Refrain (episode)

Refrain is the ninth episode of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.

Summary
With the news reporting the start of the demolition work on the convention center hotel, Kallen is lying in bed when she’s woken up by a crashing sound outside. Her maid apparently broke a light fixture when she fell off a broken stepladder, but Kallen has no sympathy and orders the maid to clean it up because it’s almost time for school. The maid comments on how Kallen is going to school often now and attributes it to Kallen’s friends, but Kallen tells her that it has nothing to do with her. Kallen privately wishes that the maid would disappear and keeps a picture on her fireplace of herself when she was younger along with her brother and someone whose face is covered with a sticker. Sometime later, Zero and his knights attack a building where a dirty deal is going down. Remembering the scene, Kallen suddenly stands up in class and says “the Order of the Black Knights” aloud. It seems that she had been sleeping and dreaming, and this makes her the laughingstock of the class. Rival jokingly wonders if she’s Lelouch’s disciple since he’s a master at dozing off. He doesn’t know what Lelouch has been doing every night, but it’s causing Lelouch to sleep through half of the lesson. At a Britannia train depot, Cornelia is about to leave and is talking to Euphemia about a serious problem in the spread of a drug through the Elevens called “Refrain.” As for the Black Knights, Cornelia is content with allowing them to be around a little longer as a debt for saving Euphemia. Cornelia promises to make the area clean and then hand it over to Euphemia, so she doesn’t want her younger sister thinking dangerous thoughts now. Remembering what happened when she met Zero at the hotel, Euphemia thinks to herself that there was more to what he was saying and wonders what Suzaku thinks of Zero and herself. Back at school, a tired Kallen arrives at the student council room to find everyone wearing cat costumes for Arthur’s (the cat) welcome party. She thinks that they could become quite popular if they went on TV like this, but Shirley doesn’t want to hear anything about that because of all the commotion after the hotel incident. Suzaku starts crying because he’s so happy that everyone is back together again, so Rival tackles him and everyone has a good laugh. Seeing her friends like this, Kallen starts to realize that she was part of saving everyone. After their brilliant entry during the hotel incident, the world became dyed in the Black Knights’ color. She recalls that according to Zero’s declaration, they are allies of the weak. This terrorism involves civilians, tyrannical troops, corrupt politicians, companies of commercialism, and criminal organizations - the evil that was not judged by the law was unilaterally convicted. In the blink of an eye, they became heroes, and the number of people cooperating with them grew, - they even obtained another Knightmare. Kallen knows that since their leader killed Clovis, a lot of people want to see his face, including those in his ranks. In fact, she does too, but she also thinks that if they forced him, he would leave. And without him, they would be useless. While all this is going through Kallen’s head, the Japan Liberation Front’s officers are meanwhile meeting to figure out why the people are cooperating with the group that saved Euphemia. It is even said that Kyoto will send the Crimson Lotus Mark 2 to the Order of the Black Knights. Millay pays a visit to Kallen’s home and sees the cold relationship between Kallen, her maid, and the madam of the house. Millay comments on the complicated family situation, though she’s actually here for her grandfather to give Kallen her junior high school transcript. Kallen realizes that she’s been exposed to be half Britannia and half Eleven and reveals that the maid is her real mother. Hearing Kallen talking about her life with her mother and her father’s real wife, Millay says that even though she can endure things one by one, she’ll eventually get worn out if they accumulate. While those two are together, Kallen’s mother returns to her own room and checks her drawer, which is filled with vials of something. Over at school, Suzaku and Lelouch are talking about Suzaku’s earlier crying, even though Lelouch is also glad that everyone survived. The two then get into a discussion about the police with Lelouch doubting that the police could do anything and Suzaku suggesting joining the police and changing the force. When Shirley enters the room and sees just the two of them, Suzaku gets up and leaves for work at the army. Shirley works up the courage to talk to Lelouch, but he cuts her off because he’s still caught up on Suzaku saying that he’s going back to the army. Kallen is in town taking a call from Kaname about the Refrain, when she sees a hot-dog stand guy - an Eleven- being beaten up. She wants to go help, but Lelouch appears and stops her. It’s not until the thugs see them watching and come over that Lelouch uses his GEASS power to convince them that they’ve had enough of bullying the Eleven. Kallen goes over and helps the man, but as soon as he realizes from her uniform that Kallen is a Britannia student, he switches to his subservient vendor mindset, treating them kindly despite the injuries he just suffered. Sitting down on a park bench with Kallen afterwards, Lelouch explains that it can be said Area 11 is an improvement compared to Japan. With the Britannia colonization areas, military affairs and economy are exceptionally stable. By obtaining citizenship and going to a government office to follow a procedure, it’s possible to become an honorary Britannian, though there is still the problem of pride. Hearing all this and seeing that Lelouch knows so much, Kallen wonders what Lelouch wants to do. She thinks his head is going to waste and recounts how Shirley laments that Lelouch doesn’t try to make an effort despite being so smart. Lelouch claims that that’s the reason he doesn’t do anything and says that the earlier Eleven understood to bow to the Britannians. Reminded of her own mother, Kallen slaps Lelouch. She can’t believe he sees things that way and thinks that she was a fool to expect anything from him. Meanwhile, in a bar somewhere, Villetta is relating to Jeremiah with her own experience of lost memory when Lelouch convinced her to give up her Sutherland. She recalls meeting a male student, but doesn’t remember his face. Villetta does think that it’ll be worthwhile for them to investigate this though. That night, the Black Knights are in a warehouse district hunting a drug operation. In a Knightmare, Kallen chases their opponents into a back room, but finds it full of Refrain users. One of them is the hot dog stand guy from earlier and another one is her own mother. After she uses her Knightmare to catch her mother from tripping, Kallen notices her mother hallucinating about the past when her brother was still alive. She calls her mother weak for clinging to Britannia, a man, and now a drug, but she suddenly comes under attack by a police Knightmare. Having lost her unit’s right arm in the initial barrage, Kallen goes on the run with her mother still in the frame’s left hand. She tries to throw the woman away, but finds that she can’t let go. The police Knightmare eventually lands a hit on her backside that sends Kallen’s frame skidding on the ground. When the Knightmare finally comes to a stop, Kallen’s mother is lying on the ground in front of it. Instead of running away, she gets up and says that she’s always been by Kallen’s side. Kallen realizes that this is why her mother stayed in that house. At first she thinks that it’s a foolish reason, but she knows that she’s really the one who’s the idiot. During all this, the enemy Knightmare brings out its knife and attempts to stab Kallen’s frame, but she uses her one working leg to defend herself long enough to grapple onto the opposite wall and slide over. This manages to crush the cockpit of the enemy frame, ending the threat. Looking back over, Kallen hears her mother continuing with her hallucination, talking to a young Kallen about how good it’ll be to become a Britannian because of the freedoms it brings. Unbeknownst to everyone here, C.C. is watching from high up on a shelf and comments on how fake tears hurt someone else and smiling tears hurt yourself. At the hospital later, a nurse tells Kallen that the aftereffects of the drugs mean that her mother can barely talk; she’ll need time to recover. Kallen vows to wait for her mother so that they can live normally together in the world and is surprised when her mother touches her hand. In tears, Kallen promises to do her best, just like her mother tells her to.