Serizawa warns Mob—and Dimple—to turn back, as he doesn't want to hurt anyone. The man also lets Claw's hostage walk; he was beginning to pity the guy.
Since the child won't yield, he recounts a bit of his life story for Mob. Serizawa credits Suzuki with saving him from isolation: Claw's leader gave him a purpose and returned him to a useful place in society. Mob's kind but harsh truths about his situation, however, strike a raw nerve, and he flings the child into a nearby window in response. When the enforcer reveals that he'd always wanted friends, Mob gives it to him straight: Claw and Suzuki are anything but. Serizawa finally loses it. He swipes the boy off his feet and quite possibly off this mortal plane... just as he reaches 100% in an offering of friendship. To Serizawa's and Dimple's amazement, Mob soaks up the tremendous blast. The child returns the energy to its owner along with some of his own; perhaps his empathy will succeed where words alone have failed.
Suzuki's hot enough to melt lead. He's fresh out of soldiers now. His only son—one of the culprits—lies on the floor, too weak to fight anymore. The man lets Shou in on a secret: his mission to awaken ESP in normal people was a failure. All those mooks on the ground? They were using his psychic energy and it's time to collect.
There's no room in this world now for both Tōichirō and his son. Shou can only watch in resigned horror as his father prepares to silence him forever. From out of nowhere, he hears quiet footsteps join him. It's Ritsu's older brother, who wastes no time in calling out this power-drunk energy demon of a man. When the teenager helps an amazed Shou to his feet with an infusion of psychic energy, Suzuki moves to eliminate him instead: Mob presents a far greater threat to his superiority.
On the ground, Reigen plucks Dimple's drained form out of the air—Suzuki punted him out of the tower mid-sentence for attempting to warn Mob—and goes after the teenager. Unfortunately, his immense luck runs out here. Reigen's gifts in charisma and the art of surprise only put Claw's leader in an even fouler mood. Serizawa swoops in and shields the phony psychic just seconds before Suzuki incinerates him, betraying his conditioning... and his mentor. Just as he commences to tear into Serizawa for defecting, the overpowered manchild hears an explosion behind him: Mob's rage. This boy is done.
Minegishi's plants catch Serizawa, Shou and Reigen as Suzuki blasts them out of the tower; his Ultimate Five have all truly deserted him. Mob glomps him, plowing him through the building to distract him from searing the ground with laser beams in retaliation. He smacks the boy clear through to the floor downstairs.
At this, Mob—still lying face-first in concrete—breaks the spire off the tower and sails it high into the air, moving the fight to the skies and his allies below out of harm's way. Just what the child needs to let go of his limiter.
Tropes appearing in this episode include:
- Apologetic Attacker: Serizawa apologizes twice when it seems his attacks may have wounded Mob. The teenager uses one of these to fake him out, distracting him long enough to separate him from his umbrella.
- Berserker Tears: Serizawa starts to tear up when Mob informs him that Claw is only using him all while he's charging up an attack.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Serizawa manages to rescue Reigen just seconds before Suzuki incinerates him.
- Minegishi uses their plants to catch Reigen, Serizawa and Shou as they're falling from the tower.
- Brutal Honesty:
- Mob to Serizawa. The teen kindly but firmly informs him that he should have remained a hikikomori if he was going to destroy people's lives like this. The harshness of his words are somewhat lost in translation to English, as 'shut-in' doesn't quite carry the same negative cultural baggage. It inflames Serizawa enough to attack.
- Mob is similarly blunt with the elder Suzuki, but Claw's president is far less willing to hear him out.
- Call-Back: Suzuki's response to the Ultimate Five's defection echoes Ishiguro's temper tantrum over the defeat of Claw's 7th Division in the previous season, right down to the 'burn this down and start over' sentiment and the cries of 'Disappear! Disappear! Disappear!'
- Cliffhanger: Mob and Suzuki's final showdown takes to the skies while all the espers below watch them.
- Creepy Child: Mob's eyes glow white-hot for a moment as he explodes in rage at not being able to get through to Suzuki. Reigen is alarmed; he has never seen this side of him before. Dimple can sense it outside the tower, and even Serizawa—who has a better sense of his capabilities having witnessed them firsthand—looks unsettled as he asks how he can help.
- Energy Absorption / Energy Donation / Super-Empowering:
- Suzuki calls back the psychic energy he'd lent out to 600 Claw soldiers.
