With episode 13, we see that Madlax and Vanessa are really connected now that they're at Madlax's bachelorette pad. She’s genuinely comforted by Vanessa, and Vanessa really means it when she gets all snuggly with Madlax. Very sincere.
Carroussear and Mags talking in his Jag about lost memories, and she says “we're birds of a feather”. There's that dang "birds" thing again. Any more birds, and Alfred Hitchcock will be doing a cameo!
And Carrossear tries to tie the threads together after Eleanor goes and blabs about the whole "Madlax" thang (the pause and reaction are priceless), but then he goes and hits us with the "that was my blood" bombshell. Putting the pistol to his head is quite a reaction to that.
Then… time is up. And the trap begins.
(How does SSS know?)
*Smack!* Vanessa is on the floor, dazed and confused.
Then after Madlax imitates that scene from "When Harry Met Sally", we hit a key flashback, which contradicts the old one a little, but is way more tense. And then there’s the tribal chanting, which tells us it's way more tense.
Meanwhile, back in Nafrece, cosplay-gal makes a go for the book, and Margaret shows she’s the
real "kowai hito".
Episode 14, and Madlax hits the talutarization in full Maggie-mode
...and Limelda will have none of it.
...and Carosseur goes into stalker-mode.
...and Kuanjitta with the hair strands a-flyin' knows that it’s all about to start.
Carosseur, stalking Margaret, turns on the charm -- but then Eleanor for the block! "Mai te na" (sp?) indeed! hee hee...
Eleanor asks “what are you”, and Carosseur has no answer. hee hee...
Then, back to Gathz-sonika… Can I sleep with you? hee hee…
That couch suddenly gets bigger…
And the stating of the obvious -- Vanessa notices that Madlax and Margaret are alike, but can’t quite reconcile it. And Madlax says she’ll need to dress up to meet her. To become her friend. (the fan subs were vague and contradictory there, and that was the subject of discussion for a while. I'm guessing the original Japanese was vague and contradictory. Go figure.)
Then snuggle bunnies... hee hee...
Carosseur confronts cosplay-girl. And we hear her voice finally. Hubba hubba. And then we get yet another dumb ADV name translation -- "Nahkl". Knuckles? Huh?
And then back to Gathz-sonica and Madlax slips out for a nice walk, and we get introduced to a new song (which gets it’s own single, BTW). We also get a glimpse of what might be curio-shoppe guy, who probably called in the sighting and sold Madlax out?
But Limelda is already there, so maybe not.
Vanessa catches up to her... “It doesn’t look good on me?” hee hee...
Limelda’s look when confronting them is priceless. “I’m a tiny bit sad”. Ooh, snap!
Then Madlax goes all flashback (and there'll be plenty more of that), and that snaps her out of it. With hilarious results. And Limelda’s expression is even more priceless.
And then Vanessa’s look is priceless too.
And Nahkl’s ass is priceless… (did I just say that...?)
Episode 15, the strength of the bond with Vanessa is complete with the Arigato exchange. They're genuinely interacting now.
And we get a lot of closeup of the lucky-cat. Rain? Visitors? Hrm.
Friday calls Carrossea after Limelda leaks Vanessa's picture on the internets, and there’s the slo-mo-backwards version of the Simpson's Nelson saying “haa haa” as the soundtrack…
Eleanore Kent, in disguise. Just put on a pair of glasses and you're unrecognizable. Though, I have to be honest and admit that the original preview when the fansubs were airing faked me out too.
Madlax’s double-gun target practice sequence is awesome. (the 3-D spent cartridges, not so much)
“What an awful sound." *Sigh*.
Carrossear drives a Volvo XC70 in Gathz-Sonika, and a Jag in Nafrece? I guess moonlighting between Bookwald and Enfant pays pretty well...
Then we deep-dive into the battlefield dream, with plenty of Wispy Hairs to go around. And poor Madlax gets hit with her first barrage of “different”, and the truth of the falseness… or something like that. Trippy.
But the vagueraties are still maddening; and the fan subs made it more so at the time. Japanese just allows that too easily, like I said. But the "official" translations still don't quite help.
Episode 16 starts up with the war-montage and the role of Enfant summarized up-to-date for us quite neatly.
And Madlax starts to face just how meaningless her fighting has been. Her call with SSS punctuates that with her calling herself "baka" for once. And maybe she does “hate that”? Poor Madlax. "Baka na watashi."
Back in Nafrece, Margaret wanders off with stalker-mode Carrossear again. Seagulls flying away (more birds...) With Margaret's description of her dreams, Latetia says "Always, always alone." Poor Latetia.
Then, Margaret says "let’s meet in our dreams!" Carrossear: "I was thinking you really are a girl…" Heh.
Then, WTF helicopter?!?
Maggie goes all zombie-defender when Eleanor mentions the book... Oooh-kay.
Back in G.S., I didn’t recognize the alley-dude Nafrece-spy as Limelda’s boss the first time; that would have been a quicker clue, though it's pretty obvious they were walking into a trap all along.
But he throws like a girl… Geez.
A quick flash to the Cosplay-cave, and we get to see three spots for books… and there’s a third book OMG!! (go figure)
And the 2nd "I’m Here" music video starts...
A Japanese reviewer on AnimeNation commented that Mashimo was a "madman" when he described with the sequence of Madlax being confronted by Friday. The sequence is such a Huge Tease, it’s hilarious. Just watch their positioning, shot-for-shot:
"What a good way of feeling you have"...
"You’re getting close to my domain."
…and then the pause… And frustration for Mr. Extended Weekend. Totally hilarious.
And then Madlax says "I just wanted to be normal"… great cadence in her voice for that.
And after that, Madlax punches in her cheat-code and shifts into yamanni mode, complete with nekkid kickboxing. Hooray for nekkid kickboxing!
But somehow still she manages to get cornered and have the gun shot from out of her hand (didn't she have two of them a second ago?), but yay! -- Vanessa to the rescue. To the shock of everyone. And in full cliffhanger-mode because you have no idea who shot who. (another Huge Tease, of course.)
