Flashback to four years ago. Reigen lifts a box and carries it out of his now-former sales office. A new office, completely empty: this one is his now, but Reigen has no direction for his new business. Until an ad for healing stones on the back of a trade magazine gives him an idea...
Mob has just set a personal push-up record. The Muscle Brothers are proud of him; so is he. The Telepathy Club and the Body Improvement Club also have reasons to celebrate, so they all go out to a restaurant. It's been years since Mob has hung out with other people like this. He glows with joy... until the call comes. This time, the child asks Reigen to handle things himself. Reigen, as usual, insists he come immediately.
Cut to Mob effortlessly exorcising the spirit, his body language betraying enough irritation for several people. When Mob reminds the man that he actually has a life outside of work, and asks him yet again to be respectful of his time, Reigen mocks him and his friends. The child quietly stands up to the phony psychic for the first time...
...And doesn't show up for work the next day. The man eats the sourest of grapes over the boy's absence, and reckons he doesn't actually need Mob to be successful, as he built his business with his own sweat. Mob will come back if he knows what's best for him, right?
Life goes on: Mob trains with the Body Improvement Club, focuses on his schoolwork, shops with Ritsu. Reigen meets with clients he can actually handle, and ensures they leave satisfied.
On his way home one day, he spies Mob with Tome and Inukawa... so the lonely kid with no one else to talk to does have friends? Dimple assures him that Mob is fine without him. Also, today is his birthday? Reigen didn't even remember. No birthday wishes from anyone save his mother, who is unhappy with his life choices; she urges him to get married and find a real job. His regular watering hole is full of people he doesn't truly respect—he can't even call these people friends. Reigen has a panic attack and doesn't even realize it; sick in the alley behind the bar, he resolves to become somebody.
The new and improved Reigen turns outward and gives back to his community: cleaning up trash, offering seminars and life coaching, and successfully taking on jobs other exorcists refused to handle. His popularity skyrockets in response. Eventually he attracts the notice of a TV show with nationwide reach; fast forward to the taping, which will feature a real exorcism for the studio audience. Reigen's nerves are getting the best of him. The psychic who requested his appearance on this program, a man we've seen before who's nursing a massive grudge, is sitting right next to him...
Tropes appearing in this episode include:
- Extreme Doormat: Subverted. Mob has largely grown out of his social isolation by this point; making real friends and discovering his own tenacity with the Body Improvement Club give him the balls to stand up to Reigen.
- Fake High: Exaggerated and justified; Reigen's 'lemon sour' made non-alcoholic against his wishes seems to make him drunk anyway. He's actually having a panic attack.
- Jerkass: Reigen has not been the kindest of bosses to Mob throughout this story, but the influx of new work in this season seems to have taken a toll on what respect he has for the child. He lashes out at Mob for rightfully protesting his last-minute work calls:Mob: Even I have school and a private life. So please stop summoning me out of the blue.
Reigen: A private life? Just working out in that club of yours, right? Or did you fall for another person jokingly asking you out? You get taken advantage of so easily. Grow up, for crying out loud.
Mob: [gasps, speechless]
Reigen: [continues, picking up speed] ...Listen up: choose your social circle wisely, Mob! If they're going to get in the way of your exorcism job, get rid of them! They don't actually care about you. They're only having fun mocking someone as wimpy as you.
Mob: You're wrong. ...I'm starting to realize that not everything you say is true, shishou. ...I'm not being mocked, nor am I easily taken advantage of.- He later lashes out at Dimple too, though Dimple is attempting to provoke him a bit.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Rising Sun Spiritual Union's president Kirin Jōdō, who repays Reigen's violently freeing him from Mogami's possession with intent to humiliate him.
- Only Friend: Mob to Reigen, though he only realizes it in the teenager's absence.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Justified. Reigen and Mob's relationship is in the end probably a net positive for both parties, and they truly do care a great deal for each other. But their unhealthy mutual emotional dependency, Mob's deference to Reigen with respect to his own wants and opinions, and Reigen's tendency to treat Mob like a tool (and pay him accordingly) make it toxic. Something was bound to give.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Reigen's relationship with his parents isn't very healthy, from the glimpses we see in this episode.
