Kiriko is standing her ground. She will not move. Chase shoots. But he doesn’t aim at her and the shot goes right past.
Chase flies off. Shinnosuke loses consciousness.
Brain does not understand why Chase did not finish the Kamen Rider off. “I do things my own way,” he says. He leaves. Brain is upset, but Heart says not to worry since it is Chase’s destiny to destroy the Kamen Rider.
Chase, now alone, wonders why he could not shoot the lady.
Back at the Pit, Shinnosuke finally wakes up after 15 hours. Kiriko says she’s heading back to the investigation. Shinnosuke asks her why she was so reckless though. If Chase had really shot at her…
“Because it’s my job! I only did what needed to be done!”
Kiriko leaves. Shinnosuke is taken aback. He was just worried. Belt-san says they’re good buddies, yes? But Kiriko has been acting strange recently and Belt-san asks if he knows anything.
Well, it’s not like she only started being stoic and cold yesterday. But Belt-san says if she was only doing her job like she says, then she wouldn’t have left a vase of flowers by Shinnosuke’s bed.
Shinnosuke suddenly remembers blowing her off when she offered to accompany him to see Hayase. She has not gotten a chance to visit him yet and hoped to be able to come with this time. She even got flowers. But Shinnosuke was a little cold to her, saying this was time for only them two and not including Kiriko.
Rinna walks into the Pit. Belt-san says she needs to complete that new gun to counter the new enemies. Rinna begrudgingly accepts the order since she’ll have to call and cancel her inclusion in a blind date party.
Shinnosuke is looking forward to the “Handle Gun.”
Shinnosuke walks into the SID office where Chief Jun is being photographed by Kento for a feature on the Special Investigations Division and their work in the hopes that their budget gets an increase with the nice media exposure and publicity.
Shinnosuke tells Kento that he knows why he is so interested in the Kamen Rider. But before he can continue, Kiriko comes in to report that the Shift Car following Kusaka has been found out. They quickly head over to the Touto Times office.
Shinnosuke explains his theory. Kento is actually looking for the Kamen Rider, not for a big scoop, but to hopefully find a way to help save his friend Kusaka from the Roidmude. Kento admits having already seen Kusaka and the Roidmude at the site of the second building collapse.
Kento feels responsible for Kusaka going off the deep end. After their expose was rejected last year, Kento did not want to stick with Kusaka in hoping to pursue the expose outside of the paper. He didn’t have the drive or resolve to stick with his friend.
That’s why Kento wants to face Kusaka in person and try to persuade him to stop this madness, regardless of the danger.
Kyu calls Shinnosuke with his research revealing that the construction company has a lot of political ties. And those connections are what killed the expose last year. Not only that, the collapsed buildings are all owned by those same politicians. And they are being destroyed in order of their construction, starting with the most recent.
The next on the list: the International Sports Stadium.
Shinnosuke, Kiriko and Kento quickly head over, but are once again stopped by Chase.
Shinnosuke tells Kiriko to take the wheel and bring Kento to Kusaka. “But don’t do anything reckless.”
Kiriko drives off. Dramatic cut between Kiriko and Chase.
Shinnosuke fixes his tie. Chase says he will not kill humans because they are not even worth killing. That’s why Shinnosuke should quickly henshin into Kamen Rider right now.
Chase henshins as Tridoron and Belt-san arrive. Shinnosuke henshins and they battle.
Kiriko and Kento arrive at the stadium. Kusaka is whistling “London Bridge” again as he prepares his camera.
Shinnosuke and Chase are in a fierce battle. Tridoron comes to help keep Chase busy while Shinnosuke can uphenshin to Type Wild.
Tridoron speeds off. Belt-san says it’s under his orders. Chase continues attacking.
Over at the stadium, Kento gets on his knees and bows, apologizing to Kusaka for abandoning him last year because of the story. He pleads with Kusaka to own up to his crimes and regain his old ideals too. Kusaka’s not budging.
Suddenly, the Heaviness arrives as 033 walks into the picture.
