Oh snap! Plot is happening now! It's such a refreshing change!
There's a lot to unpack here. First, there's the culmination of Eri's character arc. Overall, I'd say it's been a pretty satisfying one. Seeing her start as an annoying pretentious loudmouth, and learning more and more about her goals and motivations as she works on her career and tries to give back to her mom is just satisfying. Even more satisfying is seeing how all that hard work has paid off and turned her into a badass action hero. Her scene where she gets the 'big reveal' directly from Knight and she quickly recovers and turns the confrontation into a defiant speech, complete with kicking the MIB's assess and jumping off the huge yacht? That's a pretty powerful scene for anyone, let alone a female character in -DIGIMON- of all things.
But there's a lot more going on in this episode than just Eri's self-actualization. We also see Astra's genuine pride and investment in his friend, which is a huge change considering how he and Eri started out (and still sometimes act like). Haru also gets some real leader moments here, quickly organizing everyone once a threat is apparent.
And there's Yuujin's mysterious absence, which is brought up by Haru twice in the episode so you don't forget it. They are building something up here!
Rei's part in the episode was brief, but holy-crap-so-immensely-important! He gets into L-Corp to try to get some unrelated data, and winds up FINALLY figuring out L-Corp is related to Leviathan! I had to really reflect on how I feel about this being considered "a big reveal". Obviously, the audience has known about L-Corp's and Leviathan's connection since the first episode. But have the characters? Is this genuinely a surprise to them? What do they know about Leviathan (and what DON'T they know that would keep them from being able to make the connection)?
I think, apart from the possibility of them seeing the L symbol on the phone-like-structures in the AR Field... there's really only one thing that points to a possible connection to L-Corp. That both L-Corp and Leviathan start with "L". Which is obvious in a narrative because there aren't thousands of buzzwords that start with L, but in real life, not everything that starts with L is related to eachother...
Even the attack on WaffleOS doesn't implicate L-Corp, since from the AppliDrivers' point of view, ALL of Leviathan's flunkies' attacks have been random acts of messing up app-related things. Sure, L-Corp obviously profited from the attack, but we only know about that because it's important to the story. Any of the other random appmon-of-the-week attacks could have resulted in major shifts in contract-holding for various companies due to the fallout of unexpected dangerous technology failures.
So... yes. I'm okay with the AppliDrivers being surprised by the revelation of L-Corp as Leviathan. But... it still wasn't a very satisfying reveal for me. Luckily, Eri was badass enough through it that it kept things entertaining.
Back to Rei, we see some serious development for him that I almost missed. He's finally starting to properly open up and connect with the other characters. His outright devotion to Hackmon, to the point of nearly sacrificing himself, shows a huge change from the "I have to stay alive at all costs to save Hajime" mantra he was telling Haru and the others at the beginning of the show. And once he -does- save Hackmon, the two of them just tacitly agree to immediately seek Haru for help. And in a bit of thematically-appropriate but still overly-coincidental timing, they get to give the "big reveal" about L-Corp at the exact same time as Knight does to Eri. Cute.
The swan paddleboat that Haru and the others use to get to Knight's yacht reminds me of the one from Adventure and that just makes me happy.
Oh yeah, and we get a proper dramatic cliffhanger this episode for the first time in... ever?
The Ultimate Four get summoned, the heroes are trapped in an AR Field, and things are about to get even more serious. I guess this means that the next few episodes are out of sync with the airdates in the real world for a bit (I hope for the rest of the series. Just give me a continuous plot for the next 15 episodes, Appmon, PLEASE!)
- I'm a little disappointed that it appears that Izumi isn't going to be an antagonist.
- Where the hell is Yuujin?
- Bootmon's name is finally revealed!
- Rei falls into the AR Field into apparently the Dark Web where he comes face-to-font with Leviathan himself? So the thing chasing Gatchmon in the first episode really WAS Leviathan, not just some Viramon?
- Not gonna lie, I hate everything about idols and idol music. But I'm glad to see appmon give a female character a decidedly-feminine story arc, and treat it seriously and pack in as much drama and character development as possible without resorting to a romance plot. I don't see how anyone can say Eri is a poor character. It's not even like the idol thing is the only part of her character...
- Sleepmon Sleepmon SLEEPMON~ (I kinda hope he's Leviathan's personal bodyguard and transforms a la Belphemon Rage Mode.)
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