The episode starts with a taping of Good Morning Japan featuring Goro Akechi, who claims that in spite of his appearances, he loves sweets, because he needs brainpower for detective work. As Akechi takes a break and eats lunch, two fangirls from Shujin come up to him, and he\'s surprised they\'ve heard of him. They mention they have Phantom Thieves at their school, even if it\'s just a rumor. Akechi seems intrigued, although considering that the principal is a member of the conspiracy and he could probably put the pieces together from seeing the news reports of Kamoshida suddenly being overcome with remorse and confessing, he probably knew already.
The opening sequence plays.
Ren and Ryuji go to Untouchable to sell Kamoshida\'s medal, and while Iwai is initially skeptical, he doesn\'t ask any more questions after Ryuji gives a flimsy excuse of how he found it in the closet of a guy he knows. Iwai pays 300,000 yen (roughly $300 USD) for the medal, and Ryuji\'s quite pleased. By contrast, one option in the game is to complain that Iwai isn\'t paying enough
At the Wilton buffet, Ryuji eats some meat, Ann eats cake, and Ren feeds Morgana. Ann mentions that the buffet is \"famous\" even among \"part-timers\" like her, before elaborating that she works as a model. Morgana\'s impresesd, but Ann denies being a celebrity.
Ryuji points out that the buffet\'s 10,000 yen in the anime, as opposed to 8,000 in the game (you have 6,000 yen leftover once you\'re through, a decent sum in the early game). He notes that it\'s fine as long as the buffet owners don\'t realize they have a cat, and blowing all the money at once will keep them out of trouble later.
As Ren notes that Kamoshida\'s Treasure was a gold medal, the anime flashes back to just after the Palace\'s destruction, at which point the crown falls to the ground and transforms to the medal. Ryuji notes that Kamoshida was clinging to his past glory. Ren feels a little guilty about selling the medal, but Morgana says the medal is fake, created from Kamoshida\'s distorted desires. The other two Thieves are pleased with how things are going, with Ryuji saying that Kamoshida will cooperate with the justice system, and Ann saying that Shiho\'s starting rehab, so Morgana\'s happy, too. Ann, who got the news about Shiho by looking at her phone, realizes that half their time is up, so Ann and Ryuji go out to get more food, even though they aren\'t even done with what they have.
The part in which you get food seems to be cut out, as well as the chance to eavesedrop on some various adults talking about the Phantom Thieves. Not only does it show how there are many other adults who aren\'t much better than Kamoshida, but two people- an IT president and a TV station president- turn out to be members of Shido\'s conspiracy, and mini-bosses in Shido\'s Palace. It\'s a nice example of how in Persona games, seemingly inconsequential NP Cs can be very important, although I don\'t think anything will ever top a random gas station attendant turning out to be the Greater-Scope Villain and Final Boss of the fourth game.
Speaking of Shido, you see Ryuji after he\'s done puking in the bathroom- Morgana chides him and Ren tells them to return to \"Takamaki-san\" (around this point, Ren starts calling her by her first name)- so you know what\'ll happen next if you played the game. While Ren and Ryuji are waiting for the elevator, they see a familiar-looking bald man in a suit approach, brushing Ren and Ryuji aside, and mentioning that they\'re going to a party meeting while complaining about the party secretary deciding not to do anything. One thing that\'s missing is how some background characters who are waiting for the elevator immediately get out of the way, knowing full well that Shido is not a man they want to cross.
Of course, Ryuji doesn\'t, and he briefly protests, causing Shido to dismissively ask if the hotel\'s running a \"daycare\" before heading into the elevator, not even looking at Ryuji. Morgana complains about the man acting like a big shot, which Ryuji agrees with, although Ren remains silent.
Back at the buffet, Ann has her run-in with the woman, who runs into Ann and blames her for pushing her. Ann protests that the woman\'s lying, only for the people nearby to mock Ann for being a child. Ann\'s more hurt than angry in the anime, so she doesn\'t end up snapping at Ryuji.
Ann, Ryuji and Ren (along with Morgana in his bag) go to a window near the corner of the hotel to commiserate about their encounters with rotten adults, and talk about how the world is probably full of adults like that. Ryuji then starts to make his proposal.
