[Paladin]

Baku has been branded a traitor for allowing Nox to escape.

[Frontier]

Code Number 07 has finally found his most convincing undercover assignment yet: playing a Nem fanboy! Because that's literally him. And he's Fan #7 because of course he is. Also I think this is the first time we've heard Nem sing like a proper idol.

Wolf Nightmare! Is that supposed to be a Faiz reference? Though the color scheme could also fit Ryuki. Also, he's got a bike!

"Track the Missing" - I mean, that kind of makes grammatical sense...? Poor Nem though. She even got an outfit that was basically begging her to get "eaten" by the big bad wolf.

How is Zeztz going to engage in a bike fight when his own bike is harping on him for not following orders and betraying his trust!? And how he only gives info to TRUSTED agents!?

They added Inazuma Plasma to the OP!

Look at Nasuka and Fujimi back like they didn't have a bad breakup with Baku and Minami taking care of them as Baku's new "manager." It was nice of the girls to make the boys makeup, even if it required some slaps (and a kick) to pull it off.

So Lady is basically NOX's Zero since she gives him his Capsem's. And is that a scar on her hand? I really feel like she's determined to watch everything burn by watching the world get consumed by nightmares.

It's nice to see Minami joining Baku on his undercover missions...which is also just an excuse for her to dress up and somehow look even more chic than she usually does.

I guess you can tell this is celebrity hospital because they're willing to go along with not reporting someone straight up vanishing if a CEO asks them to.

It's good to see Baku and Zero on good terms again and Zero showing his respect and acceptance of Baku. I feel like he accepts/appreciates Baku more than the organization itself probably does...his one and only agent.

BIKE FIGHT! BIKE FIGHT! BIKE FIGHT!!!!

Kind of surreal seeing the base form use the Inazuma Plasma bow like that.

Zero finally takes on Nox Knight and...wow, he easily soloes him. Like, it took Baku 3-4 episodes before he got that far, and Zero took him down in like a minute. Of course that was just the prelude because NOX doesn't need that transformation anymore...not now that he's KAMEN RIDER NOX.

Now he is no longer afraid of the shadows, he uses them as his weapons, from a shadow sword to a shadow entity that can thrash around Zero...to a shadow Rider Punch that destroys his robot body. Ouch. Can Inazuma Plasma even beat him now!?

[Fish Sandwich]

I once likened the various aspects of this show to gears grinding against each other, but I have to say -- I think they spent the week off greasing the machine up all good as new?

The only thing that baffles me about this episode is how utterly floored I was by it the entire time? It's not just ZEZTZ getting interesting in the vague, reeks-of-denial way I've seen people predict where it will just suddenly become some different show. The reality is actually way cooler than that, judging by this episode, which puts together a thrilling narrative simply by smartly leveraging everything the show has already done, moving all the elements forward and, crucially, having them work together to accomplish that.

A lot of it is in those constant micro-moments that ZEZTZ has always been great about, that I never mention because there's just too many. This week, it's stuff like Baku responding with an "I'm on it" to Zero when he does, or him calling out Zero making another bike joke... those really tiny things that hold big meaning because they're connected to the show's unique sort of "grammar", which is at least an overall concept I've tried to touch on a few times before talking about this show, so hopefully I don't need to elaborate too much on that. Again, there's so much to get into I'd be here all day.

The episode also pulls off that same level of thoughtful construction in all the bigger picture stuff, too, which was amazing to see. We have a Dreamer conflict that builds from episodes 6/7, plus a Seven/Zero conflict and a Zero/Four conflict carrying on from the previous few episodes, while making room to explore stuff like the new status quo with Minami in a way that lets her ongoing background/spinoff plot give Baku the push he needs, and like... it all ties together so smoothly! I am bereft of things to complain about right now. I loved how this one was set up, and I really enjoyed the less black/white drama where a lot of the most interesting conflict comes out of that central thread of Baku and Zero trying to sort out their relationship in the face of the evolving narrative.

So writer-san is doing his job to my satisfaction, which already makes me happy, but then that's not even the end of it, because there's also the whole visual level going on? This one had a fresh director, and that came with a lot of stylish visual touches that are sometimes clearly there just to show off, but were always dynamic enough that I was having too much fun looking at the screen to care. The visuals and the writing come together especially well for the insanely effective cliffhanger, but again, even that is only one of many things I could single out. *All* of this going on, and I get elaborate bike action?! I'm honestly not sure I can say I've ever liked an episode of ZEZTZ this much, and there are a few I thought I liked quite a bit before this!