Mar 11 2010 11:33 PM I'm rather surprised at the reactions to Rio's situation being expressed here. You knew in the "telephone duty" episode that Rio had run away from a situation at home, and anyone who has the power to commandeer the "test call" as her father did is obviously someone very highly placed. That he didn't simply order her to return, that he _let_ her remain distant was a clue to her own position ( she wasn't afraid of any "official" reprimand cause she knew there wasn't going to be one--she was too important for that). Then in the following episode she gets a summons, and still ignores it, is another clue. A soldier just _does not_ ignore official orders, so these weren't official.
And all along for the last several episodes they've been saying how negotiations haven't been going well, how things could break out into fighting again. I figured from these clues that somehow Rio was involved in those negotiations as a pawn, somehow, especially when you include her father on the phone saying that they needed her.
This episode simply brought all those things together, especially when they explained the background in this episode. You'll notice that she decided to return only after she heard that the "Roman" army was massing on the border, clearly a prelude to renewing the fighting and she realized she had no choice if she didn't want to see her country possibly destroyed, and her freinds, soldiers, definitely killed in the fighting.
