Summary
Episode 7, is a brilliant ending to a well-served story — it provides an ending that will uniquely provide continuation if Netflix decides to commission further instalments.
This recap of Netflix anime series Pacific Rim: The Black season 1, episode 7, “Showdown” — the ending explained — contains significant spoilers.
Read the season 1 review.
So you’ve reached the end of Pacific Rim: The Black season 1, and you are wondering what that action-filled ending was all about. It always led to a twist with the Boy, which some of you may have sensed way before we reached episode 7, but it was still enjoyable to see the story flesh out.
To start episode 7, Taylor practices the new arm on the Jaeger Atlas. Hayley and her brother seem way more positive since encountering the Biomech. Taylor asks Loa about Horizon Bravo, believing there is something important about the crew on the Jaeger. Loa states it has nothing more to report. Of course, we don’t believe Loa — a shady AI sometimes.
The distress signal
Suddenly, Loa finds a Jaeger distress signal on their radar, so Hayley and Taylor head towards it. However, as they head into a desolate city, they are shot at by Mei, who has left them a message that says “go away”. Mei is reluctant to speak to them but does know about the distress signal — she tells them both to leave. Hayley asks Mei why she wants to be alone in an empty city. However, as they leave her, Mei offers the group hot chocolate at a cafe she has found. Mei has grown as a character in these seven episodes. Learning that her past may have all been a lie induced by Shane has made her more fragile — she’s pushing people away who care about her.
Chocolate and Jukebox
There is a moment of peace in Pacific Rim: The Black season 1, episode 7 — a moment we were not expecting in the ending.
While drinking hot chocolate, Boy turns on the jukebox, and Taylor wants them to keep it on so they can enjoy music. All four characters dance together — a moment of togetherness but also relief that they’ve not experienced in a while. Suddenly, Mei has traumatic memories of Shane and tells them all to leave. As Hayley leaves, Mei tells her this place is home, but she isn’t sure what the truth is any more to Shane. For some reason, her memories intrinsically link to this cafe — we suspect her birth parents possibly owned it, but we expect an answer in season 2.
Finding Hunter
Hayley, Taylor and Boy find the Jaeger giving off the distress signal — it’s Hunter, their parents’ Jaegar. The story has reached full circle, giving an emotional rollercoaster for the characters. Taylor is sure that his parents got out and wants to check out the Jaegar.
There’s a message inside the Hunter — their father explains that the Kaiju has become more intelligent, and they have to evacuate. Their parents ask Marshall Rask to find their children. Before they can find out what happened, the message stops. Hayley and Taylor tear up and leave the Jaegar. There’s no way of knowing if their parents are alive, but at this stage, we can assume that they are — there’s no suggestion that they have died yet.
Kaiju attacks, and the Boy transforms
As they leave, the Kaiju from the start of the series attacks them and hurts Hayley. Taylor distracts the monster and asks Mei to head inside the Atlas with him. Meanwhile, Boy sees that Hayley is hurt, and he transforms into a monster of his own to fight the Kaiju — he’s essentially a Kaiju himself. During the fight, Boy gets trapped under a collapsed building, but Atlas then joins the fight to stop Hayley from getting hurt again.
The ending
Hayley tries to calm down Boy, who is in distress, trapped under heavy rubble. Meanwhile, Taylor uses his new weapon on the Atlas to attack Kaiju that momentarily stops it, however, the struggle continues. Hayley enters the Hunter and radios into Taylor to tell him she’s unjammed the nuke on the old Jaegar. She fires the nuke at the Kaiju, and it’s defeated.
With the battle over, Hayley approaches Boy again, who is still angry. Boy is a massive relevation; Taylor tells Mei that the discovery of Boy means the Precursors can make Kaiju look like humans. As we draw nearer to the end, a small group of Kaiju perch at the top of the building looking down with a group of hooded people — they whisper, “my sisters. The Kaiju Messiah has come”. It looks like in the second season; there’s a cult of humans that have joined allegiances with the Kaiju.
Pacific Rim: The Black season 1, episode 7, is a brilliant ending to a well-served story — it provides an ending that will uniquely provide continuation if Netflix decides to commission further instalments.
Additional points
- Boy draws himself as tall as a sky rise.
- We experience a flashback with Mei with her parents. They were a loving family. One day, Shane intruded in on their meal.
- Mei speaks to Loa and asks for information on her past, but the AI is not forthcoming.
