Well, you know what time it is. It’s time to tie up some loose ends. It ain’t always fun, but someone’s gotta do it.
— Some bad guy I had completely forgotten about is going to kill Aizawa when Tamaki shows up in just the knick of time. And immediately, I put two and two together: “Oh that’s right, we need Aizawa to stop Eri from killing Deku.”
— We get one last flashback for Chisaki, but I’m as lukewarm about this one as I’ve been for all the other ones. As I’ve mentioned, I like his ruthlessness as an antagonist, but his backstory isn’t very interesting.
— Our villain makes one last ditch attempt to defeat Deku while our hero is currently overwhelmed by Eri’s Quirk, but the former just ends up rewinding himself in the process. The punch of all punches at the end of last week’s battle marked the emotional end to the battle, and this finally marks the literal end. I didn’t mention it, but I felt like the previews for this episode spoiled too much.
— What follows is a bunch of procedural stuff, i.e. the bad guys getting arrested. Naturally, the League of Villains quietly slip away even though one of the heroes told the police to keep a lookout on them. Boy, what do we even pay you boys for?
— I do wonder if these straps could really hold the big guy down if he wasn’t unconscious.
— I also had to laugh when they gave Deku enough time to say a few words to the mortally injured Nighteye. Yeah, we all know he’s gonna die, but this is kinda silly, no?
— But enough about that, because we have more loose ends to wrap up. I’m kinda cheesed about this next part. I really, really am. The truck carrying Chisaki to prison-slash-hospital is predictably attacked by Shigaraki and friends. They only provided one hero to protect the truck. It’s not about Chisaki, though. I don’t care if they protect his dumb ass or not. What I care about are those bullets — the bullets that can completely erase a person’s Quirk. Why were they so poorly defended? Why were they brought along with Chisaki? At best, you can argue that the heroes are too preoccupied with cleaning up the mess back at the disaster site, so they got careless. This is one big mistake, though.
— That dumb magician dude steals one of Chisaki’s arm, so fair’s fair. Shigaraki then destroys Chisaki’s other arm before walking away with the aforementioned bullets. The former yakuza leader is left to cry in despair. Maybe I should feel bad for him? Meh.
— We get a short scene where Nejire tells everyone that Deku still had the foresight to minimize damage to the neighborhood even though he was in the fight of his life. Apparently, only three civilians suffered minor injuries? Well, ooh la la to All Might’s successor…
— …who now has a weird scar on his arm but is otherwise fine. Everyone else is going to survive too. Well, almost everyone.
— Aizawa stops by to tell Deku that Eri is currently in quarantine. Since she can’t control her Quirk, she’s pretty goddamn dangerous to go near. Nevertheless, her sole existence leaves the door open for, well, Mirio’s triumphant return. We don’t know when that future will come, but it’s a card that the series can stash in its back pocket. And from what I can tell, Mirio is hugely popular with fans of the series, so it’s just a matter of timing. If they pick the right moment to bring him back — let’s say Deku is about to be killed or something — everyone’s going to just cream themselves.
— Alas, this means we can’t save Nighteye. He isn’t long for this world, so even All Might has shown up to make amends. He’d regret it forever if he never made up with his sidekick.
— Everyone’s in tears. Even in his current state, Mirio barges into the room to add some more tears to the bucket. Nighteye emotionally reveals how he’s come to adore his pupil as more than just a tool — a tool to inherit All Might’s legacy. On paper, this should be a gut-wrenching scene.
— But I feel oddly composed. Is Nighteye the first major character to die in the series? Hmmm. Is he actually a major character though? So that’s my cold-hearted nitpick with this scene. I don’t know if I’d feel any differently had I followed the manga, but I just feel like our time with Nighteye wasn’t long enough for this scene to deliver the gravitas that it wants to convey.
— We have only just gotten to know him, and in that short amount of time, I don’t think the story has really done enough work to show us just how much he means to the people currently crying by his side.
— Also, this would’ve been the perfect time for a new ED or something, ’cause it was odd to go from the dead seriousness of Nighteye’s death to the heart-pumping “Kokai no Uta.”