[Fish Sandwich]

Well my feelings on this one are a little mixed. In general I loved it, but man, that resolution with Scorpio was just... not quite right.

I mean, I get what they were going for, like, Stinger's words remind him of who he used to be and he gains some clarity as he's dying or whatever, but when you spent so long (very effectively!) pushing the idea that this guy really was just a total lost cause, and showing him to constantly actively take pleasure in what a colossal jerk he is, it comes off pretty rushed.

I'm happy Stinger got his catharsis and all, but the script here definitely needed some fine-tuning to get the audience to accept what happened. Maybe ditch the whole "keep on living!" bit and just have him save Stinger without any speechifying, which could leave this kind of gray area where Scorpio himself doesn't even understand his sudden change of heart. Or how about Stinger and Champ have a little heart to heart at the end where said sudden change of heart just leaves Stinger even more confused, or maybe Champ can be like "Yeah I still hate that guy's guts" to make it clear the show doesn't want us to suddenly forgive Scorpio or anything stupid like that, which I think IS the idea here, but again, they don't really touch on it properly.

Anyway, that's a whole lot of complaining, and I guess when I'm whining about Kyuranger it's pretty damning, so I'll end by reiterating that I still enjoyed the episode a ton. The Scorpio stuff isn't totally irredeemable since it's still great development for Stinger (who's ultimately the important party here), and I kind of like Ho-Oh Soldier(?), even though he stole Geki Violet's catchphrase and apparently thinks he's a Buster, even though he's obviously nowhere near that cool, but that debut was crazy! The kind of crazy that makes Kyuranger feel so different and fresh, even if a couple months from now he'll probably have trouble taking on single monsters.