- Written By: Kento ShimoyamaDirected By: Shojiro Nakazawa
Average high schooler Sougo Tokiwa embarks on a path which leads him to become the overlord of time, Oma Zi-O.
He sets out to find the secret behind an unbeatable video game that has rendered all who play it comatose.
He discovers that Kamen Rider Ex-Aid knows the mystery behind the game.
And thus Sougo Tokiwa finally comes to know of Emu Hojo, and Ex-Aid's power...
The episode picks up mere seconds after where the previous left off, with Kamen Rider Ex-Aid standing in opposition to Zi-O and Geiz. He then fights both of them, proving to be a tough opponent due to his years of experience over the rookie Riders and easily overpowers them. However, the fight is interrupted by Ora arriving and freezing time. Zi-O and Geiz are just aware enough in the frozen time to witness her reviving Another Ex-Aid, but unable to fully move. Ora then takes her leave while telling the Riders she will see them again soon. When time restarts, Emu tries to go toward Another Ex-Aid, but his Rider powers short out and are then erased from time. Another Ex-Aid leaves the game world and the Game Area dissolves when he flees. Once they are back in the real world, Emu is confused and doesn't know where he is or who the people in front of him are, indicating his existence as a Kamen Rider has been erased.Sougo tries to get Emu to remember, but it is no use. Tsukuyomi realizes that this means Another rider's somehow alter time by stealing a Kamen Rider's powers. Emu is still confused as to what they want from him, so the trio says they are here to help the come patients by defeating the monster he just saw. Emu refuses their help, saying they shouldn't get involved any further as he has a different goal in mind.
The three are baffled as to why Emu would want to stop them from helping the patients. Geiz believes this means that Emu cannot be relied on, so he will go back to 2016 and defeat Another Ex-Aid. Sougo tries to stop him, but Geiz simply shrugs him off and says this isn't Zi-O's problem anymore. Tsukuyomi apologizes for Geiz's behavior and believes that Geiz does not hate him as Sougo is now, but his future self. What Sougo said to Geiz the other day about asking if knowing how people suffer felt to him hit a nerve with Geiz as both she and Geiz lost friends and loved ones in the war against Oma Zi-O. All of them tried to change the future so they could live free of Oma Zi-O's tyranny, but failed and never survived to see that dream realized. Sougo feels guilt and asks if he is really the one that caused it all, to which Tsukuyomi says yes. She explains that Geiz does not see the person Sougo is now, only as the evil killer of people he cared about and determined to destroy him eventually. Sougo is sad and now understands Geiz's point of view, but asks Tsukuyomi if she believes he should be defeated because he becomes a villain. She tells Sougo she doesn't know the answer, but she wants a more humane way of ending Oma Zi-O by trying to guide Sougo to be a hero so history can be changed. Sougo smiles, as he thinks this is a good plan.
Geiz time travels to 2016 and sees Ex-Aid and Brave battling some Bugsters and then defeating the Aranbura Bugster. The two Riders then see Geiz's Time Mazine and wonder what is going on as it lands. At Seito University Hospital, Geiz gets right to the point and tells Emu and Hiiro he is from the future and someone is trying to alter the past and their Rider powers will fade away if they don't stop it. Hiiro, being a no-nonsense person, thinks that Geiz is just crazy or delusional and will not buy his "fantasy story" and walks off. Geiz finds Hiiro's reaction a bit cold, but Emu remarks that the time traveler isn't much different from him based on what he has seen.
Ida is seeing his son Keisuke being carted off to the ambulance, asking him if he is okay. Keisuke says he is in a lot of pain and begs his father to help him. The events that created Another Ex-Aid repeat again as Ora appears. This time, she reveals that Keisuke has a rare heart condition that will kill the boy. She then offers the contract to Ida, which he accepts, and the events that broke Ex-Aid's time continue in its loop. As Emu is looking at a patient in the pediatrics ward, his hands fade in and out of time and soon his whole body is distorted. Geiz sees this while some boys try to take his futuristic clothes, begging him to let them try them on. A gamer is attacked by Another Ex-Aid, only for Geiz to try to stop him by using a Rider Break version of his Time Burst attack. But Another Ex-aid re-spawns and gets up to attack Geiz, who then reluctantly calls for help from Tsukuyomi, asking for her to research Kamen Rider Ex-Aid to find a weakness. Sougo meanwhile tries to figure out what Emu meant by having a different goal.