- Mob absorbs Serizawa's energy when the enforcer attacks him; he is now capable of doing this consciously and at an emotional intensity below 100%.
- Mob to Shou so he can stand and leave safely. Mob's use of this skill in front of Shou's dad shifts Suzuki's energies towards killing him instead.
- Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Suzuki is the world's most powerful esper and therefore superior to all other human beings, or so he believes. He's powerful enough that taking the time to explain his capabilities to his opponents doesn't give them much of an advantage.
- The Glomp: A non-comedic example; the flying tackle-hug just happens to be the most convenient way for Mob to catch Suzuki off-guard from below and disrupt his aim. Shou's father definitely finds it amusing.
- The Gloves Come Off:
- Mob's rage explosion behind Suzuki.
- Mob's response to Suzuki smacking him down through an entire floor of the Cultural Tower's spire at the end of the episode: wrenching the spire free from the Tower and away from his allies... so he can unleash on this man without harming anyone else.
- Hikikomori: Unable to control his psychic powers or his anxiety, Serizawa secluded himself in his room for 15 years. It's heavily implied that Mob would have headed down a similar path if it weren't for his friends.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Serizawa's biggest reason for remaining with Claw.
- Ironic Echo: Standing in Serizawa's room, Suzuki hands the frightened man an umbrella and a promise to help him when they meet for the first time. His words in Japanese are exactly the same as Reigen's to Mob in their first meeting.Suzuki: 力の使い方を教えてやる・Ch'kara no ts'kaikata o oshiete yaru・I'll teach you how to use [your] powers.
- Nice Guy: Mob easily forgives Shou for torching his family's home; Shou was attempting to avert the wreckage he'd just walked through and has nearly paid with his life.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Multiple examples. Some salient ones:
- Upon meeting Reigen and learning of his connection to Mob, Suzuki notes that both men appear to be taking advantage of powerful students:Mob: [breathless and in pain] Shi-shou...
Suzuki: 'Shishou?' So you're also someone who tricks others and steals from them. - Mob points an accusing finger at Shou's father and compares his situation to Shou's.Mob: He's been worried about you losing control. I can tell. Because my younger brother was afraid of me, too.
- Upon meeting Reigen and learning of his connection to Mob, Suzuki notes that both men appear to be taking advantage of powerful students:
- Offing the Offspring: Subverted. Suzuki père is no longer willing to share his empire, or this existence, with his son; Mob arrives as the man is rolling a ball of death with Shou's name on it and accidentally diverts his focus.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Serizawa isn't even aware that Claw's hostage is the country's prime minister until Mob points it out.
- The Power of Friendship: Literal, defied and reconstructed.
- Mob hits Serizawa with empathy and the possibility of real friendship instead of Suzuki's manipulation. The child can feel the emotional charge from his opponents' blasts; when he absorbs the energy from Serizawa's hardest attack, Mob returns it with some of his own, flooding the enforcer with his emotions and memories to show him how similar they are.
- He offers a hand in friendship to Suzuki as well, but the man mocks him. Claw's leader is not the sort to be easily swayed by kindness, and far too solipsistic even to admit he needs other people.
- The teen is already the most powerful character in his world, psychically speaking. Learning to connect with others gives him the emotional strength to match his psychic prowess.
- Refuge in Audacity: Subverted in a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome. Reigen's attempt to save Mob with persuasion and a well-timed fist fail miserably on the elder Suzuki. He gets serious bonus points for trying, though.
- Rule of Symbolism: The Eye Catch of the episode features Mob and Serizawa holding out umbrellas in the rain alongside their respective masters. The difference is that Serizawa and Suzuki have a large gap between each other while Reigen is shown crouching underneath Mob's umbrella while the esper pulls out a barrier around them.
- Warrior Therapist: Mob spends much of the battle between himself and Serizawa trying to get the man to see reason while gently picking apart his emotional defenses. This approach fails with Suzuki in this episode.
- Walking the Earth: Before kickstarting his World Domination plot, the False King explained that he traveled all over the world hoping to find a rival he can call his equal. To his dismay, no one came close to meeting his expectations until he found Mob.
- Would Hurt a Child: Suzuki drops all pretense of parental affection at Shou's act of subversion and beats his own son so ferociously Serizawa can no longer stand by and watch. He is prepared to kill Shou and Mob for opposing him, and comes dangerously close to killing both boys.
