[Fish Sandwich]

This was pretty excellent. That being said:

- Since I can't seem to stop nitpicking this show, I found it slightly weird how slow on the uptake with the whole "Parad is possessing Emu" thing everyone was, considering they were standing right there. I can buy not getting seeing Ex-Aid fighting himself, but come on Taiga, what do you mean "Why has he got Para-DX's Gashat?". Put two and two together, man.

- Speaking of putting numbers together, apparently I'm not the only one who noticed the most juicy lore dropped this whole episode. Parad is really bad at math! No but seriously, if a Pokemon can be level 100, so can you, pal. Don't sell yourself short.

- (obligatory reminder that Parad is totally a way better villain then Kuroto "I technically died more times than Takeru" Dan was)

- So one of Ex-Aid's biggest strengths has been the attention to detail in terms of the Plot, and this episode really showed why. So much stuff that seems like obvious foreshadowing in retrospect! Why was Parad seemingly more special to Dan than the other Bugsters? Why did he just disappear when Emu's Game Virus broke out and then not show up again until the end of that episode when everything was sorted out? See, the fact that this show has so much cohesion is why I nitpick it. It's so smart, I get really surprised when I see something even remotely dumb.

- Also, props to the show for simultaneously confirming every theory about Emu & M all at once, even the ones that seem mutually exclusive. That's nuts. "M is gonna be the main bad guy!"? Yup. "M and Emu are separate dudes!"? Check. "No they're not!"? Also check. "Emu is the real one!"? Uh-huh. "M is the real one!"? Not too far from the truth either. Considering this was the one big thing I was worried Ex-Aid would handle in a way I didn't like, I'm really happy they're doing it the way they are. Emu may be right back on the pain train this week, but on a meta level this is still a victory for the guy.

- Also, even though I'm bad at speculating, I just want to go on record as saying that if Dan gets back in the opening where the purple static is right now, the odds of Kiriya not actually being dead too shoot WAY up there. Although this episode also had Parad explicitly refer to the KRC players as being "killed" rather than "erased" or whatever, which, even if he was just trying to get under Emu's skin, is kind of suspect.

- You know what? Screw it. Here's my real prediction. Hiiro's dad is Chronos. Why else has he been gone for like half the show?