Recap / Mob Psycho 100, s3e11: 'Mob, 3'

Mob 3
~Trauma~

Japanese Title:
モブ３ ～トラウマ～
Mobu San ~Torauma~
Original Air Date:
14 December 2022

Summary

In the midst of the chaos, Salt Middle School's student council—clinging to what normal still remains—is holding a meeting. A thought grips Ritsu Kageyama by the throat and squeezes. He needs to leave now; there isn't time for politesse or explanations, and his stomach is sinking faster with every step: the ominous storm clouds out the window all bear Mob's signature. Outside of the school, he discovers his brother's trail of demolition and quickly pieces together what happened... and why.

A crash from behind as Koyama and Sakurai narrowly escape ???%'s summarily flattening their convenience store. It's their old boss Touichirou Suzuki striking the pavement, intent on repaying his debt to Shigeo. The man seems to have picked up some grace from his time in penitence: Suzuki thanks them for their efforts in the attempt to neutralize this threat... and even apologizes to ???% before proceeding to bash his knuckles bloody against the child's barrier.

???% simply buries the man alive under several feet of rubble in response... but a hand—that of Shou Suzuki—yanks him clear. Suzuki and son come up with a plan: keep ???% entertained until he runs out of energy. The increasing futility of the situation before them, however, prompts both to escape with their lives.

Ritsu finally catches up to ???%, now in the act of blasting the Body Improvement Club out of his path for merely trying to bring Mob to safety. We see the panorama of wreckage from on high: ???% has gone too far. Stepping in to intervene, Ritsu spares one of the boys from a nasty death. He gently lays them all down in a location safer from ???%'s wrath, then mounts a worthy stand against brother and bouquet for a moment before ???% literally blows him away...

And now there's an F4 tornado coursing through Seasoning City. Why is all of this happening at once? As the city's residents and people in neighboring communities sit in shock, eyes glued to various screens over the rapidly worsening news, Reigen and Serizawa hightail it in pursuit of the funnel cloud—straight through police lines.

Mob, now conscious but largely helpless inside his hijacked body, locates the source of his power at last. Who is this? What does he want? Somehow, this entity shares his name... and considers himself the genuine article. Mob insists this 'Shigeo' leave his body now; 'Shigeo' retorts that Mob should disappear instead...

Tropes appearing in this episode include:

