Huh, so there goes my theory that Parad betrays Poppy and Graphite to shove them into KR Chronicle. Although I guess that does also explain why Motorz, Kaiden, and Gatton are back now after being absorbed by the Genm's Bugvisor.

Also, I'm really curious about Ren, he seems to be the Tokimeki Crisis bugster, but he already has a human form, which implies he's a "complete being" like Graphite. So is he possibly the bugster that killed detective Heiji (the guy from episode 21)'s son, or are there other victims of the Zero Day and even more bugsters hiding out as humans that we don't know about?

So this was alright:

- Okay Emu, Motorz is getting away on his bike, this is the perfect to time to bust ou-

*Emu runs after him on foot, untransformed*

F***ING KIVA RODE A BIKE MORE THAN YOU! ARGHH!!!

- The VotW stuff here seemed even more half-baked than usual for Ex-Aid. Points for having the whole "friends having a spat" thing to sort of vaguely parallel the Riders, so it wasn't exactly "pointless" per se, but Ex-Aid seems to really have trouble making the patients ever feel like more than just "there".

- So since they didn't bother to contrive an excuse for Lucky's appearance the way Kyuranger did for Emu, I'm now going to forever joke about how Kyuranger is canon to the Ex-Aid universe. "Kamen Rider Chronicle? No time to deal with that guys, you need to do something about the evil alien shogunate that's conquered the planet! How come we never see them, anyway?" :p

- Speaking of continuity, I did appreciate that Emu remembers Lucky from his Kyuranger guest spot (since Sentai airs first), though Excite! Subs didn't seem to get the memo.

- I also like how Emu runs his mouth off about what great dependable pals he has before being reminded who he's talking about. Even with Genm gone the guy still can't catch a break. The worst part is he's not even really wrong. Hiiro and Taiga are pretty much all talk at this point, but man, can those guys ever talk.

- Oh noes, Poppy's been turned to the dark side! Now Emu's circle of genuinely friendly friends has gone from one whole person to zero! Unless we want to count Hiiro's dad? I feel like he's barely been in the show lately though.

- Also Parad is great. He acts like everything is always going according to his plan, and unlike Dan can actually back it up. The way he's acted the entire show makes it clear he genuinely has just been patiently waiting for this opportunity to come up.

It is pretty funny how quickly Hiiro and Taiga were to remind him just who he's dealing with.

Emu: "I'm so happy to have friends like you guys <3"
Taiga: "LOL what? Shut up and give me your gashats."
Hiiro: "How are we even remotely friends, intern?"

It's almost like the show itself was trying to remind us that this isn't Super Sentai. The heroes are a barely functional team that argue and bicker with each other 24/7 because Heisei Era Kamen Rider.

While I agree that some of the VotW plots just seem to fall to the wayside due to massive amounts of plot, I'm starting to think that there's a reason for them being throw away this time: They're a distraction.

Think about it; A start up band who had recently auditioned for Genm Corp., which is now secretly being run by a bugster, all mysteriously develop game disease at the same time. An accident happens, causing one of the members to be hospitalized, and brings them all to the one place where they're guaranteed to run into one of the Riders during a time when their stress would be the highest. Then, when the one band member is safely in the CR, the CEO shows up and "unintentionally" makes her symptoms flare up, leaving him and Poppy alone in the facility while everyone else is handling the bugsters.

^ Ren even said at the end that "this is all just a ploy to brainwash Poppi into our ranks"

BOOM... That's how it go.

This felt a little sillier than usual, but it was still a good episode. Poppy's song should have been really dumb and annoying, but the nature of why she was doing it made the whole scene actively unsettling - good work, Ex-Aid.

I really liked the bit where Emu was convinced that everyone was part of a happy team now, only to be immediately reminded that Taiga and Hiiro are both total assholes. :lol

I generally quite liked this episode, but I'm deducting two points from my vote - one for each "YOSHA LUCKY!!!"

Just saw this one, it was alright, definitely a set up for next episode, which I'll be watching right after this post. Ren was definitely the highlight of this one, hoo boy what a creep.

I feel like the whole crossover aspect could have been used better with the theme of this episode. The episode was all about being friends with your allies, isn't sentai a perfect way to learn that? I mean, Lucky kinda mentioned it, but I think that could have played in more, like if Emu got to watch the whole group of Kyurangers in action (I say all this having not watched any Kyuranger, though).

I also think it would've been nice if Emu had mentioned Poppy/Asuna as one of his allies as well. Not only would it have played well into her brainwashing, but also into his growth as a doctor, which was another theme in this one as well- she is his nurse, after all.