Playmaker and Ai's intense duel finally reaches its conclusion.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Ending: The series concludes with a Stinger which shows Ai's supposed revival in his eye form, unaware of his surroundings. No further context is provided to elaborate what happened. It wouldn't be until several years after the series had ended, when the VRAINS World was added to Duel Links, that the final scene would be elaborated upon and explained.
- Bittersweet Ending: Though Playmaker is forced to destroy Ai, who he genuinely cared about, things pan out pretty well for everyone else. Jin is now working at the hot dog stand with his brother, Takeru returns home to his grandparents and introduces his best friend to LINK VRAINS, the Knights of Hanoi are monitoring LINK VRAINS for any new threats as atonement, Akira is now in charge of SOL Technologies and everyone else has their jobs back, and Playmaker eventually returns to LINK VRAINS. The Stinger even shows that Ai may have survived after all, at least in some capacity.
- Bloodless Carnage: A simulation shows a tank mercilessly gunning down Yusaku, who sacrificed himself to protect Ai, and somehow leaves his lifeless body unbloodied.
- Book Ends:
- During part one of the duel, "Dark Templar @Ignister" and "Decode Talker" battled each other. In this episode, the two monsters battle once again in the final turn of the duel, but "Decode Talker" comes out triumphant this time.
- "Decode Talker" is the first Link Monster Playmaker obtained and summoned with Ai's help. The final duel has "Decode Talker" come out victorious in a final clash against Ai and Dark Templar @Ignister.
- Cradling Your Kill: Playmaker does this with Ai after willing the duel, comforting him in his last moments.
- Cycle of Hurting: Playmaker uses the effect of "Accesscode Talker" six times in total, destroying Ai's cards on the field one at a time and gradually whittling down "The Arrival's" ATK to 7000.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Playmaker lays Ai's head in his lap the moment their duel is over, and keeps him there until Ai finally disappears.
- Disney Death: Ai disappears into nothingness after losing to Playmaker. Fast forward three months, however, he seemingly comes back to life in his eye form, unaware of what happened.
- Dying Declaration of Love: Ai tells Yusaku he loves him as he lies dying in his arms.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In the epilogue Time Skip majority of the main cast except Yusaku have earn their happy ending and are seen leading their lives as normal invidiuals.
- Jin who has lost his memories of the Lost Incident began to lead his life as a happy normal human being once more and works at his brothers hotdog truck.
- Aoi became much more cheerful and happy compared to before and frequently visits the Kusanagi brothers at their hot dog stand to inquire about Yusaku's whereabouts and his well-being.
- After his duel with Revolver, Takeru has returned back to his hometown and seems to have completely moved on with his life and explore LINK VRAINS with Kiku.
- Akira became the new CEO of SOL replacing Queen and began to protect LINK VRAINS until Playmaker returns.
- Ghost Girl and Blood Shepherd continue to work with each other as Bounty Hunters.
- The Knights of Hanoi and Revolver seems to have moved on over their guilt towards the Lost Incident and the creation of Ignis and are atoning their crimes by protecting LINK VRAINS.
- Go has again became a popular Charisma Duelist.
- Go Through Me: One of the simulations Ai ran sees Yusaku standing in front of Ai to protect him from an ensemble of army tanks, one of which guns him down mercilessly.
- Graceful Loser: Ai accepts his defeat at Playmaker's hands as the duel's final outcome, despite figuring out that his opponent was up to something when he did nothing else after reviving "Decode Talker".
- Grand Finale: This is the last episode of VRAINS before the next series.
- He's Back!: Playmaker's actions are unknown since the conclusion of his duel with Ai, but he resurfaces in LINK VRAINS once again three months later, and exclaims for the final time "Into the VRAINS!".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Ai's attempt to use "TAi Strike" to defeat Playmaker backfires, as the latter uses the effect of "Code Hack" in his GY to negate the spell card, increase "Decode Talker's" ATK by 700, and wipe out Ai's remaining 100 LP. Ai even lampshades that he shouldn't have fallen for it, since it was pretty obvious that Playmaker chose "Decode Talker" on purpose.
- I Gave My Word: As Ai promised, he releases the consciousnesses of those he and Roboppi defeated after Playmaker takes him down.
- Mistaken for Romance: Brave Max assumes Kiku is Soulburner's 'girlfriend' when he sees them in LINK VRAINS.
- Mutual Kill: Ai uses the effect of his destroyed monster to set "Accesscode Talker" and "The Arrival's" ATK to 3000, thereby destroying both without causing either player damage, to prevent the former from wiping out his remaining LP.
- Rank Up: Akira has been promoted to CEO of SOL Technologies after the Time Skip.
- Rule of Three: Playmaker's "Drastic Draw" banishes all monsters on his field and allows him to draw three cards.
- Say My Name: Yusaku helplessly screams Ai's name as he carries his lifeless body."AI!!!"
- The Stinger: At the end of the episode, Ai seemingly resurfaces in LINK VRAINS in his eye form and glances at his surroundings, unaware of what happened.
- Taking the Bullet: One of the simulations Ai ran saw a tank mercilessly gunning down Yusaku, who sacrificed himself to protect Ai.
- Time Skip: Three months pass following Playmaker and Ai's duel, and all is well once more in both the real world and upgraded LINK VRAINS.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The episode follows up on most of the cast, but Queen's fate is conspicuously skipped. All we know is that Akira now has her job.