The scene cuts to Shido (who\'s referred to by name on the news program), expressing his desire to bring change to the government, while a minister resigns. The SIU director asks if Sae\'s interest in the \"crazy incidents\" is because she\'s been hanging around \"that boy\"(Akechi). That said, he\'s willing to let her pursue the case and promises to take responsibility if anything happens, so Sae\'s grateful.
Outside the hotel, the four protagonists have moved on to sit near some train tracks, at which point Ryuji asks if anyone can have a palace. They then come up with the idea to continue as Phantom Thieves for their own reasons, and Ren wholeheartedly agrees. By contrast, in the game, Ren hadn\'t thought of continuing after Kamoshida, which goes to show that he\'s had at least some Character Development.
Yet another scene change happens and they meet at Big Bang Burger to decide that Ren is their leader. As the scene shifts to the convenience store, Ren starts to call Ann \"Takamaki-san,\" but she asks him to call her \"Ann\" instead. He complies as the scene shifts to the arcade. As Ryuji complains about Ren blowing him off, Ren calls Ryuji by his first name, and the three are shown passing by Yoshida and the beef bowl store. As the group meets in the square, they finalize Ren being the leader, then it shifts to the waiting room of the hospital as they discuss names for the group over IM. Ren chooses \"The Phantoms\" as the group\'s name, which happens to be the default name for the group, and the group agrees... at least until Ryuji points out that it\'s just \"The Phantom Thieves\" without the \"Thief\" part. The montage then concludes with a picture of their emblem on the blackboard. The sequence worked well, but only could really work in an anime.
In class, Morgana discusses the next target. Kawakami wonders if she heard meowing but decides to ignore it, and asks whoever put the graffiti on the blackboard to erase it after class.
Mishima comes up to Ren after class and asks if he looked at his \"Phan-site.\" In the game, the Phantom Thieves had already looked at the Phan-Site back at the hotel. In the anime, it hasn\'t been introduced yet, so Ren pleads innocence and politely asks Mishima to give him some space. Mishima says that he wronged Ren, so this is the least he can do. The anime also cut out his apology to Ann, which somewhat detracts from his character arc, which is about him trying to become a stronger person, even if he goes down the wrong path.
The scene shifts to Makoto in the principal\'s office, where she talks with the principal about the calling card, which she considers to be nothing more than a prank. The principal claims that he wants to identify the perpetrators so he can deal with the media and police properly, and when Makoto protests, he says that he thought she was his best choice. The fairly passive-aggressive remarks about how if Makoto fails here, her highly accomplished sister\'s reputation will suffer are removed, as is referring to Makoto by name. Makoto then walks out, and catches a glimpse of the Phantom Thieves meeting. Apparently, the scene on the rooftop in which Makoto confronts the thieves is cut out, which is unfortunate, since it establishes the antagonism between them and forces the Thieves to find a different meeting spot.
Ryuji shows the other Thieves the Phan-site and its messages of support, and Ann\'s impressed. They then get to the requests, at which point Morgana asks to show them something.
Outside the subway, Ryuji opens up the requests section and finds someone complaining about his \"deadbeat\" friend, prompting Morgana to tell him to find a \"serious\" request. As the two bicker, Ann brings up the request from Natsuhiko Nakanohara\'s ex-girlfriend about Nakanohara stalking her, which not only is more serious than the others (even if Nakanohara\'s not that bad, even for a Mementos target), but also is the first one with a name, the latter detail of which isn\'t mentioned.
The group heads into Mementos, barely reacting to how the subway is the Palace. Morgana briefly explains that Mementos is everyone\'s Palace, and that only those with exceptionally distorted desires have individual Palaces. Ann concludes that this means that they can change the hearts of anyone who doesn\'t have a Palace.
Once on the tracks, Morgana transforms into the car. Ren doesn\'t hesitate to get up front and drive, with Morgana explaining that he can\'t drive himself, removing a hilarious scene in which the three Thieves sit in the back seat and wonder why the car isn\'t moving. As Ann complains about how strange everything is, Morgana warns her to be quiet, lest she disturb the Shadows. As he says that, they drive by at least half a dozen Shadows hidden behind pillars, and narrowly avoid several more in front of them, even though Shadows are somewhat sparse throughout Mementos. He then reminds everyone that since Mementos is a Palace, of course there will be Shadows.