Emu enters the Game World and tries to talk down Ida from his Another Rider form, telling him that Keisuke needs his father by his side. Ida de-transforms and gets angry, grabbing Emu, believing that Emu is suggesting that he just sit around and wait for Keisuke to die, then shoves Emu to the ground. It seems that Ida went about his business at becoming Another Rider to save his son somehow as he doesn't believe in doctors anymore who said that his son cannot be saved. As he walks away, Sougo and Tsukuyomi enter the same world. Sougo figured out by researching with Hiiro that the victims all had another trait in common other that the coma illness, they were all young males that had organs the same size as Keisuke's. Hiiro diagnoses Keisuke with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy and says if it was detected a year earlier, he would have been able to do a self-made procedure to fix the heart or do a transplant. As Keisuke is now, Hiiro cannot even do a heart transplant given how far the disease has progressed. The victims were Ida's candidates for a transplant matching Keisuke's organ size, using the game to capture them. Sougo said that, just like Tsukuyomi, he want to save someone that should be defeated... but Ida relents and he went away. After that, Emu is elated that Sougo went about this case with the same thinking as him, thus granting him the Ex-Aid Ridewatch from his pocket.
As Sougo tries to came back to 2016, Heure attacks him in a Time Mazine, which combined with Captain Ghost . Sougo transforms into Zi-O and fights Heure in his own Time Mazine, and proceeds to defeat him. He came back to 2016 to aid Geiz, as he said that he believes in him and Tsukuyomi, thus he will fight even if it made him closer to being Oma Zi-O. The overwhelmed Another Ex-Aid then summons a Bugster mooks, as Emu from 2016 came to the scene. Emu transforms into Ex-Aid Action Gamer Lv 2 and handily fights the Bugster mooks and Another Ex-Aid. Sougo deduces that Another Rider can only be defeated with the original rider's power, when Woz suddenly appears and confirms that. Just then, Emu's rider power faded...
Sougo equips the Ex-Aid Armor and proceeds to defeat the Another Rider using Critical Time Break. Emu then awaken Iida as Sougo asks him to introduce Iida to a doctor in Seito University Hospital, the genius surgeon Hiiro Kagami, to save his son. Before going back, Sougo gives Emu a Blank Ridewatch to connect with him sometime in the future.
Back in 2018, Sougo is on the way home from school when he sees Ida and his now healthy son walk away together. In his house, Junichiro prepares a feast as now more people are living in his house. Sougo meets Tsukuyomi and Geiz outside as she asks him why he continues to fight if it means he becomes closer to Oma Zi-O. But Sougo stays steadfast in his dream to become king, and entrusts his two new friends to defeat him if he ever falls to the path of the evil demon king.
The episode ends with a shot of Amanogawa High School and a familiar student in a yanki outfit stretching as he enters the gates of the school grounds.
Episode Tropes:
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: When Sougo was about to initiate his Critical Time Break, he notices the text on screen and then attacks the text to line up Another Ex-Aid with his finisher.
- The Cameo: Geiz travels back in time to 2016 during the events of Episode 2 to try and tell Emu and Hiiro that he’ll deal with Another Ex-Aid.
- Deal with the Devil: Ora makes a contract with Another Ex-Aid’s host in exchange for the ability to potentially save his son Keisuke from Keisuke’s disease, something that would be potentially fatal for Keisuke’s weak heart.
- Dramatic Irony: When Geiz travels back to 2016 in order to deal with Another Ex-Aid personally and explains the situation to Emu and Hiiro, Hiiro doesn’t believe him and tells Geiz to not involve him with his fantasy talk of the present or future. This coming from Hiiro, the guy who was so concerned over his ex-girlfriend’s Bugster infection that he had to deal with it in his own series before he could move on. This doesn't even include the fact that his own powers come from fantasy-based games.
- More than Mind Control: Mr. Iida is fully aware of the atrocities that he’s done as Another Ex-Aid as he is doing them intentionally, but refuses to give up because he believes there is still a chance to save his son Keisuke if he can find a heart donor.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Emu points out that Hiiro and Geiz are similar to each other.
- Stable Time Loop: Sougo once again hands out a blank Ride Watch to Emu in order to ensure that he will be able to gain Ex-Aid's power when the time comes for him to need it as Zi-O.
- Takes One to Kill One: Sougo learns in this episode that the Another Riders are weak to the powers of the Riders they are based on after witnessing Ex-Aid fight Another Ex-Aid.
- Why Couldn't You Save Them?: Sougo and Tsukuyomi learn from Hiiro that Keisuke was admitted into the hospital one year too late to be saved, and that even if Keisuke was operated on, his body’s condition wouldn’t last even if he received a heart transplant.
- The Unreveal: At the end of the episode they tease the next legend Rider’s identity, but don’t reveal his face. Downplayed however in that the outfit and context clues still make clear who the next legend Rider will be.
History flows ever onward towards Oma Zi-O.
And his encounter with yet another legend is just around the bend...
