[Paladin]

Unable to accept his own cruel fate, Baku is tormented by his inability to understand Zero?s true intentions.

[Frontier]

Honestly "I'm really just an average guy" is as much a bold-faced lie as "I'm an Agent of CODE."

Zero never wanted to be a father, what he wanted was the decisive weapon that could make the difference in humanity's battle with Nightmares and ensure good dreams win over bad dreams. And he saw the solution in Zeztz: something that could only be born from his own son and the "bad dream" of the Catastrophe Gore Nightmare he had within him.

What are Nightmares? Entities that date back to critical consciousness of humanity and the source behind all evil and crime. CODE was formed to stop them, but in the escalating conflict Nightmares have become even more powerful.

Well, Lady gets point for being the mom who prioritizes her daughter over everything else, even if Nem isn't in the mood to accept that or let it make her feel better. Though I'm not surprised Lady's forgotten how to even sleep at this point.

Good job running in those heels, Nem. Maybe that's "dream magic."

That's got to be the most forced "yes" I've ever heard.

It's nice to see Baku and Nem commiserate over their parental drama and the fact that, if not for Zeztz and Nightmares, they might have never met.

Threaky finally makes his move to oust Zero and Zero honestly saw it coming. All this comes down to is CODE: Somnia and whatever it does, and he's the true threat Zero was holding back from going after Baku and co.

I can't believe Nasuka is the one to say "is this a Black Case?" for once. She's also legitimately the only actual police officer in the cast, even if she treats Odaka like her Senpai. Fujimi was so convinced he and Odaka could be buddies over having to deal with Nasuka and Odaka shoved Fujimi's balls straight into Nasuka's kick. Ouch.

Minami, Baku's adoptive sister, has to be the one to tell him that his biological fathers' Nightmare is a sign of how much he truly loved Baku as a father, something Baku was unwilling to accept. Especially if it meant their last meeting was because Zero knew he didn't have long left.

The last thing any father can do for his son...is send his super cool Rider Machine back to him so he can be a true Kamen RIDER once more.

Uh...random Agito movie tie-in?

Baku could have probably easily ended this with Orderm but thematically he needed to end it with Physicam Impact. Both because it matched the Zeztz Nightmare and it conveyed Baku carrying his fathers' legacy and belief in him into this fight and prove Baku could overcome a Bad Dream.

Bike stunts! Bike fighting! Bike scenes!

Nothing more petty than Threaky intentionally stepping on the father-son picture.

I guess I should've known it would come down to a Rider Kick duel. ALSO OVER-BANISH!!!!!

Oh dang, they broke the Driver! Baku can't transform! Now there's nobody who can fight the bad guys other than NOX and he's still kind of all over the place!

Next week: Nem's Nightmare! Saori Hayami? And ZEZTZ EX-DREAM!!!!

[JusticeMagnum]

Interesting lore dump on the origins of the Nightmares and I like the stuff done with Zero this week, him sending the Zeroider to Baku was a nice final act and I like that he stays pretty nuanced. Also that fight with Darkness Zeztz was really great.

It also turns out that the TV Asahi website clarified why the Zeztz Driver was destroyed. Some people thought that defeating Darkness Zeztz caused it but it turns out Over Banish just puts way too much strain on the Driver and caused it to be destroyed.

(Also fun cameo appearance from G6 lol)

[Fish Sandwich]

So, starting from both the end and the beginning here, I like that this episode focuses in on Nightmares as this fundamental, inescapable reflected image of humanity itself, and then has the cliffhanger be the revelation that ZEZTZ was able to destroy his own reflection... but only by destroying himself in the process.

Simply as a narrative structure thing, I think that's neat, but beyond that, it's way up my alley how the episode expands on the relationship between good dreams and bad ones in a way that meshes well with classic Kamen Rider themes, as this yin and yang situation where black and white each contain a piece of the other as part of a singular whole. I've mentioned before that, in general, I love dramatic conversations in this show between Nem and Baku, and the one they get here is no exception. It's the scene that most emphasizes those themes at play, with them comparing notes on their recent conversations with their parents, and through telling one another about the things that make those experiences different, they're both able to ease some of that identical sense of burden hanging over them in that moment. Nem is tortured by her connection to bad dreams, but Baku is able to find something good that came of that, just as Nem is able to remind Baku that his connection to Zero's dream has brought him more than only suffering.

It's kind of a lot going on, honestly! Kind of hard to really get at in one of these late-night sleepy-time posts I do for ZEZTZ, so I won't try to unpack the episode that much more right now. Suffice it to say, I think there are a lot of different layers going on like that in plenty of other scenes here too, and that's a huge thing it's got going for it. In typical ZEZTZ fashion, it doesn't actually cleanly resolve everything the first half of the two-parter set up, but it moves everything into a new phase that pays it all off in ways that I think are pretty smart?

Really appreciated the use of the toys here, especially. Obviously an episode this late in the game that uses the base form and nothing *but* the base form for an entire climax is going to win points with me inherently, but that appreciation goes beyond simple personal preference here. I thought it was great to see ZEZTZ overcome his doppelganger with an Over Banish after all this time, making it worth holding off on that sound for so long, and I thought the use of the Zeroider was... well, really, the whole show has actually been remarkably focused in how it uses the bike? Like the base form, just getting screen-time, especially in an action scene, is always going to be cool, but using it as such a big factor in the whole visual language and symbolism -- as something that can physically represent the bond between Baku and his father -- that's taking it a step beyond. Really makes the "Rider" part of the title feel essential in a unique way.

[Frontier]

My condolences to Orderm that it only got two episodes before they introduced the Final Form which has got to be a record for anything that's not a two-tier upgrade form.