Lena and Shin’s life changed in the season 2 premiere
The 86-Eighty-Six Season 2 premiere reveals the cliffhanger fate of Spearhead Squadron, as well as the mysterious nation that created the Legion.
Warning: the The following contains spoilers for 86 Eighty-Six Season 2 Episode 1, “Welcome,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.
86 eighty-six Season 1 ended on a shocking and tragic note, as protagonist Shinei Nouzen and the rest of the Spearhead Squadron all appeared to have been killed by the Legion Army. Viewers were stunned, believing that almost every character the story had followed throughout the season was dead.
However, the highly anticipated Season 2 premiere was not without surprises – the main one being that all of the remaining members of the Spearhead Squadron are actually alive. Shin, Raiden, Theo, Anju, and Kurena were rescued by a man named Ernst Zimerman, Giad’s provisional Federation president who says he found the squadron captured by the Legion.
As Ernst explains to the Confused Eighty-Six, the Giad Federation defeated the original Giad Empire which created the Legion, subsequently transforming it into a Federal Republic. Shin and the others gain citizenship and are welcomed into Giad’s new federation, and now have the opportunity to live as free people without having to return to the battlefield.
Ernst adopted each of the Spearhead members and moved them into his house, so they’re technically his children now. He insists that he doesn’t want them to work as operators, as that wouldn’t make Giad’s federation any different from the Republic of San Magnolia – a nation that, as seen throughout 86-eighty-six Season 1, didn’t even consider them human. Ernst just wants them to live in peace.
Plus, the members of Spearhead Squadron aren’t the only children Ernst has adopted. When they arrive at his home, they are greeted by a young girl named Frederica Rosenfort. Interestingly, she acts like she’s the nobility and even calls Ernst a lowly bureaucrat. He later refers to Frederica as Empress, which might imply that she is a surviving heiress of the old Giad Empire.
Oddly, Shin and the rest of the group don’t seem very happy with their new life situation. They can finally live their lives like normal people, treated like real human beings, and they can live in a mansion with the president of the nation as guardian. And yet, so far in the Season 2 premiere, they seem more annoyed than satisfied with it all.
Shin and the others may be hesitant to let their guard down and trust Ernst, which would make perfect sense given how their homeland has treated them. Additionally, PTSD from being at war all their young lives likely also plays a role. After all, one of Ernst’s underlings revealed that they said they wanted to return to the battlefield during their counseling sessions. Ernst says it’s because the battlefield is all they’ve known so far, and he’s probably right.
Meanwhile, Vladilena Milize’s life in the Republic of San Magnolia has also seen some changes. She was demoted to captain for the sake of the eighty-six, but she’s now the top handler. Lena commands a new group of eighty-six and they seem to respect her, based on her conversation with one of the members. She earned the nickname “Bloody Regina the Bloody Queen” due to her demanding orders and competent leadership. Lena is also wearing a black uniform now, as opposed to everyone’s blue, and has died from a strand of red hair. It’s her way of remembering Shin and the members of the Spearhead Squadron she believes are dead.
86-eighty-six Season 2 started off much more calmly than the entirety of Season 1. However, with a show like this, things are unlikely to stay that quiet for long. With Lena now the best manager and the spearhead squadron alive and well in another country they know nothing about, viewers are eager to see where the story goes from here.
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