[Fish Sandwich]

In retrospect, I already feel like I made a mistake in how I was looking at the previous episode? Between the way the toy works and the preview for this week, I was on the right track in realizing Over Mode showing up wasn't fully meant to be a climax, but I was a step or two away from properly catching on that the debut itself was -- like most first parts of two-parters in Rider -- merely the setup.

Right away, that variation from how previous power-up stories in Gavv have been handled is a point in this episode's favor. There have been times where we learn some details about the way a new suit works after the fact, as a smaller part of a different story (Valen's melting frappe even provides a helpful example in this very episode!), but here, especially with the whole premise of last week's "victory" immediately being revealed as less definitive than it looked, it's very clear that we're still in the one story.

So the drama of Over Mode ends up being less about how the show builds to it, and more about how having it helps build the show, with the unique shtick of the Gochipod making for an episode that takes the stuff from last week that was only "pretty good", and upgrades it all into a firm "very good".

Like, it's *pretty* touching to have Dente giving up his teeth to help Shouma live a happier life, but it's *very* touching to expand that into him affirming that Shouma doesn't need his help specifically, after a day spent involving himself with everyone directly enough to gain a newfound appreciation for how the little boy he knew is growing into a fine young man who has surrounded himself with caring people he can rely on.

And then there's the matter of everything that happens between those two beats! The aforementioned delicious party preceding the big fight is a rather definitive Gavv plot, for sure. On the face of it, I already like the idea of the Gochipod having the strength of a hundred Gochizo because it uses a hundred of them for continuing the trend of powerful forms in this show having a clearly defined drawback. Any excuse to still see more PoppinGummy or Fuwamallow or hopefully Chocodan at least once this year, I'm all for that. To have that same drawback also get us an episode that so smoothly highlights with such clarity the whole significance of the Gochizo even existing to begin with though, that's going the extra mile.

It all comes together quite beautifully, and that trend of the episode going beyond anywhere it can hits an incredible crescendo during the true climax of Over Mode's debut story. It's already an improvement at least having actual civilians in danger this time, but to take the *pretty* cool idea of Over Mode's overwhelming power making it sluggish and unwieldy, and turn it into the *very* cool idea for an action scene where Valen and Vram line up the one perfect hit Gavv needs... to have the story about the form that unites the power of all the Gochizo also unite the three Riders, all in-frame together transformed for what I'm reasonably sure (discounting the opening) is the first time since one of them was still an enemy? That's just awesome on too many levels to get into right now.

In pretty much every way it conceivably could be, this is an episode about things coming together, and when a power-up story is tailored to the hook of the new toy *this* well, I really don't feel like asking any more of it.