Abandon Hope

Season 2, Episode 38
Air date	November 2, 1994
Written by	Mark Edens Michael Edens
Storyboards by	Gerry Acerno
Episode guide
Previous	The Night Before Doomsday
Next	Beyond Chaos

"Abandon Hope" is the 38th episode of the second season of Exosquad.

Summary

Phaeton tells the captive Marsh of his plans to destroy the world. To prevent this Winfield is sending a few exosquads into Phaeton City to go after Phaeton. O'Reilly fixes the jumptroopers shuttle so that the remainder of Charlie Company, along with Bronski, can also make it there. Over Livia's objections, Phaeton will not leave the city. When he attempts to activate the Doomsday Device, he finds it has been sabotaged and he knows it was Livia who did it. Able Squad battles their way through the tunnels beneath the city, and Nara, Marsala, and Takagi reach the main chamber just as Phaeton is about to flip the now functional switch to the doomsday device. A battle ensues which ends when Nara, at first instinctively using her strange powers to stop Phaeton, kills him.

Synopsis

Click HERE of a detailed synopsis of "Abandon Hope"

Characters

• J.T. Marsh
• Nara Burns
• Marsala
• Kaz Takagi
• Wolf Bronski
• Colleen O'Reilly
• Vince Pellegrino
• Winfield
• Phaeton
• Livia
• Thrax
• Galba
• Shiva
• Draconis
• Typhonus

Quotes

• Phaeton finally has Marsh prisoner, something he has desired for a long time:

Phaeton: "An inferno rages inside me, Terran. It consumes me, burns me."
Marsh: "Probably something you ate."

• More stirring words from Thrax, spoken to Galba:

"I used to worry how I would face the end. Would I go bravely like a soldier? But let me tell you something Neo mega, it's life itself that matters, not how it ends. Each moment is a precious gift, if only we have the courage to accept it. That is where our duty lies, not in taking life, but in living it."

• Reading the engraving over Phaeton's bunker:

Pelligrino: "Abandon all hope..."
O'Reilly: "...ye who enter here. It's Dante, from the Divine Comedy."
Bronski: "Sounds like a load of laughs."

• In Phaeton's bunker, as the resistance closes in:

Phaeton: "Shiva, you have always been my best general. Can you stop them?"
Shiva: "No, but I will try."

Significant events, revelations, and other notes

• The Neosapien War has ended, and Phaeton is dead.
• Nara's powers manifest themselves, but it is possible that none of her teammates notice this.
• Able Squad is reunited in Chicago.
• Is Livia dead? Since many of the other prisoners, such as Thrax and Galba, manage to survive, there is a chance she managed to escape in the chaos.
• References to Livia’s lack of military and leadership ability.
  • ”Abandon Hope”: Phaeton states he did trust Livia since she never considered mutiny.
  • ”Night of the Traitor”: Phaeton says he trusts Livia since she is willing to report failure. Later she refuses to take Gracchus’s and Lucullus’s Coup d'état seriously.
  • ”No Surrender”: Phaeton tells Livia that she lacks the ability to lie. He also states that she lacks military skill.
  • ”The Art of War”: Livia tells Phaeton that understanding Terran art will allow the Neosapiens to win the war. In the next episode Exofleet wins the Battle of The Moon, which destroys most of the Neosapien E-frames.
  • ”The Price of Courage”: Shiva's death apparently leaves Livia in sole command of the military on Earth, subject to Phaeton's approval.
• The differing views of death by Neosapiens.
  • In "The Price of Courage" Shiva tells Phaeton that he wishes to die as a soldier.
  • In "Abandon Hope" Thrax tells Galba that living life is more important than worrying about the circumstances of one's death.
• Livia's reason for sabotaging the Doomsday Device is similiar to Gilad Pellaeon's reason for advocating the Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty, and getting support from officers such as Hestiv and Sutt Ramic. Pellaeon knew that the Galactic Civil War had been lost and wanted to place the Imperial Remnant in a position where it could survive.
• Several comparisions can be drawn with the Battle of Berlin, the Liberation of Paris, the Nero Decree, and Dietrich von Choltitz.
  • This is the final major battle of the war, a location is spared to avoid needless destruction, and the officer who sabotages the "scorched earth" order is the area's supreme commander.
  • A somewhat similiar action happens in "Venus Rising".
• For all of the anti-Terran propaganda spoken by the Neosapien leadership, many of them have studied terran history.
  • “A Traitor Among Us”: the shuttle pilots ridicule beliefs such as the sun god and the Tooth Fairy.
  • “Mindset”: Marsala quotes Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (it should have been Georges Clemenceau).
  • “The Dream War”, “No Surrender”: Marsala and J.T. Marsh tell Sean Napier about Douglas MacArthur's “I came through and I shall return.” speech after his escape from the Philippines.
  • “Fire Ship”: Typhonus tells Barca the history of the fire ship and the hellburners.
  • “The Price of Courage”: Phaeton tells Shiva the story of Julius Caesar and his decision to cross the Rubicon River and march against the capital of Rome. Both Phaeton and Shiva say the quote “The die is cast.”
  • “The Art of War”: Livia sees art as useful for understanding Terran psychology and psychiatry.
  • “Fifth Column”, “Abandon Hope”: Phaeton’s bunker has the phrase “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate” (“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”), which is from Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy”.
• The producers and writers wrote several parallels to World War II into the series.
  • “The Price of Courage”: the Neosapien’s last-chance attempt to re-conquer venus was a parallel to the Battle of the Bulge.
  • “One Small Step”: the desperate and costly battle for the Moon was a parallel to the Battle of Okinawa.
  • “Fifth Column”: the symbolism of Phaeton’s bunker was a parallel to the Führerbunker.
  • “The Night Before Doomsday”, “Abandon Hope”: the final major combat action, the Battle of Phaeton City (Battle of Chicago), was a parallel to the Battle of Berlin.

Season 2

"The Gathering" • "The Embassy" • "Pirate's Ransom" • "Ultimate Weapon" • "Expendable" • "Mindset" • "The Last Man" • "Dragon's Rock" • "Inner Dark" • "The Dogs of War" • "The First Step" • "The Greatest Fear" • "Flesh Crawls" • "Behind the Shield" • "Venus Rising" • "Miracle" • "Under the Skin" • "Ultimatum" • "Warrior Brood" • "The Dream War" • "No Surrender" • "Fire Ship" • "Martian Luck" • "The Lost Patrol" • "Call of the Unknown" • "Heart of Mars" • "Winged Fury" • "Night of the Traitor" • "Trial by Combat" • "The Perfect Warrior" • "The Price of Courage" • "Dark River" • "The Art of War" The Fall of the Neosapien Empire "One Small Step" • "Fifth Column" • "The Last Jump" • "The Night Before Doomsday" • "Abandon Hope" "Beyond Chaos"