[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 46 - “2019 - OPERATION WOZ”



*sigh*

Half of this episode was absolutely fantastic. There’s a fleetness to the Rescue Geiz plan that’s refreshing and exciting; a heist-y oasis of clever plotting and clear consequences. Characters get used in unpredictable ways for action sequences that rival this show’s best, while keeping the narrative core personal and emotional. It’s an All Hands battle to save a teammate, but it’s also a chance for Geiz to confront how his outlook and his mission have changed over the last year. Genuinely thrilled over how precise and smart the first half of this episode was.

And then.

And then we get to the whole What’s Swartz Really Up To part, and I could see the wheels coming off of this whole goddamn series arc, second by second. It’s not that it’s dumb, exactly. I don’t know that it necessarily contradicts anything we’ve seen in this season, but folks can certainly shout out things I’ve overlooked. It’s fine, as far as the details of Swartz’z established motivation are concerned. Him wanting Sougo’s power to be the King of Time or whatever? Sure, fine, okay. I don’t know that it creates additional tension to the earlier part of the show, when the Time Jackers were like How About This Rando every other week, but it doesn’t break the show or anything.

The problem is that it continually introduces new problems for the characters that only come from Swartz’z monologues, and only seconds before they’re relevant to the plot. We aren’t in an endgame that the show has been building to since the first episode, despite the Time Jackers being around since the very beginning of this show. We’re getting some random scheme of Swartz’z, with an out-of-nowhere stipulation to complicate things. The idea that Sougo can’t destroy Swartz without also erasing Tsukuyomi’s timeline… what?! It’s like saying Sougo can’t eat a bowl of noodles without Woz dying. Why? Says who? Since when is Swartz responsible for his entire timeline? If this was a sword hanging over our heroes’ heads, why in the world wouldn’t the show want to tell us sooner? Why throw it at the viewer this late in the story?

Dramatically, it feels like the story has whatever rules and stakes are necessary for the current conflict, and that sucks. That sucks real bad. I’m not saying the superhero show about time travel needs bulletproof causality or unbreakable rules for pseudo-science, but you can’t just drastically alter the stakes by having the villain go Oh By The Way. It feels unfair in a way that flimsy Ridewatch mechanics don’t. It makes Swartz feel cheap, and that’s literally the last thing you want your season-long villain to come off as.

I really disliked the end of this episode, almost to the exact amount I loved the beginning of it. The first half had tight, clever plotting, and a warm view of its characters. The second half had bizarrely untethered machinations and frustratingly under-established stakes. Add to that a rapidly – and disappointingly – growing body count, and you have the makings of a cliffhanger that has me honestly dreading where this story could go next.

Thanks, Swartz!