Mankind At an Intersection, Each Person's Decision.
- Original Airdate: May 22, 2022
Written by: Hanta Kinoshita
Directed by: Takayuki Shibasaki
Summary
In the wake of Akaishi's shocking press conference, Fenix enacts their "strategic human devolution policy", where citizens are to undergo mandatory stamping in order to remove their inner demons, as well as pledge their obedience and loyalty to Giff.
"All for the salvation of humanity." Or so it is claimed.
To the consternation of Weekend, the public has made their decision to capitulate to Giff without resistance, though it seems that to the general public, the potential ramifications of that choice have yet to sink in.
Sakura and Hana continue to explore the city in its current situation, only to be ambushed by Vail. While Sakura fights him to protect a helpless Hana, Tamaki — who has joined Weekend out of a desire to contribute — appears.
Tropes
- Bait-and-Switch: The preview showed that Tamaki was going to transform into a Kamen Rider. However, in this episode, just before Tamaki can transform, Vail swiftly steals the Buffalo Vistamp from his hand and stamps it on his body, then knocks Tamaki away. Hana picks up the Week Endriver and uses her Queen Bee Vistamp to transform into Kamen Rider Aguilera.
- Big Damn Heroes: Double Subverted. Tamaki tries to transform and save the day, only for Vail to swipe his Vistamp and knock off his Driver. Then Hana shows up, uses the Driver to transform, and defeats Vail.
- The Bus Came Back: Downplayed; Genta returns to the show for the first time in a while, yet his condition prevents him from fighting alongside his family.
- Distressed Dude: Tamaki gets kidnapped by Vail in a bid to draw out Genta from hiding. Fortunately for the heroes, it's all part of the plan.
- Engineered Heroics: The Inner Demon removal "treatment" is seen by the public to be a good measure to seal away all their potential demons for good, but unknown to them it's all part of Akaishi's ploy to supply him with a near-endless amount of Giff Juniors to portray the increasing threat of Demons to the public.
- Flash Step: Vail uses this to steal the Buffalo Vistamp from Tamaki when he tries to transform, having expected the latter had a new weapon up his sleeve and immediately taking a step to prevent Transformation Is a Free Action.
- Forgot About His Powers: As stated above, Vail steals Tamaki's Vistamp to stop him from transforming. For some reason, he doesn't do this when Hana is about to transform.
- Lampshade Hanging: Vail drops some shade on the extra Vistamps that don't have any use outside of being an advertisement to buy their toy counterparts by snatching the Buffalo Vistamp and saying how it's yet another Vistamp reduced to being a toy.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The escalation of the conflict against Giff has made it so that even the Japanese government is put on notice, with Vistamp use mandates set up to free humans from their demons (though the process is implied to create Hell Gifftarians instead), Weekend is forced to take drastic measures which results in the debut of Kamen Rider Aguilera, and George is forced to move into Happy Spa.
- Rule of Symbolism: The new urban development area set aside for Stamped people is named ARARAT, after the mountain in Turkey where Noah's Ark is said to have landed after the Great Flood.
- Spanner in the Works: The reason Hana is able to defeat Vail as Kamen Rider Aguilera is the fact that her purified Queen Bee Vistamp is one of the few that isn't in Fenix's possession, preventing him from matching its power.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The A-plot of the episode centers on Weekend's plan to locate Akaishi, while the B-plot centers on Akaishi's plan to break Daiji's resistance to his plans.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: No-one knew Hana had been given a Vistamp and sent to rendezvous with them until the very last minute, meaning that her part of the plan went perfectly.
- Wham Shot:
- Kamen Rider Revice being unable to completely split Akemi from Giffdemos, however Akemi manages to get through enough to inform them that they need Giff's own level of power in order to defeat him.
- The Week Endriver landing at Hana's feet, before she transforms into Kamen Rider Aguilera.
- The Hell Gifftarian emerging from a hallway, tanking one of Live's finishers and regenerating, and curb-stomping the overwhelmed Fenix Rider.
