Reigen is meeting with a man at his farm. The farmer wants him to investigate the black shadow that's been killing his crops the day before harvest for several years now. He can't pay in money, so Reigen accepts part of this year's harvest as recompense.
Later that day, an irritated Mob makes his way out to the farm to help. He exorcises the possessed scarecrow standing watch over the farmer's fields. It seems the worst of this spirit lies underground, however. The roots it controls entangle our heroes and drag them into the soil, but Mob learns from the spirit. He wrests control over the roots himself and defeats it.
Cut to Reigen's office: he presents the teenager with his pay from this job, since there was no harvest. It's even more ludicrous than his pay from last season's first episode; Mob swallows his disappointment and graciously thanks his boss. The phony psychic has an idea for using Mob's newfound green thumb, but it doesn't work out.
What remains of (LOL)—now rebranded the Psycho Helmet Religion after Mob's bowl cut—convene at a local fast food joint. They have yet to find their leader, but Ichi Mezato offers to find him herself...
Shinji Kamuro abdicates his position before the entire student body at Salt Middle School, announcing elections for a new President. Unilaterally, to the dismay of the rest of the Student Council. Mezato seizes the opportunity to convince Mob to run. It backfires horribly. But Emi, another student, asks him out as a result.
Reigen, the Muscle Brothers and even Mob's family notice the shift in his mood. She comes clean a week later: Her friends dared her to date him after his disastrous Student Council run. Her interest in him was a lie; he'd actually turned her down, spent time with her anyway and had not been entirely honest with her either. The teenager sits in the grass and takes...some time to process all this. A long time.
As he finally heads home, he encounters Emi's friends in the act of ripping up a novel she was writing and had shared with him. He pieces it back together for her and admits to having psychic powers, marking the first time he'd shared them with anyone else unprompted in years. Tsubomi watches from afar, impressed.
Tropes appearing in this episode include:
- The Chessmaster: Inverted. None of Mezato's schemes to make Mob famous or 'worthy' of being a true leader actually succeed, and she doesn't seem to be interested in leading the Psycho Helmet Religion herself, or in power for its own sake. She simply wants to be an influential part of a good story... and the vicarious enjoyment.
- Henohenomoheji: Appears on the scarecrow in the farmer's field.
- Mean Boss: Ah, Reigen.
- Calling Mob out to a farm that appears to be in the middle of nowhere (and almost surely not covering his travel expenses, since his wages won't cover them).
- Paying his disciple in broccoli seeds for a life-threatening job.
- Immediately trying to exploit Mob's new skill for money...
- Not So Stoic:
- If the irritation in Mob's eyes upon being called out to the farm on short notice isn't clear, one can hear it in his staccato pronunciation of the word だから (dakara, which can be translated here as 'so' or 'again'). The English dub makes Mob's exasperation even more obvious. Doubles as Brutal Honesty:Mob: I think you should stop asking me to drop everything for you.
- Mob's eyes well up as he explains to Emi's 'friends' why he's picking up the scraps of her novel.
- If the irritation in Mob's eyes upon being called out to the farm on short notice isn't clear, one can hear it in his staccato pronunciation of the word だから (dakara, which can be translated here as 'so' or 'again'). The English dub makes Mob's exasperation even more obvious. Doubles as Brutal Honesty:
- Power Copying: Mob learns chlorokinesis from this week's evil spirit. This marks the first time in the series we see Mob learn an entirely new psychic power by observation.
- The Reveal Prompts Romance: Subverted. Emi is impressed both by Mob's psychic powers and his kindness to her in spite of her deception, but neither makes anything of the opportunity. Dimple wonders aloud whether his psychic powers moved Emi enough to date him for real, but Mob torpedoes the possibility.
- Stage Fright: How Mob loses the Student Council President election: freezing up for five whole minutes onstage. Made worse by Mezato's writing his speech for him.
- Supporting Harem: Subverted. Emi is only the second in a line of people impressed enough by Mob to crush on him, but she does not appear again until season three.
- With Friends Like These...: Emi's friends, who aren't in the least supportive of her desire to become a writer. Mob's calling them on their cruelty leaves a deep impression on her.