• Apologetic Attacker: Suzuki, of all people, before landing his first hit on ???%. It's a sign of how much he's grown emotionally since the end of last season.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Ritsu confronts Mob on the bridge, an explosion countdown starts climbing up, implying that Mob is about to have another emotional outburst at the thought of hurting his brother. It's only when he manages to hold ???% back that it's revealed the countdown is actually Ritsu's.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind:
  • Mob manages to resist ???% enough to distract him on a couple of occasions from destroying more of Seasoning City or killing Touichirou and Shou. He eventually regains a small degree of internal control, shown by lip movements now accompanying his mental speech.
  • Later, Mob isolates the source of his power—???%, who considers himself the real Shigeo Kageyama—and demands that he leave. ???% begins to disappear him instead.
• Call-Back: This episode is bursting with them. Notable examples include:
  • Serizawa and Reigen preparing to head straight into the tornado harks back to Reigen and Mob's entrance into the Honeido Tunnel from this series' very first episode... down to Reigen's stance directly in front of his new protegé Serizawa, his serious facial expression, even his words.
    Reigen to Mob: よし、行くぞ。・Yosh', iku zo.・All right, let's go.
    Reigen to Serizawa: よし、行こう。・Yosh', ikou.・All right, let's go. ^note somewhat more polite
  • Ritsu's walk on the bridge to confront ???% uses a flipped version of the same walk cycle ^note an animation sequence depicting a character's gait, including framing from a given camera angle. as Mob's walk further into the same tunnel.
• Catastrophic Countdown: The intensity of Mob's emotional arousal has been linked to an explosion counter for the vast majority of the series. Ritsu gets his own version in this episode; at 100%, the strength of his love for Mob and his desire to connect emotionally with him are enough to hold ???% back for a brief moment before ???% blows him off the bridge.
• Energy Absorption:
  • Suzuki soaks up a direct hit from ???% to replenish his own energy stores.
  • ???% absorbs the entirety of an energy bomb generated by both Touichirou and Shou.
  • Implied. The tornado ???% generates after leaving Ritsu seems to drain the physical energy of anyone unfortunate enough to stand within a mile's radius of it. Reigen lampshades this by asking Serizawa if the winds from it are making him feel sluggish, too.
• Fighting from the Inside:
  • During Suzuki and son's attempted takedown of ???%, Mob internally resists ???% hard enough to make him twitch violently and spasm from the outside. The child's struggle resembles nothing so much as a seizure.
  • Happens again in front of Ritsu later in the episode as Mob restrains ???% from harming his brother; this time ???% looks as if he's gasping for air when he regains the upper hand.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • The cherry atop a sundae of landslides, collapsed buildings and infrastructure, and electrical storms? A category F4 tornado, spun up by ???% after Ritsu's intervention as further protection for Tsubomi's bouquet.
  • When Mob finds the source of his power, an entity also using the name 'Shigeo Kageyama', and demands he leave, 'Shigeo' mocks him, then commences to steal away bits of Mob for himself, piece by piece.
• Hope Spot: Just before ???% can get a hold of him, Ritsu hits 100% and manages to overpower ???%... only for ???% to counter and effortlessly knock him out.
• Imagine Spot: Ritsu's first thought upon connecting the earthquakes and... inclement weather to his brother? Tsubomi must have turned him down.
• Internal Monologue:
  • Ritsu muses about his inability to connect with his brother on an emotional level ever since ???%'s first appearance. He comes to accept both ???% and the kind boy he knows and loves as two inextricable halves of Mob.
  • Mob's speech and thought are relegated to this during the episode.
• I Owe You My Life: Part of Suzuki-père's eagerness to jump into this chaos in the first place. He feels indebted to Mob for saving his life, and does not expect to survive the attempt to stop ???%; death is the fairest payment for his crimes that he knows of, at first.
• Knuckle Cracking: Suzuki grasps his knuckles and cracks his neck upon landing—apparently head-first—near Sakurai and Koyama's former workplace.
• MacGuffin: The bouquet—Minegishi's gift to Mob—intended for Tsubomi.
  • Both Ritsu and Teru come to the conclusion that destroying it might destroy ???%'s objective as well, hopefully forcing him to a halt. Neither succeeds in doing so and both unwittingly escalate the situation. It takes quite a beating over the course of two episodes; by the end of this one, it's been reduced to half its original size...
  • ???% spins up a tornado to deter anyone else from attacking the bouquet.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Suzuki relentlessly punches away at ???%'s barrier in the first part of their fight. It's mostly wasted effort.
• Redemption Equals Death: Subverted. Suzuki-père sees the outward signs of Mob's internal struggle as an opening to finally defeat him... and atone for his own sins by absorbing Mob's power as Mob did for him in their fight last season, a feat he believes will kill him. Which his son wisely talks him down from... with a long look and a single word: 'Oyaji.' ^note  'Pops.' or 'Dad.'
  • That look on Shou's face reminds him that taking this option would essentially mean abandoning his family again, just as he had when he first embarked on his world-conquering scheme. He chooses instead to lean on Shou and his responsibility to his family, in order to atone by living.
• Smash to Black: Happens a number of times in this episode. Some examples:
  • Bookends Ritsu's Imagine Spot in this episode's Cold Open.
  • Heralds ???% appearing to teleport from the spot where he last stood to one inches from Suzuki's face.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • In Ritsu's flashback on the bridge, Mob sits in his room brooding in silence, back turned to his brother at the door, when Ritsu offers himself as a confidant. He turns to Ritsu with a bright smile after a couple of seconds, declines, then is shown to sink back into himself; it's heavily implied that he needed a moment to compose himself before replying.
    Ritsu: Is something wrong? I'll be happy to listen if something's bothering you.
    Mob: [beat] Nope, I'm fine! Thanks, though.
• Stunned Silence:
  • Koyama and Sakurai, who look on in wordless shock as Suzuki slugs away at ???%'s barrier until his fists bleed. In the manga they narrate this for a bit like commentators for a boxing match.
  • Mob's allies, friends and family watching ???%'s destruction play out on the news.

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