魔法少女リリカルなのはStrikerS（ストライカーズ）Ep. 22
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Episode 22

SPOILER Summary:

Quattro and Dieci are in throne room where Dieci expresses doubts over what they are doing, especially to Vivio. However, Dieci will do what she’s ordered to do. Quattro finds Dieci’s attitude boring and enjoys inflicting pain and suffering as she observes the various battles in progress. Meanwhile in the hospital, Vice watches a news broadcast about the current attack. Zafila lets Vice know how long he’s been in the hospital — roughly a week. Laguna, the girl Vice accidentally shot who’s now a young woman, comes to visit Vice. She remarks on how she and “oniichan” don’t talk like they used to and she reveals that her eye is healed. Vice has a hard time talking with her and a nurse forces her to evacuate. Zafila, still injured, has some words for Vice before leaving as well. Vice is then left alone with his device, Storm Raider.

Caro faces off with Lutecia and tries to learn why Lutecia is doing what she’s doing. Lutecia reveals that this is all an attempt to find the 11th Relic so that her mother can be revived and Lutecia can be happy. Caro points out that making others unhappy to achieve happiness won’t work. Lutecia appears to be considering Caro’s words when Quattro appears via communication screen. She tells Lutecia that Lutecia can’t stop combat and using a control mechanism, takes sudo control over Lutecia, forcing the girl to summon giant insects and attack her enemies. Garyuu also appears to power up, suddenly growing tendrils. Lutecia orders her insects to kill Caro, Elio, and Fried.

Down in Scaglietti’s lair, Fate struggles against Tre and Sette due to their Anti-Magic Fields. The battle is interrupted as Doctor Scaglietti appears on a communication holo-screen (appearing to Caro and Elio as well). His speech angers Fate who rushes to attack, only to be ensnared by energy tendrils as Scaglietti approaches. He destroys the blade of Bardiche and traps her in a small energy cage.

The battle between Agito-Zest and Rein-Signum rages with Agito-Zest getting the best of Rein-Signum, throwing them to the ground. Agito and Zest break unison with Rein-Signum launching to return to the fight. As Agito and Zest fly to their objective, Zest tells Agito that Signum may be the perfect master for her. Agito doesn’t want to hear this, but Zest notes their similar armor colors and specialties (fire). Agito only wants to see them as an enemy and despite the fact that Zest can barely use Agito’s fire abilities in unison mode, Agito figures she has other ways to protect him.

The fight between Subaru and Ginga has Subaru coming up on the losing end with Mach Caliber unable to communicate with Blitz Caliber, meaning the later has been tampered with. Up in the Saint’s Cradle, Vita continues to fight while Nanoha flies to the throne room. Despite the massive numbers of Gadgets, Nanoha uses her magic to fly through them rather than attack them. This leaves Nanoha with some damage, but destroyed Gadgets in her wake.

She recalls a moment before the attack when she, Fate, and Arf were in a small park with Arf playing with Vivio. As Fate watches them play, Nanoha and Sister Schach watch and talk about the possibility of Nanoha adopting Vivio (Nanoha being told the truth of the origin of Vivio). Nanoha doesn’t think it is a good idea since she’s so busy and is a person of the skies. However, she does not that she’s been shot down before. Vivio sees Nanoha sad and comes over to comfort “mama.” This touches Nanoha and in the present, that memory drives Nanoha forward.

Thoughts/Review:

The flashback showing Fate seated at the park bench watching Arf play with Vivio was a good one. It showed that Arf, despite her only having cameo appearances in this series, is still very much a part of Fate’s life. That’s cool.

So Laguna wasn’t killed as I’d assumed when Vice had a flashback to shooting her as a little girl. That being the case, I guess they’ll be back to normal when the story ends. (Update: After finishing the series, it looks like Laguna may be a relative of Vice’s, which would explain how they knew each other from before the shooting.)

Fried’s roar is borrowed from an American movie — Jurassic Park and the T-Rex roar. Its not the first time the Japanese have borrowed sound effects like that.