Akira calls Kota over from writing his resume to watch a news report of people being hospitalized with a strange illness after being attacked by monsters. The news theorizes the monster attacks are somehow related to the Beat Riders and the Inves game.
Kota hurries over to the hospital with Mitch and Mai.
Meanwhile at Yggdrasill, Takatora, Ryoma and Sid are having a pow-wow about the increasing rate of crack appearances and people falling ill. Takatora asks about evacuation preparations, but Ryoma says they can only continue to hide the forest from the public and continue their research for now.
A hologram DJ Sagara walks in and says they seem to be underestimating the Beat Rider kids if they think they can just brush them aside, especially if they still have the Sengoku Drivers with them. But Ryoma says they can just punish them if they need to.
Across town, Ryoji storms into Drupers looking for Sid who isn’t in his usual booth. He asks Bando who says Sid hasn’t been around for days. Ryoji runs out, fuming when suddenly he begins hallucinating that the normal civilians outside are evolved Inves and the other Armored Riders.
He runs off again, angry that he has no power and that he must be afraid of such things.
Takatora heads to Charmant to have some cake and present Oren an offer to be his mercenary.
Kota takes Mai and Mitch to the hospital to get checked out as Akira suggested. But they find it is full of patients and their family members. Suddenly, a couple of people recognize them as Beat Riders and they get surrounded by an angry mom blaming them for playing around with the monsters who’ve made their loved ones sick.
Kota tries to speak up and defend him and the others, but the mob starts attacking. A doctor gets everyone to calm down and decides to bring Kota, Mitch and Mai to see the patients for themselves.
They head to a room full of infected patients. Doctors try to hold the patients down as they try to fight them off, Helheim vines growing out of their bodies.
Across town, Team Baron is performing on the South Stage, but to a very sparse audience. Like two people. That is until a group of upset family members confront them about their hospitalized loved ones.
What do they want then, Kaito asks. The family members want them to leave Zawame and return the city to peace. Kaito says they had acquired this stage by force so they will have to be driven away by force as well.
Kaito henshins and summons three Inves. But suddenly, Oren appears and says he is here to be the hero and protect the good people from the villan that is Kaito.
Oren henshins and takes on the three Inves, quickly finishing them off. Seeing that he is fighting off the Inves, the people indeed see him as their hero and root him on as he fights Kaito.
Oren throws one of his swords at Kaito, but it ricochets up onto one of the speakers and knocks off a metal piece that falls and hits Peco’s arm. He collapses in pain. Kaito turns to go to his teammate, but hesitates. Oren asks if Kaito will choose his pride or his friend.
Kaito chooses his friend as he helps Peco up and Team Baron takes him to get some help.
Oren de-henshins and the people cheer him on. “Brabou!”
Later that night, Oren, henshined, films and broadcasts a message to the city saying that he will protect them from the petulant Beat Rider kids and will discipline them himself. Just like he’s doing now by guiding one of the Beat Riders (Hideyasu) to reform.
Mai is excited about an opportunity to train under Oren, but Kota snaps her out of it. This is a problem, Mitch says. At this rate, the Beat Riders will get all the blame and they have no way of revealing the truth.
Mitch goes to leave, but thinks to himself, What if Yggdrasill had distributed the Lock Seeds and Drivers to them knowing this would happen?
Across town, a tear opens in a warehouse and an evolved Inves attacks the workers. Kota arrives and takes on the Inves. He hesitates before henshining and Oren appears and takes on Kota.
What about the Inves attacking people, Kota asks. Oren says there’s nothing in his contract about defeating monsters.
Kota henshins and they properly fight. Kaito jumps in and says he’s ready to settle the score with Oren. It’s not that he’s helping Kota, he just wants to defeat his enemy. Okay, Kota wants to defeat his enemy too. So with their common enemy, Kaito henshins and they fight Oren together.
Kota manages to take Oren by surprise with a few bullets. That allows Kaito to toss Kota his Banana Lock Seed as he activates his Mango Lock Seed. Kota finds he too can use the Banana Lock Seed and he activates his own Banana Arms.
Oren decides to retreat when their powers up are too much for him.
Kota says they need to focus on finding the Inves now and they both hurry into the warehouse. Kota hands Kaito his Lock Seed back as Ryoji watches from around the corner.
They find the location of the crack and the white Rider appears after tossing the evolved Inves down from the rafters. Ryoji sees the white Rider and is filled with anger knowing he is the reason he is powerless now.
The Inves gobbles up a few Lock Seeds and further evolves into super mega ultra mode. The Inves rampages in the warehouse. Kota and Kaito go to henshin, but the Inves knocks the Lock Seeds away. Ryoji watches in awe of the Inves’ power.
Takatora uses the Energy Lock Seed to fight back against the Inves and finish it off.
Kota and Kaito hurry to grab their Lock Seeds as Takatora turns his attention to them. They henshin and are ready to battle, but suddenly Ryoji walks over to the vines, grabs a Lock Seed fruit and gobbles it up.
The others watch as Ryoji suddenly transforms into some Inves-looking creature.
Episode Thoughts
Gaim keeps delivering. This was definitely a heavy episode. Even more so than last week’s. You’ve got a citywide epidemic with vines growing out of people going crazy at the hospital. VINES GROWING OUT OF HUMAN BODIES!!!!! I mean, come on now.
Then there’s Ryoji descent into madness. What a crazy turn of events for him it has been these last few weeks. It is definitely surprising, but very enjoyable.
Just an example of the great writing Gaim has had. A very refreshing change of pace for a toku show. Again, I hope he doesn’t get killed off or anything. I want to see more Kamen Rider Rangers.
Mitch once again delivers in the sinister, badass, HBIC kind of way he’s been growing into. I definitely can’t wait until even his own niisan is afraid of him. I hope that happens. He’ll be one of my favorite toku characters ever if so.
Seeing Kaito worry about his friend was great to see, especially after he went really douchey challenging the poor family members to an Inves game. That was insane. That would’ve been a little too much for the prideful Kaito, yeah?
Overall, another excellent episode.
know what, the whole helheim plants growing on people feels horrifyingly logical. think of the invess as bees. they eat the fruits whose seeds get stuck to them. then they attack people and inadvertently implant the seeds on them. brrr!!
*shudder* That’s so creepy! Hehe. I love this show.