[Mesnick]

This episode has a lot of interesting visuals, Baku's acting in this episode is also very good and delicate. And a fascinating introduction with Kode hunting Baku and his crew. But, as usual, the episode subverts expectations by turning into a revelation of the past. It turns out that Nightmare Zero was hiding behind all of Baku's misfortunes, wanting to prevent him from fulfilling his dream of creating Zeztz. This works well for the narrative, but raises a ton of questions like: "Why does Zero take so many naps during the day?" and "By preventing Baku from helping people in real life, didn't Nightmare push him to become Zeztz and, thus, to fulfill Zero's dream? After all, Baku himself mentioned this several times at the beginning of the show. So Nightmare is contradicting his own purpose!" Also, the revelation that Zero is Baku's father, while expected (an expected unexpected twist, oh my!), reeks of a very cheesy soap opera. I don't know, maybe it would have worked better in different circumstances, but here it feels like another flaw in Zero's characterization.
Nem's situation is also dire. After escaping Zero's dream, she ends up in Dawn's prison, where Dawn manages to drive her to despair. Well, if he couldn't defeat the Riders, at least he brought the girl to tears. A nightmare fan implanted in Nem the idea that she creates Nightmares because she subconsciously wants Dreamers to suffer. Unable to bear this, Nem runs away and meets her mother. The scene is beautiful and dramatic, but we'll see where it leads. In Baku`s premonition, Nem learned to control dreams, but it was rolled back just as she was starting to get the hang of it. Maybe her recent despair will help her return to her quest to control her power.
Overall, there's a sense of the 30s approaching. Everyone's fighting, everyone has their own interests, and the fights are becoming purely nominal. Fortunately, in Zeztz's case, one can hope for a variety of locations and visual delights.
P.S. The Zeztz kigurumi is Nem's best outfit so far. It's a shame she didn't stay in it longer. But then the scene in the flower field wouldn't have look so tragic.
P.S. Whatever the CODE: Somnia is, it clearly not a weapon for rapid response.