TRIGUN STAMPEDEepisode 5 was highly emotional, and delved further into the character of Vash The Stampede by revealing one of his major flaws. The group heads south and comes across the Windmill Village, a place that Vash once frequented many years ago. Now completely abandoned and dilapidated, the Windmill Village carries haunting memories for Vash, whose past continues to doggedly pursue him and cause huge catastrophes in the present.
A little boy from the Windmill Village returns to welcome back his hero, but not because he’sglad to see Vash The Stampede.TRIGUN STAMPEDEepisode 5 continues the series solid campaign this season and is definitely one of the best episodes so far with its foray into the main man’s less noble characteristics.
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The Windmill
The episode opens with a voice coming through a radio guiding the members of the Windmill Village through their prayers. Their society has formed a religious sect that worships a mysterious god who accepts human sacrifices. Vash and his group are forced to endure the religious programming on the radio, which De Niro explains is a new sect of Plant worshipers who have their headquarters in July City. Half-jokingly, De Niro tells Meryl that the stretch of desert they were currently driving on used to be a regular colour until the emergence ofa strange entity that massacred every single personwho was unlucky enough to come across it.
According to De Niro, the sand in the area was stained crimson by the blood of the entity’s victims, which brings the camera to focus on Vash, who appears pensive and in deep thought. Meryl brings their cruiser to a halt when they encounter the carcass of a big Worm that was supposedly taken out with a single hit. Meryl wonders what could have killed something like this instantly. Vash’s pensiveness continues, and his usual openness is replaced with a brooding that gives away that he has some feelings about this place. His companions don’t notice his off mood at first, and he wanders off to a house nearby before having a hail of bullets come down on him out of nowhere.
Die, Vash, Die!
A masked man with huge muscles and a hulking frame comes barreling down at Vash, clearly incensed at his presence. The man’s design is reminiscent of the Batman villain Bane, and with his mask, cybernetic enhancements and slightly modulated voice, the comparison is quite strong. The man continues attacking Vash with an arsenal of high-calibre automatic weapons, and when he finally corners him, his masked face comes into full view, revealing a skull-like visage not unlike the visuals of the monster shown during De Niro’s dramatic story about the crimson sands. Vash manages to avoid getting hit and fires a few rounds at some steel pipes hanging overhead, which brings them down on the enemy. SinceVash never wants to harm his opponent, he quickly checks to see if the man is okay, which incurs some contempt from Wolfwood who is tired of picking up the slack and has noticed something a little different about Vash since their arrival. Wolfwood’s offensive knocks the opponent out for a while, and they escape before Wolfwood asks Vash what the truth is about this place.
Hypocrisy
Wolfwood’s biggest contention with Vash is how far the latter takes his pacifism. He asks about what happened to the Windmill Village, but Vash has no idea what happened to the place since he was last there. Vash has a flashback to his first time in the village, where he ran into a young boy named Rollo who was running away from home because he overheard his mother and another woman from his village talking about him being the next human sacrifice. Vash was asked by Rollo’s mother to find him and bring him home, and during their walk back, Rollo revealed that he wassuffering from a terminal illnessthat would kill him before long. The windmill was the village’s only source of power, and wind hadn’t blown in the area for a long time, which is evident in the first scene of the episode when Rollo is seen praying for the wind to blow, “otherwise… [I’ll die]”, which creates a contextual link between his illness; the windmill and the religion that spawned as a result, which also begin to tie in with the evils being perpetrated by Millions Knives and his allies. When Vash brings Rollo back home, he tells the young boy that he will save him, even if his God can’t; however, it’s evident that Vash was unable to make good on these lofty promises.
Another flashback reveals that Rollo was kidnapped by Dr. William Conrad and subject to a treatment of an incredibly risky experimental drug that reportedly rebuilt cells over time while also accelerating the metabolism to logical extremes. It is an excruciating treatment that ends up contorting Rollo into his current inhumanity, turning him into the cyborg known as Monev The Gale. A device was implanted in his brain which heightens his emotions, leading to increased athletic ability. Despite it being referred to as a poison for the soul, Rollo’s heightened hatred kept him alive through the gruelling treatment but also killed off whatever made him human. As a result,Rollo became a complete monsterwho killed everyone in his village including his mother, and bore a huge grudge against Vash, who failed to make good on his promise years prior.
Gone With The Wind
The encounter with Rollo ends with Wolfwood making the decision to do what Vash is hesitant to do. Vash tries to apologize to Rollo for his failure; which seems to get some kind of reaction from the cyborg who stops his vicious onslaught to listen. Wolfwood self-administers a vial of an unknown substance before firing a perfect shot through Rollo’s temple, killing him almost instantly. Vash is devastated and lashes out at Wolfwood, demanding to know why he fired. Wolfwood coolly tells him that he did it out of mercy for the poor soul who lost his humanity, adding that Vash’s hypocrisy is showing because he’s all talk. In painful irony, the wind blows through the Windmill Village for the first time in year.
Elsewhere, Zazie The Beast reports the events of the day to Dr. Conrad, who is teased by Elendira about his frequent failures, especially this most recent one that is sadly the best result the Dr. has seen over the years. This time around, theappearance of the series' villains in the last few minutesof aTRIGUN STAMPEDEepisode does more than leave an eerie taste in the mouth, but a shocking revelation as Wolfwood is described as another one of the Conrad’s creations, one dubbed “The Punisher”. As Vash and his crew drive away from the Windmill Village, a shot of the city slowly being illuminated adds to the bitter taste left in their mouths by the day’s events.
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