Well, this IS a turn-up for the books. Of all the things I expected, the one thing I didn't actually expect was for Kei to greet Gryphon in more-or-less-civilized fashion and to let him go his way in peace. I guess time really does heal all wounds, sort of...and it looks like she's got a start already on the process that we, I now guess, will see culminating in Twilight. It's no wonder Gryphon is so astonished as he confesses to Saavik; "John Woo Standoff" is the least I was expecting to see.

Palpatine, if he's the Outer Rim Senator at the time, is playing a deep game indeed if he's helping the nascently-reborn WDF (for, of course, they must have been quietly reorganizing at the Sphere for the last decade by now) counter GENOM's propaganda, but hey, whatever helps.

And at last the Butcher reveals himself...not that I was surprised about that. I had a hunch that it was the damnable scrub from the first time I heard somebody was on the rampage in Saenar. Gryphon is going to have an interesting meeting with Grissom (and Maia) when he arrives, that's certain.

Nice McCoy scene! And do I detect Spock/Valeris somewhere in the offing...? (Seeing as how in the UFverse, it's Uhura/Scotty.) And so that's where the Griffon came from - a mild surprise as I'd always assumed Corwin found it somewhere, not, of course, that I'd ever thought deeply about that particular fiddly bit.

-Joe-