Darling in the Franxx Episode 12 Review: The Garden Where it All Began

The parasites of Squad 13 return to their origin and we’re focusing a bit on Zero Two in the 12th episode of Darling in the Franxx, which aired on 28 March.

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Japanese title: ガーデン／始まりの庭

Episode 12 – The Garden Where it All Began

In order to examine Zero Two, the whole Squad 13 was taken to the Parasite Development Facility called The Garden, where they come from. They are then greeted by the Nines and reveal that Zero Two, formerly called Nine Iota, was once part of them. Nines leader Nine Alpha is wondering why Zero Two is now a member of Squad 13, but finds his answer soon enough as Ichigo replies and tells him, that Zero Two is part of their team. Hiro tries to sneak off in order to look around the facility, but his friends and Squad 13 members follow him. They see how children are being treated and that they get a higher doses of injections than they did before. They also ask one of the personnel there if Naomi happened to be back at The Garden, but she wasn’t. A group of Holo Klaxosaurs appears near the facility for the first time in quite a while and Zero Two is getting more and more furious. Hiro even notices that her behavior has changed and that her horns and fangs have grown longer. Zero Two is desperate and wants to kill each Klaxosaur by herself in order to become human. Ichigo eavesdrops on a conversation between Nana and Hachi, who were talking about Hiro’s worsening condition.
After disobeying the leader’s guidance and even Hiro’s words, Zero Two is in rage and suffocates Hiro, who recalls scenes that he forgot.

Terms and Lingo

Klaxosaur’s Classes
The official website of Darling in the Franxx updated its Keyword list by adding the different classes including meanings. So they are put in three categories: small-sized, medium-sized and big-sized. Small-sized ones are called Conrad-class, medium-sized Klaxosaurs are called Moholovicic-class, or just Moho, and big-sized ones are categorized as Gutenberg-class. Each of these class names derive from famous people. Other people assume that the name Conrad comes from Conrad discontinuity, which was named after the Austria-Hungarian seismologist Victor Conrad. The mid-sized Klaxosaurs, that recently appeared, is named by the Croatian seismologist Andrija Mohorovicic and the giant Klaxosaurs are named after the German seismologist Beno Gutenberg.
In episode 6th review I assumed that Gutenberg-class came from the German goldsmith and publisher Johannes Gutenberg, but it seems that I was wrong. All three classes’ names derive from seismologists, who observed that there were different layers and boundaries in-between after studying seismic waves.
Klaxosaurs do always seem to come from inside the earth and they are attracted by magma.

My Thoughts

The Garden
Oh wow, we finally got to see where they partially come from. They are raised and prepared to become parasites at the Parasite Development Facility, or The Garden for short. The children are being trained and undergo various injections in order to become strong pilots in future. We get to know that Squad 13 members have also lived there before becoming pilots and moving to Plantation 13. Though I would still like to know where the children initially come from. I mean, the kids said that papa-tachi were creating them, but there must be some other way, or they’re really just genetically-engineered humans. Although it would make more sense, if they were completely perfect and almost the same sizes and shapes and should also have the same looks like clones or like the girls of Nines. We saw, that out of a big group of children, only some of the children survived the injections and treatments inside the facility and that Squad 13’s members didn’t even remember how it was before they were chosen to become pilots. They are shocked to see such young children getting the Elixir injection, which they could get, if they have wanted to. The newer kids don’t have the right to choose.

The key to save the world
So apparently Zero Two is the key to saving the world, but why? She is a monster that wants to become a human and is therefore killing Klaxosaurs. I guess that’s a bug that Dr. Franxx put into Zero Two’s ear. She killed her partners who rode Strelizia with her by planting a kind of tumor into her partners, which grew and in the end were too strong for the guys to handle. Only Hiro was able to survive this ‘saurification’, but seems to die or become a monster himself, at least that’s what Nana said.
Poor Hiro met with a rebuff, after he confessed that he loves Zero Two the way she is, but she just referred to him as her fodder. This could be what Dr. Franxx meant when he said that he shouldn’t get to emotional with her, as she will break his heart. What she did just now. She is just a partner-killer that places a curse on her partners that drains their life in order for her to be able to use Strelizia.
The time when she suffocates him, after getting out of control inside Strelizia, Hiro is having hallucinations of scenes he slightly remembers. Scenes where a young red-skinned and white-haired girl with fangs and horns is walking in the snow. This is the same scene we saw in the first episode. And it seems that I was right. This little girl is Zero Two. She mentioned it herself, that her body and looks now are just a disguise. The little girl had the remains of foot cuffs without chains on her feet, which would mean that someone was keeping her as a hostage.
When did Hiro and Zero Two meet for the first time, or better from when are these memories? Could they be from the same time after Mitsuru had his Elixir Injection? When he came back Hiro didn’t remember their promise and he was acting weird. Could someone have deleted parts of his memories, because he met with Zero Two? Did he see something he wasn’t allowed to?

My What-Is-Going-On? Moments

Naomi
So it is true that whoever leaves The Garden can never come back, because Naomi wasn’t brought back. Where did they bring her? It is logical that she is not at the development facility, but what did they do to her? Will we ever see her again and resolve the mystery around her cheering on Hiro?

Six months
Goro said in a scene that only six months have passed since they left The Garden… how did they grow up so quickly? Is it because of the ‘training’ there that the children quickly grow into teenagers in order to have an army of parasites? And what happens next? Hiro mentioned that they might never become adults.

Klaxosaurs discovered the plan
When Hachi and Nana found out that a horde of Holo-class Klaxosaurs was on their way to the facility, Hachi mentioned that they could have discovered their plan, but what kind of plan was he talking about? The monsters didn’t attack the facility in the meanwhile, so why now? I thought that Klaxosaurs were just monster following their tribes, but did I make a mistake? Could they be higher species that are pretty intelligent and work together in order to achieve something? One of my thoughts is that they’re coming for Zero Two, in order to rescue her out of the arms of Dr. Franxx and the APE, because the blood of a Klaxosaur is flowing through her veins.

In the End

I am kind of happy that Darling in the Franxx is having 24 episodes instead of just 12. The story is pretty deep and there are so many questions left unanswered. I would like to have my cute and daring Zero Two back. The Zero Two now is so desperate in becoming a human that she became a monster she didn’t want to be. Let’s hope that she’ll get back on track soon.