[DreadBringer]

The public gets more spotlight this time. And this ends in a cliffhanger.

As expected, Daiji's the one that is blinded, instead of the others, because he'd still be fixated to ARARAT's cause and vehemently rejecting any other solutions or views. Though to be fair to him, Akaishi still acted smug after Ultimate Revi/Vice's appearence. Previously Daiji's still acting like edgy secondary Riders, but now he had started to commit actual villainy, using brutal methods to get rid of any obstacles in his cause, like beating up Tasuke (he's a shithead here, but the reason is unrelated to that), siccing Giff Juniors on the humans (that's some Baron level crime), and of course what he did to his siblings, even more that he tried to pull a gun on unmorphed Ikki or Sakura. While Daiji wants to prevent bodycounts, he ironically would potentially cause more of it. Early on Daiji's someone who's characterized as being insecure, and after his persuasion is denied by the citizens, he blames everyone else but himself, and I wonder if this is also more about Daiji trying to prove himself 'right' instead, which'd be actually selfish. Which if it is, this is one of the most disastrous consequences of middle child syndrome. A sliver of hope would be that Daiji still being disgusted at Vail, someone purely malicious.

George meets up again with Hiromi and the mass production Demons is teased... a̶n̶d̶ ̶D̶e̶m̶o̶n̶s̶'̶ ̶p̶o̶t̶e̶n̶t̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶n̶e̶r̶f̶. I like that George's atrocities before isn't forgotten with Hiromi being suspicious of him at first. Like if Hiromi finally had the higher ground on his bullies (and George was). Though as George stated before, he'd try to help him if he can, and apologizing to him though not expecting to earn it. R̶e̶g̶a̶r̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶S̶p̶i̶d̶e̶r̶-̶M̶a̶n̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶f̶f̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶'̶d̶ ̶r̶e̶m̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶i̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶S̶a̶n̶d̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶e̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶g̶i̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶S̶p̶i̶d̶e̶r̶-̶M̶a̶n̶ ̶T̶r̶i̶l̶o̶g̶y̶,̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶u̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶l̶o̶o̶m̶y̶ ̶d̶e̶l̶i̶v̶e̶r̶y̶. Hiromi at the end almost punched George, but later fist bumps his chest instead, signifying that George had both committed despicable actions in the past, but now has been redeemed. George wasn't a case of turns out he's good though (also in his apology), he probably was evil in the past before changing.

The people here surprisingly had steadfast belief on Kamen Rider, to drive Daiji away when he tried to influence people into giving up on despair, despite the edited footages that made Weekend looked actually villainous. Still if they're using actual footages in their schemes, I'd like if footages are used in Weekend's plan, though Genta stated Ultimate Revi/Vice's fights are uploaded.

Regarding the fights in this episode, I'm relieved that Ultimate Revi/Vice still walks through Hell Giftarians easily, despite a bit struggle against the mooks before. And after all the jokes about Jeanne performing better than Holy Live, now Holy Live is the 'unstoppable' berserker here, swatting away the girl Riders and holding his own with Ultimate Revi/Vice. As said above, Ultimate Revi/Vice is still consistent against Hell Giftarians, and at the end, Ultimate Vice defeats Holy Live by reflecting the attack back to him. So perhaps it's about Ultimate Revi/Vice holding back, for obvious reasons. Again like before, I kinda wish that the Rider and fighting part would be addressed more like explaining how Ultimate Revi/Vice can hold back Giff beam, for example.

For the remaining parts in this episode, though Daiji had a case of this before, now it's infuriating to set up a story for someone, but continue it later in half-assed way.

Ikki losing his memory about his family, the onsen moment, is a throwaway here just to show how dire the current situation now that they need to fight harder. Though appreciate Vice's method of trying to get to know if his memory loss is getting worse. Unrelated is about Vice's solution to co-exist with Giff peacefully, that's ironically Vice following Daiji's footsteps, though Vice may be proposing about befriending him instead of letting Giff rule over them. I have to say I kinda like that Genta's more active father of his family now, after stop acting like Junpei, other than just doing some (in-universe) asinine gags before, including at Vail Legacy part 5 before.

After getting little focus, albeit she gets more lately, Kimiko is finally killed, and this weighs on Hikaru despite that the family is fake. This does show more about the remaining 2's characters, that Hikaru seems to have no one else than the Ushijimas and thus is lonely, which probably would mean Hikaru got hit by tragic circumstances regarding his real family, and that Tasuke is someone rather cold and ruthless in his cause as well, the type to degrade emotions and feelings as 'naivety' (albeit Hikaru really got slowed down by his feelings there). Previously, he's surprised at Masumi's unethical practices, but now, Masumi's the one that called him harsh. But the Ushijima family being fake was also only a throwaway line when the cast joined Weekend, and it was never elaborated on how a fake family live together, compared to real family like the Igarashis (harmonic) and Karizakis (dysfunctional), just like the missed chance to flesh out the Hell Bros in Build as child soldiers, even if Sakura had dope words for Hikaru that fake or real doesn't matter in a family.... like adopted kids, and ironically, most KR series use the 'fake' family type in the main cast's circle. If only the previous KR reference (perhaps with George) is still there as a potential 4th wall breaking material too.