[DreamSword]

Episode 5: The Disdained

Gerd is back, and he's here to prove that he's still got it.

He starts off by sticking it to Igor, the man who helped orchestrate Gerd getting thrown off the racing team, by beating him in a clean race.

But of course, Igor's' response is to immediately go to the media and say that Gerd attacked him, which is the exact opposite of what actually happened. People are quick to demonize without knowing every detail, don'tcha know.

Meanwhile, Jill is on the verge of transforming into an Amalgam at any moment, and she senses that Gerd is near, sending her into an even bigger frenzy. The XAT opts to try and transport her to a more secure location, not that it stops the media from hounding them any.

Also meanwhile, Malek is taking care of the wounded Joseph, repaying him for saving Malek from the bullies a couple days ago. Malek also tells his former friend Yohan to shove it when Yohan tries to be all "I know I beat the crap out of you regularly now but we're still cool right?" And ya know, GOOD. Goes to show that despite his issues, Malek atleast has some self respect and common sense.

So far so good right? Well, things take quite a turn when Jill's' transformation is complete, and she escapes the XAT to rampage across the city. It's here that I also am kinda confused on if Urobochi is trying to be even-handed about the entire situation or not. Because of course, once Jill begins to run amok, Gerd jumps in to cut her down. Given the reactions of Malek and Joseph, the shows seems to want you to think Gerd is simply out for revenge and nothing else.

But the thing is... if that were actually the case, why wouldn't he have also killed Igor? As well, it's entire possible, given Gerd's' visions, that he instead sensed that Jill was about to turn and simply arrived to make sure the death toll she caused was kept at a minimum. Because despite what Joseph says, Jill is in no way innocent, even after turning, wherein she immediately kills a handful of XAT members. I also wonder where Joseph gets off on judging Gerd for killing Amalgams when, you know, Joseph himself does the exact same thing.

Regardless, the shining moment in all of this is at the very end, when Hermann manages to reach out to Gerd, and hands Gerd the letter that Malek wrote him. It goes a long way in showing Gerd that there are still people who believe in him, despite it seeming like the entire world has turned its back on him. And it definitely hits home, because Gerd shows that yes, his human emotions are still very much alive, despite his best efforts to close them off. It was definitely the best scene in the episode, but if my suspicions about further episodes ends up getting proven true, well... I'll elaborate when the time comes.

Overall, the episode does its job well enough. The over-arching theme of the show appears to so far be about Human Empathy vs Blind Belief, and while that's certainly an interesting topic to cover in a Kamen Rider-esque show, time will only tell if Blassreiter has the chops to pull it off or not.