Is Rinne going to be ok? What’s up with Spanner? Will Ethan be proven right about a Geryon endgame? Will Ethan give unrequited thoughts on the new forms debuted over these episodes? Better read on to find out!
Welcome. Riders to the penultimate Weekly Ride Review for Kamen Rider Gotchard! Crazy how fast the time has flown! Don’t worry, I’ll save the getting all mushy stuff for next time. For now, let’s jump into it!
Recap
Episode 48
Our episode opens were the last one left off, with Rinne in pain. As Gaelijah activates the signal, she placed on her Rinne, she teleports to Gaelijah. We then cut to Geryon rapping on Rinne’s dads hideout/lab. I guess off screen he rested up and went back to that place everyone already attacked and knows where he is… Geryon interrupts Fuga while treating a passed out Spanner’s wounds. I guess after he walked away at the end of the last episode he didn’t get to far before passing out. As it turns out, Geryon wants Rinne’s dads help to save both of their daughters from Gaelijah’s plan.
Geryon explains that Gaelijah’s plan is to turn Atropos into a Chimera and use that power to destroy everything. Rinne’s dad reluctantly agrees to team up with Geryon and, as they leave to try and save their girls, Spanner wakes up. For the rest of the episode, and a good chunk of the next, he’s is ether treating his wounds or attempting to build his new driver.
Just as Fuga and Geryon arrive in the parking lot behind the filming studio, Gaelijah sets herself up. She quickly turns Rinne and Atropos into Chemy Cards and traps Team Dad in a pocket dimension, where they cant move and have to play Russian Roulette against each other. Hotaro arrives to bail them out, sneaking in through an extremely smart, riddle like loophole. Freeing everyone from the Russian Roulette dimension and into a field where Geryon pulls a Hans from Frozen, telling Atropos that he never really loved her. He follows up by overriding Gaelijah’s sigil so he can turn her into a Chimera that will convert the world to gold.
While everyone is fighting, Gaelijah fires a beam at an untransformed Rinne. Atropos steps in to takes the hit and as Atropos dies in her arms, turning into Saturday morning children’s show approved particles, of course. Gaelijah laughs off the wrong death but same result outcome and Geryon’s Chimera plans are foiled. Picking up Atropos’ gold spinny trinket, it transforms into a second alchemis ring, a black and gold one, and her driver transforms into a new upgraded one, available soon via preorder here from The Toku Source! Keep an eye out for that. Using these new items, Rinne transforms into her final form of the series, Kamen Rider Twilight Majade.
Being that this form defies the fates Gaelijah had foreseen for both Rinne and Atropos and makes them the only person that can get around Gaelijah’s precognition, as well as the fact that this is a new form debut with two episodes left, I don’t think I need to tell you how the fight plays out…
The episode ends with Geryon giving an evil speech, as Gigist takes the defeated Gaelijah’s Philosopher Stone chunk.
Episode 49
Picking back up with Spanner, Lachesis shows up, having been given a list of places to search from Kyoka. The pair talk a little and Spanner explains that his old driver was not not enough to handle or make full use of his power of the black flames. Basically, just like with his debut as a Rider, the old way of transforming is not strong enough to handle the black flames so this whole time he’s been secretly handicapped… again. Meanwhile, Geryon transmutes a part of the Philosopher Stone into an evil Nijigon.
The gang are battling a Malgam Factor. Since Rinne’s is out of transformation energy again, Hotaro makes quick work of it with Rainbow Gotchard. During the fight, he does note some things aren’t quite right and he can’t use its full power. The crowd turns on them the second the battle’s over and, despite the support and rallying cries of a few more returning faces, they have to run away. Hotaro ends up splitting up from the gang to check on his mum while the others return to the classroom.
This ends up leading to a really really great scene where Hotaro gets to the restaurant to find Geryon there with all the lights out. They have a really intense talk and we’re not quite sure if Geryon did something to our boy’s mum or not. During this conversation, Geryon mentions that he has taken the life of someone close to Hotaro, strongly suggesting it’s his mother. Finally, though, she walks in and Geryon makes some pleasantries before leaving. I guess this conclusively confirms that Geryon is not Hotaro’s father, or even based on him, because surely his mum would have recognised him?
