Ritsu and Teru are completely outclassed, overpowered and barely holding on. Mob, everyone's last hope against Claw, stands paralyzed between two choices he does not want to make. Ritsu watches in horror, both for himself and everyone else in the room: This is gonna get ugly.
And then the child—in a kind of stunned trance—quietly injects his thoughts into the poisoned silence. He doesn't want to fight, even though he feels he must. He would rather run, but doing so would endanger Ritsu's and Teru's lives. There must be another way...
Reigen abruptly rises to his feet. As if he'd never been sliced in the back at all. Sakurai attacks again with his cursed katana and Reigen snaps it over his knee, chiding him. Matsuo sends in his monster pet yōkai; Reigen slugs the hungry ghosts into oblivion. Muraki's clone bodies are swept away with one swipe of the man's hand. Even Ishiguro gets in on the act: Reigen just swats away her gravity orbs like gnats.
The phony psychic shouldn't be able to do this. What is going on here?
Reigen has no clue. He is, however, riding a rare high. It's a beautiful sight. How will these manchildren 'rule the world' when they can't even figure out how to fit into society? In the process of trash-talking these idiots back to reality, Reigen accidentally unmasks Ishiguro: she is a he, and a very old he at that. In response, the old man generates his largest gravity distortions yet and threatens to burn down the facility to start fresh, but a right hook administers justice from out of nowhere. It’s Shou. The snotty ball of teenage id takes out the trash before chastising Mob for his refusal to fight. He then announces his true intentions to Claw's 7th Division—now thoroughly humiliated by the night's events—and dematerializes.
Life is, um, back to normal? Mob wakes up the next morning and heads to school, only this time Ritsu joins him: their ordeal has brought them closer. Mezato still wants answers from our reluctant protagonist. She won't get them. Kamuro confides in Ritsu about their framing of fellow students. He announces his intentions to apologize in front of the whole school. Onigawara is finally vindicated, but he realized that his own actions cost him allies, not Ritsu's and Kamuro's frame-up. Teru brings the Awakening Lab fivesome together to help them train for Claw's eventual return.
As Mob's spoon bends over his dinner again, Shou's disdain comes back to him. Ritsu straightens it this time with his own telekinesis, and Mrs Kageyama sighs in frustration.
Tropes appearing in this episode include:
- Art Shift: Ishiguro, after Reigen unmasks him. His face slowly comes to resemble a whining toddler as he rants about how special his powers make him.
- Bookends: The season begins and ends with Mob's spoon bending itself at dinner and Ritsu straightening it out again. The second time, the spoon has extra twists in it, in reference to the episode where Ritsu's own powers awaken, and his concern for his brother is genuine.
- Break Them by Talking: A glorious speech from Reigen that takes up almost half the episode. The phony psychic thoroughly dismantles the remaining members of Claw's 7th Division: he points out that their superiority complexes and overidentification with their powers have basically made silly manchildren out of them, all while shrugging off their attacks. It inspires them to abandon their criminal activities and attempt to integrate into society.
- Death by Flashback: Subverted. Reigen gets a heartwarming flashback from Mob's perspective, but doesn't die. It's implied that the teenager's Super-Empowering actually brought him back to life, or at least healed his back; Sakurai's katana cracked open the floor and should have done the same to the man's spine.
- Deus ex Machina: One of a few in this show, for the sake of comedy: Shou's fist appearing out of thin air to punch Ishiguro and save our heroes, who are both out of psychic energy and can't fight back.
- Invisible Jerkass: Shou. Out of sight and thoroughly unhelpful for either side until the very last minute.
- No-Sell: The remaining 7th Division members' attacks on Reigen.
- The Stinger: A nice reward after the credits and before the Tsuchinoko
hunt that closes the episode. It teases Shou's involvement in the second season of the show. - Take a Third Option: Mob's decision to entrust this fight, and his powers, to the only adult in the room—his shishou—in 100% gratitude.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: For a not insignificant number of viewers who expected Ishiguro to be female.