Kiriko takes out her gun and again stands her ground.
Shinnosuke uses Rumble Dump to try and gain an upper hand on Chase, but they are still evenly matched. That’s when Tridoron arrives again.
This time, Rinna comes out of Tridoron with the just finished gun! But it’s not a Handle Gun as Shinnosuke hoped. It’s actually a Door Gun.
And it works pretty well.
033 knocks Kiriko to the ground. Kusaka laughs at them, but 033 says he no longer has use to him so Kusaka will join Kiriko and Kento as casualties of this latest collapse.
Door Gun has run out of bullets. Rinna says to open and close the door so it can reload. But Shinnosuke only opens the door when he returns to try and shoot at Chase.
“Door ajar.”
Rinna and Belt-san tell him to shut the door. And that refills the gun. Shinnosuke gets the hang of Door Gun now. Chase still manages to knock Shinnosuke off his feet.
But before Chase can deliver another attack, he sees an image of Kiriko appear. He can’t shoot. And as Shinnosuke fires, Chase flies off again.
Shinnosuke thanks Rinna and hurries over to the Stadium.
033 says he has now fully evolved so he has no need for Kusaka anymore. Kiriko gets in front of Kusaka.
033 will not hesitate like Chase did, but thankfully Shinnosuke arrives.
Shinnosuke and Tridoron battle 033. Tridoron goes Type Wild and they finish off 033 for good with a Full Throttle Finisher.
Kento tries to lift Kusaka’s spirits saying that even if he must pay for his crimes, he can still join him in the future to fight for the truth like they did before.
Shinnosuke tells Kiriko she was being reckless again. But she says she just did what needed to be done. Because she is his buddy.
Kiriko finally gets to meet Hayase. He is happy to meet her. Especially since he’s been asking Shinnosuke to introduce his new partner to him for a while now.
Hayase laughs that Tomari is just afraid of the secrets Hayase may reveal. They have fun.
Meanwhile, Chase is pondering the meaning of the Kamen Rider. And the meaning of his own existence!
Episode Thoughts
Yes! Great episode. Definitely excited to finally get to learn more about Chase and his backstory. I wonder if he really does have a connection to Kiriko or if that’s just some random dramatic tease. Either way, can’t wait to see what he’s all about.
It’s also great to continue to see Kiriko get her own character development as well. After a few seasons of the Kamen Rider “girl” being pretty bland and underused, I really hope Kiriko is different and we really see her shine during the season. Full time female secondary Kamen Rider plz!
Also nice to see the rest of the SID be utilized in the episode again even if just a scene or two.
Overall another good, enjoyable episode!
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Okay, as a journ graduate myself, I definitely have a spot spot for the topic they tackled for this particular epoisode.
So it turns out, my initial hunch of Chase being Kamen Rider Mach (the upcoming second rider) is wrong. Still they are throwing in a lot of hints here that he is somewhat related to the Rider system and would potentially switch sides to become the third(?) rider here.
Hey, you’re forgetting Mai. She was an interesting and engaging character all throughout Gaim. The only thing that nags me about Kiriko at this point is that her uniform looks more like that of a J-Pop idol costume and less of a police officer’s. Kinda makes it hard for me to take her seriously as a cop. She does look cute in casual cloths in this episode though.
Speaking of Gaim, it looks like they really are going for lighter and softer here. This one has a lot more comedic elements, though I must say that there are a few of it are not that funny. The SID chief feels a bit too exaggerated, Oren would look serious when put beside him. The rest of the team also falls on the kooky side. But hey, SID engineer Rinna seems to have a bit of a backstory behind her.
Also, the fights here are less intense than that of Gaim’s. Dunno if it’s because of the Urobuchi influence, but Gaim’s fight scenes had this certain air of brutality in them, especially after ep 12. Outside of the ones with Chase (and probably Heart and Brain) in them, the fights here tend to be a bit on the comedic, specially considering how silly most of Drive’s armaments are. As for them bringing back the two-parter format, I have some mixed feelings with it.