Carole and Tuesday Episode 18 Review / Recap

Hello, and thanks for visiting me here at Anime Rants today. Carole and Tuesday episode 18 was overwhelmingly beautiful. The art for this installment seemed much better and more detailed than that in the previous couple of episodes; that, or I was just paying more attention this time. I’m not sure what the title is, but I loved the insert song played near the end, sung by Carole & Tuesday. To me it sounded heartfelt with a great tune/melody. It’s my third-to-favorite of their songs so far. Maybe it’s just that I like sad songs.

Anyway a lot happened, and I need give a recap to get my thoughts straight and cover everything. Angela’s troubles increase in intensity. The stalker is somehow able to see and her and key times, based on the messages he sends when Angela visits Aaron in the hospital and when she rides in the car with Dalhia. The episode strongly hints that it has to do with the car(s) Angela and her mama ride in. The stalker is probably human, but is hacking into cars and taking video and audio. He’s also able to make a car go berserk, like the one that hit Aaron. (Incidentally, that man is alive, but severely injured.) Another possibility is that an AI itself is the stalker.

Carole and Tuesday, meanwhile, recorded the third song for their album, and were offered a place to perform in the rookie part of the next Cydonia Festival. Then Tuesday goes to meet with Kyle, the Alba Times reporter, having decided to interview with him after all. Carole offers to go with her and defend her if needed. Tuesday declines, but Carole warns her to be cautious.

Kyle was originally hired to dig up a scandal about Tuesday’s mother. But he decided instead to just keep covering the news related to Valerie, because the way she’s running her campaign might mean something revolutionary for Mars. Over the course of two or three interviews where the two take turns talking about themselves, Tuesday unconsciously falls in love with Kyle.

Valerie continues her campaign, which is all about discriminating against refugees from Earth and closing off their trade with Mars. It’s unclear how much of the strategies are really calculated by AI and how much is just the ideas of that political advisor who seems evil. There is a bombing /explosion at the Alba weather plant, and the Defense chairman says it was done by anti-Mars terrorists. It’s likely, though, that the political advisor had something to do with the attack. Speaking of that little dwarf, he says the next move is to enlist the help of “a certain man,” that is, Tao. Why the campign needs him, I don’t yet know. Anyway, because of the weather plant being damaged, the temperature in Alba City steadily drops.

When the terrorist attack occured, it was near enough for Kyle and Tuesday to hear the explosion and see the rising smoke from the weather plant. Tuesday had a panic attack, and Kyle did an excellent job talking her through the worst of it. I liked that little scene because it’s pretty accurate of what a panic attack can look like and one way to lessen the terror of it (regulated breathing, deep breathing, or breathing exercises). That moment probably played a key role in making Tuesday fall in love with Kyle, too.

Unfortunately for Tuesday, her crush on Kyle can’t go anywhere. It’s one-sided. When she goes to meet him and give him a new notebook for his journalism, Tuesday sees Kyle with his girlfiend, and they casually kiss. Tuesday is shocked. I don’t think she realized until that moment that she had been in love. What’s more, it was probably her first crush on a guy. Shaken up and depressed, Carole fails to deliver the notebook, and just wanders around aimlessly in the city.

Carole goes out into the cold night to find Tuesday, who has gotten carried away wandering here and there as the snow falls. When she finds Tuesday, Carole says nothing. I think she understands the gist what happened. Tuesday tears up, and Carole’s expression softens. Tuesday hugs Carole, who holds her close, both of them under the same umbrella in the cold, city-lit night. It’s kind of difficult to argue that these aren’t a couple at this point. It’s not sexual, just romantic. It’s so cute and heartwarming! I love it!