, as now I literally have no idea what to expect in the upcoming episodes. I'm curious to know how GHQ will react to this coup and whether or not the genome in Shu will have a reaction. Meanwhile, if Inori's other self awakens then we could finally get development for her and learn about her and Shu's past. The aftermath of Funeral Parlor's failure, the virus outbreak and Sephirah Genomics making a move against GHQ will definitely be interesting to watch unfold. How Shu responds to all of this remains to be seen, but it'd be nice if he got out of this slump sooner rather than later.