[Paladin]

Mira's ex returns to reclaim his beloved.

[Sh Ranger]

Oh no, they seriously fumbled the moral here. There was nothing before to suggest that Norio was a toxic partner, but the plot relies on him suddenly being totally unhinged and vengeful, instead of having Taiya and Mira have to deal with the consequences of their actions. Mira only has to deal with Bowl Auto, even though she's literally the subject of the plot, so her share of the focus goes to Sakito instead.

As usual, Taiya, who betrayed his client's trust, immediately gives Norio a Handle Lecture and the only reason he's depicted as being right is due to Norio suddenly turning in to this show's equivalent of a Hitotsuki. Otherwise, Norio would be the sympathetic one and that would make the heroes look bad. His official surname is revealed as Orino (in draft it was Kuruma), which sounds like the staff thought about that as much as they did this plot.

Honestly, I thought Morichi's previous episodes were generally okay, but this one doesn't work for me.