They drive into Shadow Nakanohara\'s lair, whereupon he delivers his Motive Rant about his ex and Madarame before transforming into Obariyon. The fight with him is over in seconds, as te Phantom Thieves conclude it with a single All-Out Attack. While the fight scene choreography is fairly lackluster here, this comes off as a bit lazy. Shadow Nakanohara, defeated, admits that he was wrong and promises to go back without explaining his Freudian Excuse- having been denied his dream of becoming an artist, he became attached to his girlfriend. Ren takes Nakanohara\'s Treasure, Morgana leads them to what he wants to see.
Morgana takes them to the first barrier, leading from the Path of Qimranaut (where they are now) to Aiyatsbus, and notices that the door has opened now that Kamoshida\'s been dealt with. They return to the entrance and talk about how deep Mementos goes. Morgana explains that he lost much of his memory, and he\'s been investigating Mementos to regain his human form, until Kamoshida captured him. Morgana then offers to train them as Phantom Thieves, proposes that they only target \"bigwigs,\" and stipulates that they must unanimously agree on all targets.
At the Takemi clinic, Ren gets dressed after the examination, and while Takemi notices that he seems in mostly normal health, she asks where he got his bruises. Morgana brings up the need for \"confidants,\" and suggests that Ren befriend Takemi. Ren ends up taking home another packet of drugs for Takemi\'s clinical trials.
Back at Leblanc, Sojiro serves Ren some curry to prevent the government from accusing him of feeding his ward improperly, but says that the recipe\'s a secret. I personally liked his proposal in the game more- Sojiro expects Ren to earn his keep by working, but offers to teach him how to make coffee to sweeten the deal.
As Ren\'s working, Sae and Akechi come in. Akechi asks if Sae\'s a regular, but Sojiro denies it, although Sae professes that she likes the coffee. Akechi asks if he\'s met Ren before, and in the game, the answer would be no- they only first met at the time of the trip to the TV station in June (after Madarame\'s arc, when Akechi took the Phantom Thieves case). By comparison, Ren should have met Sae by the time he went to pawn the medal on May 4, just before the trip to the Wilton Hoten.
After Akechi introduces himself, Morgana briefly reacts to Akechi\'s name but doesn\'t speak. Akechi muses about the \"ambiguity\" of being a detective and how it isn\'t always clear whether they\'re useful to society, and notes detectives need two things- tough cases and worthy rivals. How subtle, Akechi.
He asks if he\'s boring Ren, probably unaware that barely speaking is Ren\'s general modus operandi, while Morgana recognizes him as the popular detective kid, before the ending credits playl.
The scene didn\'t really add much to the series. By comparison, Sae\'s scene hints at her being related to Makoto (although it seems a bit impersonal to call her younger sister \"someone I know\", even if Sae might not want to bring attention to the fact that she\'s probably barely out of college).
In The Stinger, Mishima, who\'s represented by the number 3 (the \"Mi\" in his name), as opposed to the various icons representing the Thieves, congratulates Ren for helping the woman who was being stalked, but Ren plays dumb once again. The Phantom Thieves comment on whether Mishima\'s a dedicated fan or a stalker, at which point Ann realizes that she\'s being stalked.
Ryuji asks if Ann means Akechi, and after scrolling through a few photos of Akechi, one outside Leblanc and one at a shrine, muses that Akechi doesn\'t seem \"sharp\" enough to be a detective. Morgana warns the Phantom Thieves to stay vigilant, since they\'re finished if their identities are uncovered. It\'s a fair warning, even if the Phantom Thieves don\'t yet know that Makoto\'s investigating them.
In the last 30 seconds of the episode, Yusuke walks up behind Ann, only for Ren and Ryuji to intercept him.
This episode was actually somewhat better than the last few, probably because this part of the game is relatively slow to begin with. While there was some important information cut out, the anime did nicely get through the lull and to the start of the Madarame arc in a single episode.
