[Fish Sandwich]

I might just be looking at it from the wrong angles, but I came out of this one wishing the central conflict had more of a bite to it than I ended up feeling?

The episode is very entertaining, as always, and there are developments that promise some big swings happening soon, but right now, this week, I've got a story about Hanto and Nyelv that seems to only reinforce what I've already known about their characters, rather than adding anything new or, better still, taking those familiar aspects and putting them in a new light.

Zombie Suga's whole presence especially had me assuming that this latest Bitter Gavv would be used as a way to make some unified point or another about one or both of those characters, who had their respective connections to Suga, making things a lot more personal than if it were merely some random new Granute in that role. But again, unless all the nuances flew completely over my head (which is far from impossible!), it really does seem to be as simple as "Nyelv is deeply amoral" and "Hanto is a true bro", and neither of those things are news by now. Like, did *anyone* who's been watching Gavv from the start believe for even a second that Hanto was still brainwashed when he showed up for the climax?

But, you know, I write all that, and I make the episode sound like some joyless experience, when the simple truth is that -- even though it's always nice for every last episode in that 40's home stretch of a Rider show to hit you with the force of a punch from Over Mode -- there's still a lot of fun to be had, even without any particular twist or turn that might take it further than that. The sheer whimsy of Hanto's internal struggle being represented as some shoulder angel argument he has with himself, for example, does wonders to help me get over any perceived lack of meaty drama going on underneath the surface. Much the same is true for that plot thread in general, really. It being obvious that Valen is there at the end to help Gavv and Vram can't actually do that much to make it less awesome how much gusto the guy has doing that crazy spinning headbutt(?!) into Nyelv, or when reacting to Gavv and Vram's reactions to him being fine.

It all still satisfies, at the end of the day. I don't know -- maybe I'm actually just grumpy because neither half of this two-parter had any of the Riders using anything other than their strongest forms? But even then, that's like the only thing in the action here I can even grumble about. There's some great choreography in Valen's fight with his friends, there's a ton of character in his later fight with Nyelv, and Gavv even shows Nyelv the way the cookie crumbles with some classic practical food effects as he takes down Suga, which always makes me super happy to see in an episode. Hard to go too wrong with a show that thinks to use some pieces of cork flying through the air in such an on-brand and cool manner.