To absolutely no one's surprise, the gang makes their way to Atlas, through a new location in the continent which we briefly hear of, Argus. I like how we actually get a little bit of name-dropping at the train station, even if the characters never say the names themselves and they only show up on signs. We've only heard of the big cities for the most part.
I think this new Grimm design is my favourite, especially when we see the largest version of this new species with what seems to look like a snake's tail. It's very reminiscent of a Chimera, fire-breathing included. I like how over the past three volumes we've gone from things like Grimm based on mammals, arachnids(?) and birds (Ursa, Deathstalker, and Nevermore respectively) into things like mythical creatures like the sea dragon of Volume 4 and now these chimera-like Grimm of Volume 6. Yes, we've had the Lancers which were roughly based off wasps, but Lancers are too cool for me to dislike them.
Easily one of my favourite things to come out of this episode is Team RWBY's interactions with each other and the way they treat each other after splitting. This is especially shown during the first fight scene of the episode, with Weiss having Ruby's back and saying "Thank me later!" and Ruby swinging in a little later to save Weiss and throwing back with "Thank you later!", I love those characters that joke around during fight scenes (Hell that was one of the first reasons I really started to like Yang) and on top of that, we see what I think could actually be an enhanced version of Ice Flower from Volume 2. We then see Blake shout an "Incoming!" and Yang is quick to pull off an attack together. They group together and Yang says "Good to see you're not rusty!" with a smile. Weiss is picked up from Ruby's semblance and they fly along the train in a twist of red and white. Maybe it's the shipper in me, but man is this cool. Weiss in the first couple volumes would just scold Ruby for leaving her back open and having to save her and Ruby would probably yell at her back (Just like in the forest) but in our first full fight scene with the four of them together we see them working together great.
(This isn't related to the rest of the episode, but Ilia's new outfit is awesome! As a lesbian myself I totally laughed way harder than I should when Neptune went to hit on her, and Blake immediately went "Wrong tree..."
Oh yeah, Neptune is back too I guess. Does this mean we'll see more of SSSN?)
And Blake and Yang! I'm so happy the bees are back together. I can totally relate to that scene of Blake trying to help Yang get her bag down, before they talk about how "We're gonna be fine." I think one of the strongest, but most subtle parts of this interaction is Yang's next line, "It's just gonna be a bit before things are back to normal."
The reason I say this is because it immediately reminds me of the scene in Volume 4 of Port asking Yang why she hasn't put on her prosthetic arm yet. She says that being without her arm is what's normal now, and she only just has to get used to it. She's come a long way since the attack of Beacon and she's using her experiences in Volume 4 to not only help pick herself back up, but reassure Blake that things are okay and she doesn't need to worry.
And come on. Blake's ears falling and rising, plus her little "Yeah. ...Okay." at the end of the interaction is so cute.
Eventually later in the episode, we get to see a team attack from Blake and Yang in order to ground a Grimm to the train and god, just seeing them fight together makes me so happy.
There isn't too much else I'm excited to cover on the episode, and I honestly can't really think of any theories to pull out. Obviously we have a new character, this old woman with the blue goggles we see in the opening, but I think the common belief (and one I agree with) is really just that she'll be another one-Volume-only character to serve one purpose, like Vernal was last Volume, this one being that she'll just act as an escort to Argus now that the train has crashed. I honestly expect this Volume to be a lot like 4 in that it'll just be one long stretched out road to reach a destination that they'll get to at the end of the Volume, this one being Argus. I'd like to be proven wrong on that, and see a lot of the actual important cities and make travelling a lot faster. Get to the good parts please.
Shipping time!
White Rose gets a huge boost in this episode. It might be speculation but I think the opening hints at it a lot with scenes like them running through the train car smiling, and the final shot of Ruby with Weiss right behind her. In the episode, we get these scenes between Ruby and Weiss that honestly just really make me smile and think "Shipping these too totally works." A lot of it isn't that big, the combat scenes are where I think a lot of it comes from, but it's just a lot of small things and I'm quite okay with that. White Rose looks great this volume. It's undeniable that White Rose is both the best Ruby ship and the best Weiss ship to currently exist.
Bumbleby also looks fantastic, and that makes me very happy! The bees get a scene to themselves this episode and I've already gushed about it before. It's the biggest scene shipping-wise Yang has had in a long time, you can argue the recent Freezerburn scene rivals it, but Freezerburn has a lot less going for it than the bees do, and it was a focused part of this episode, seeing Blake and Yang back together and honestly, enjoying themselves. Bumbleby is sailing very hard, probably the hardest it's been since V2C6, my favourite episode for the ship.
The "Blakesexual" phase of Volume 5 is gone, but I think I'm happy with the significant closure we get on Changing Colors and Black Sun. Blake says her goodbyes to both Ilia and Sun and starts putting focus back onto Yang now that she's back. (You know, the way it should be.) You could make a case for Ilia x Neptune as a joke ship, but I highly doubt we're ever going to see the two in the same frame again. Just something funny I thought of.
I don't think there are any other characters I'd ship together or existing ships I'd comment on. Though I did have a joking thought of Nora with that electric club-wielding Huntsman. Again, as a joke, but at the very least he can slap her with the club and she'll get more powerful, right?