“Moving forward… is painful. And that’s ok.”
Golly, what a solid episode. Can this just be the whole post? I suppose not. Well, let’s dive in then.
Stahp it! You’re embarrassing me, dad.
Gaaaah, stop humanizing the enemy! For people with a weak constitution, what are you supposed to do when there’s not clearly a good vs. evil scenario? Think critically on your own? Ew. I need to be told what to think, preferably in standard MLA format.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I was 100% ready to hate Kaido after steeping for a week in the continuous malevolence he’s brought to the show. That all came crashing down during the first 2-3 minutes of this episode which dedicated itself to the sole purpose of showing the other side of the story.
How many times did he have to watch his daughter die? Thousands? Millions? And after witnessing that tragedy, his world was turned upside down and he was more or less emotionally coerced in his weakest moment to conjoin with his existing selves, probably reliving the nightmare countless times in a single instant. Slowly building up and up, to the point where destroying the multiverse maybe doesn’t seem like too far-fetched of an idea anymore. Geez, really not what I wanted to have meandering in my brain right before trying to go to sleep.
Even the changes in appearance, the dirty clothes, disheveled hair, and grittier voice most likely caused by repeating the same speech over and over, were all such delicate touches that add to the humanity of Kaido.
A change of the heart is not so easily forgotten
Emi’s memory of the superhero team she had come to know and love is all but gone, minus Friender. A (clearly robotic) dog that followed her around… No questions about that, Emi? Just gonna play it cool.
Emi’s contribution to the powerfulness of this episode is nothing to shake a magic pencil at though. I was moved more than I care to admit when she stood up to her father. She didn’t know why. She just knew it needed to be done. With only a faint awareness of her forgotten comrades and a vague reminiscence of a promise, the growth Emi had gone through managed to persevere and there’s something truly wonderful about that. Everything the show’s progress had culminated towards and everything the audience had been waiting for her to say, she said it. And more. The magnificent payoff and the cathartic relief that everything she went through (that we went through) had not gone unnoticed was executed exquisitely.
The true power of possibility
The power of possibility goes both ways. Emi’s dad had offhandedly mentioned it before, but his plan was ultimately to collect and control possibility in order to augment it and build a future for Emi where she would live forever, free of anything that could cause her pain or discomfort. Well, free from anything at all really. He had her entire life planned out. I can’t even accurately plan my breakfast for the next morning. I guess he didn’t really understand what the word infinite means though…
Just as he had the power to eliminate the possibility of Emi dying, Emi had the power to create possibility for herself. Abusing her dad’s only goal of keeping her alive, she knew that even if she walked off the edge of the world, he would have to keep creating new ground for her to walk on. Truly a double-edged pencil scenario.
A super reunion
We all knew it was coming, but boy does it feel sweet to have the team reunited. Striking an almost pose-for-pose shot from one of the earliest episodes, when they first defended Emi from robots, the show has officially come full circle. And of course Ken was the first one to return. Look, I’m not expecting anything, but, if there was going to be a romance, I meeaaan, c’mon.
Making quick work of the standard goons Kaido keeps around, it looks as if our beloved heroes are entering the final battle. 5v1, the ragtag superheroes vs the master of possibility. Action and tugged heartstrings await!
Oh, Dammy boy, where art thou? Have thoust disappeared forever? I s’pose thy return twas simply a dream…