"Goodbye, guys. Thanks for the adventure."
In the final episode of Meta Runner, Tari's story comes to an end as she and Sofia race against time to restore Lucinia and stop Sheridan once and for all... which might require her to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Unmarked spoilers ahead!
Episode 28 contains examples of:
- And I Must Scream: Theo describes having his data fragments scattered all over the server as "being nothing and everything at the same time."
- Back for the Finale: Satsuki-chan returns to help Tari fight Lucinia when they end up in Pocket Gakusei.
- Big Damn Kiss: Belle and Lucinia share a kiss after reuniting, confirming that the feelings between them was romantic love rather than just friendship.
- Bittersweet Ending: On the sweet side, Sheridan is dead, Global Warp Technology has been stopped and numerous lives have been saved, Evelyn is arrested, Masa is absolved of both Lucks's murder and his debt with Marco, Lucinia is fully revived and reunited with her sister Sofia and her lover Belle, and everyone goes on to lead normal lives. On the bitter side, Tari and Theo are now stuck in cyberspace with no way of knowing for sure when, how, or even if they can reunite with their friends, who believe they're truly gone, though Tari believes they might someday—and until then, they have all the time in the world to finally play video games just for fun together.
- Body Horror: Sheridan gets fried to death when Marco slaps a dozen control bugs onto his head and shoves him into his own server.
- Chrome Champion: Tari acquires a metallic skin from Sofia during her fight with Lucinia, allowing her to withstand a lot more damage than what she normally would (as well as giving her voice a slight robotic reverberation akin to Metal Mario). It doesn’t last very long, however.
- Clear My Name: It is revealed in the news report shown right after Lucinia, Belle, and MD-5 mourn Tari's supposed death that the Silica City Police Department dropped Masa's murder charges after they discover that Sheridan was the true culprit behind Lucks' death.News Reporter: Police have also dropped the murder charges against Masa Shimamoto, after it was found out that his fatal shooting of TAS-Corp CEO Derek Lucks was also a result of the cyber-attack by Sheridan.
- Dramatic Irony: MD-5 may never know that the Ultra Jump Mania cartridge that Belle snuck out of TASCorp to keep as a memento actually contains Tari and Theo's data in it, and Tari and Theo don't know that MD-5 have their cartridge.
- Dying as Yourself: As the server collapses, the Lucks A.I. arrives to help Tari and is shown to act like a slightly friendlier version of the real Lucks. He mentions that being Sheridan's slave was undignifying.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After nearly two years of fighting TASCorp, and eventually Sheridan, the members of MD-5 finally get to live out their lives happily, especially now that Lucinia is back.
- Extra-Long Episode: The finale clocks in at just over 23½ minutes, the longest episode in the series.
- Face Death with Dignity: Much like the original Lucks, A.I. Lucks takes his incoming demise with stride.
- Finale Credits: The end credits are a photo montage set to a new original song, "Bluejay".
- Foreshadowing: A.I. Lucks reminds Tari that when she thought Theo died, Theo's data was trapped in Sheridan's server. Specifically, the same server Tari has been warping through. Near the end of the episode, it's revealed that Tari was able to recover Theo's data and saved both herself and Theo by warping them into Theo's old cartridge alongside whatever server data Tari was able to recover.
- God Mode:
- Sheridan makes Lucinia overpowered to stop Tari, but fortunately, Sofia is able to disable it by temporarily disconnecting Sheridan's control, giving Tari enough time to get Lucinia back to the virtual lab.
- Tari herself has this once she creates her own server within Theo's old game cartridge, allowing her to generate objects and open games at will.
- Gory Discretion Shot: We don’t see much of Sheridan’s charred corpse, but what we do see still isn’t exactly pretty.
- Grand Finale: It's right there in the title. While Glitch has confirmed more material set in the show's universe starting with the comic book prequel Meta Runner: Source, this marks the end of Tari's journey.
- Internal Reveal: Marco sees Sheridan's mask and realizes that he's the one who was selling Meta Bugs to cheaters.
- Karmic Death: Sheridan is killed by Marco planting several of his Meta Bugs across his face; the same kind of devices he was implied to have sold to Masa in order to help cheat in the game against Marco, and later planting one on Masa in-order to hack his Meta Runner arm and frame him for Lucks’ murder.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Not only does Evelyn get slapped and berated by the revived Lucinia, but she gets arrested for her involvement in Sheridan's plan.
- Make Sure He's Dead: At the start of the episode, Sheridan approaches Masa’s unconscious body, and grabs a knife with the intention of finishing him off. However, he’s forced to put that aside when Tari enters his server.
- Not Quite Dead:
- Masa is revealed to have survived his control device exploding and being stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver.
- At the end of the episode, it's revealed that Tari was able to save her and Theo's data onto Theo's old cartridge right before Sheridan's server disappeared, allowing them to both live on in Tari's personal server.
- On a more humorous note, the Elder Tomato is still present in Sheridan's server in the finale and Tari rescued him alongside Theo and the rest of the server data which she was able to salvage.
- Parrying Bullets: Sheridan attempts to shoot Marco when he arrives, only for his mechanical arms to deflect every shot.
- Pet the Dog: Marco decides not to enact his revenge on Masa once he's seen that the arm that Masa cheated to get was blown off.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When Sheridan defiantly declares to Marco that no one is going to destroy his work ever again:Marco: Well technically, I’m not going to destroy your work. (plants several Meta Bugs on Sheridan’s head) You are.
- The Reveal: According to A.I. Lucks, when the real Lucks crushed Theo's cartridge, Theo's data was trapped in Sheridan's server, and the server which Tari had been warping through had been Sheridan's the whole time.
- Rule of Symbolism: The virtual world Tari and Theo's consciousnesses are stored in after their physical bodies die can turn into a variety of video games, but its default form is a Fluffy Cloud Heaven.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Upon returning to the real world, Evelyn yells at our heroes for continually getting in her way. But when she tries to once again rant about Tari, that earns her a slap and an evisceration from the recently revived Lucinia.Lucinia: Don’t you dare speak about her! Evelyn, you are a vile, spoiled little brat that is finally going to face some consequences for her actions!
- Spanner in the Works: The only reason that Tari didn't give up on preserving herself is because A.I. Lucks, who was made to be Sheridan's punching bag, had a change in heart and gives Tari a hint on how she can save herself and Theo.
- Villainous Breakdown: After Sheridan gets electrocuted for a short time after Marco attaches one of his own bugs on his head, he snaps at Marco, saying that no one is going to destroy his work ever again.Sheridan: GET OFF ME!! I AM SUPPOSED TO WIN!!! NONE OF YOU STUPID, BRAINLESS, WEAK-MINDED IDIOTS ARE GOING TO DESTROY MY WORK EVER AGAIN!!!!!!
- When He Smiles: Masa appears much happier and relaxed after MD-5, along with Belle and Lucinia, are back together.
- You're Not My Father: Dr. Sheridan tries to make an appeal to Sophia that he's great by pointing out that he was the man responsible for having created Tari in the first place; insisting that this makes him her "Dad". Tari is quick to state otherwise.
But hopefully... I'll see you soon...
