[Dormamu]

Evol really.....REALLY reminds me of a design kickback from Fourze. It might be the phase form, the overall circular pattern to the suit, the constellation usage, or the rider kick, but..but....SPAAAAAAACE KIIITAAAAIIIII!!!!!!!!

Now that that is out of the way, I honestly kind of disliked this episode. For the first time, they used no less than four plot devices to shuffle along what would have been a lot of logic into a way to twist the story.

First, Gentoku's twist. Rogue explaining that because the Nebula gas actually had the opposite effect of the light from the Pandora box to bring his true nature back. Nonsense. They could have just gone on the principles of his wanting to create Faust to unify, and left it at that.

Second, also Gentoku. Daddy issues. We see he has a heart after freeing Grease's friends, and not wanting to ice his father, but at the same time, the use of his father to obviously effect him for the future episodes is trite and kind of a waste of what could have been. The PM didn't have to become a martyr for Gentoku's change of character. He already arrived there. Also, sin points for hammy acting in that last five minutes.

Third, yep, Gentoku again. We knew the chip was going to be a thing, and that it would just be thrown away at the end. Predictable. And a plot device nevertheless.

Fourth, the Evol driver happened to be exactly where they needed it to be, at the time it needed to be there. And Sento had enough time to put it back together, reprogram Gentoku's chip, and get to the location in Sawa's clown car. And it happened to fall into Evolt's hot little hands because Misora pulled the one thing I was really hoping she wouldn't ever be written as, a morality/emotion plot twist. Misora's character has always been a strong lead, but her just walking toward Evolt when there was zero sign that he had released his grip on Soichi? Plot hole.

Oh yeah, forgot....Grease. From nowhere. Because he wasn't tired anymore. Sigh.

Utsumi....man, I really....really hate that guy. He's my new Sid of the season. May he get crushed by a mountain.

It's purely because they had to use a bunch of really tired plot devices to push the Evol driver (toy) into being and the hammy acting that I just feel like this was a real one off that didn't have the same feel as the other episodes have had. Still good, still great effects and fight scenes, but 6 out of 10 for me.