[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

That's something this episode in particular nailed, I thought. Having Touma asking to just slow down and talk, and then having Kento do exactly that, it was so wonderful. There's such a tragic bent to Saber in recent months, but the show doesn't come off as overly grim or cold, because it goes out of its way to root the pain the characters feel in the simple fact that they have hearts, and it makes all the difference.

This moment right here may be the single most un-Kamen Rider moment I can remember seeing in a long time. One character turns on the others and then takes a moment to justify his actions to the other characters. No "I don't need to explain this!" No "You'll understand in time." No "A guy like you wouldn't understand." We didn't even get a partial explanation interrupted by the arrival of a third party (and Reika was right there, in perfect position to disrupt everything!). This was an open conversation in which Kento clearly laid out his mission so that the heroes could still oppose him, but would do so with the explicit knowledge of what they're fighting (except for Ren and Rintarou, who will undoubtedly hear Reika's bastardized version of events and begrudgingly believe it because they're a moron and a cultist, respectively).

I want to take a second to point out the contrast here with something else I'm watching: Den-O. As those of you following Kamen Rider Die's thread already know, he's up to the point where Zeronos first shows up. One of the main deals with Yuuto on that show is that he has at least some idea of what the villains' plot is (as much as they have one; Den-O's villains have very poorly explained goals) and knows a lot about the disappearance of his future self. He refuses to explain any of this to Ryotaro, primarily insisting that he doesn't need to know. I am so relieved to Saber take a swerve here and actually put the heroes and the antihero on the same page (pun not initially intended, then realized, then intended).

But yeah, this was a great episode. I really like how the show raised the stakes, both narratively and structurally. I liked the big fight scene - I love Saber's three-sided battles and am always down for more. And finally, I loved how we got the full reveal of the show's next big bad, an origin story for the Megido, and the long overdue erasure of Tassel and all of that stuff feels like a footnote because the show's A plot was so strong.