Elsewhere, Gigist appears before Spanner, who’s missing one thing to finish his driver. The pair end up fighting with Spanner having to use his original Valvarad form to fight, augmenting this power with the black flames to try and keep up. However, since that only really boosts his offensive powers, the second Gigist lands a solid hit he’s knocked out of his transformation. Lachesis threatens us with a good time but Gigist breaks the unspoken rule of transformations in media and attacks her before she can become Valvarad, disarming her. The pair make an escape using Madwheel.
Hotaro gets a call from Rinne about Spanner getting attacked and rushes off to reunite with the gang. While Spanner is treating Lachesis’ wounds, she’s talks about what she will do once she’s fully human, communicating with so many death flags it might as well be in semaphore. She’s interrupted by Clotho and they talk a little about Atropos and how Clotho just wanted the three of them to be together again. Gigist interrupts her and Clotho transforms into Dread Type Two. Gigist just portals her to a beach, which is a little rude, frankly.
Spanner stops Lachesis from transforming, saying he will fight for both of them, and that goes about as well as you would expect. Before Spanner can be killed by Gigist’s flames, though, his own flames shield him. We see the inner monologue of Spanner within this liminal space and he talks to us about how he always saw the dark flames as something that’s evil, and that he wanted to protect everyone by sacrificing himself and taking the Abyssal Kings with him. He also laments that, after their big fight, he can’t stop seeing Hotaro’s face, hearing his words, his Gotcha. Just as the gang arrives, minus Mr. Minato, Spanner nods at Kyoka and as his flames transform into a pure silver colour. The flames finish his new driver and he transforms to become Kamen Rider Valvarad Kurogane.
Like the episode before it, you can imagine how this fight plays out. Spanner makes quick work out of Gigist, who explodes while praising Spanner as being a progenitor of Alchemy and that this evolution of the black flames make him a worthy successor. Clotho somehow gets back from the beach in time to see Geryon kill Lachesis and he warps away with the, now completed, Philosopher Stone.
Some Mid-Recap Summer Movie Context
We all know the summer movie that takes place before everyone gets their memories back, right? The main villain of the film is Geryon (Daybreak). Well, some important context for the ending of the show that we won’t know for sure ’til mid way into Gavv, is that, apparently, from what I’ve see the post credit reveal is that Geryon (in the show’s timeline) saw all of that and had been taking notes along the way so that he can adjust his version of Kamen Rider El Dorado, as well as his plan as a whole, accordingly. You can expect some references to things you haven’t seen on the show in the finale.
Anyways, back to your regular recap…
We then fade to black and return some time later. There’s a giant version of Geryon’s gold cube in the sky and everyone (again, minus Mr. Minato) runs to confront him. Geryon transforms into Kamen Rider El Dorado.
El Doragon… El Dorado. We see you with the punny, John Toei.
Finally, Geryon reveals he has turned Mr. Minato into gold. Well, mostly. Enough of his face is left he can probably still talk a little. This is the life taken that Geryon referred to in the restaurant. The episode draws to a close and takes us into the series finale next week!
The Bad
I think it should go without saying that the worst part about these two episodes is that the two female cast members that transform get benched in episode 49. That suuuuuuuucked. While this has been an ongoing issue for Rinne all season long, this was especially egregious for Lachesis as her final episode mostly consisted of her losing a lot of agency and having Spanner fight for her, before getting killed. We didn’t need her to die for Spanner to use two Valvarushers. He was able to do so just fine in his duel with Hotaro. What impact will her death have on Spanner? We don’t really have the episode real estate to explore that? Will it make him sad, angsty and a grump? What a fresh new direction to take the character very different to how he’s been most of the show.
While that is, by far, my biggest issue with these two episodes, we are now going to go into a new segment that I’m calling…
The Suit Review
Really Ethan? You beautiful, humble, brilliant, humble, amazing and humble writer, you! You’re really introducing a new review segment in the penultimate Gotchard review, are you?
You, probably.
Yes reader, I am! This will be an occasional segment where I talk about newly debuted suits if I feel like I have enough thoughts on them. They deserve their own segment. In the first instalment of this segment, we have Kamen Rider Valvarad Kurogane and Kamen Rider El Dorado (show version).
Hot Take: I hate these suits. Spanner’s, at least, I like what it represents; even ignoring the retread plot point of “my form before couldn’t handle my black flames I need these training wheels taken off.” I get they are going for a his form theme have gone “scrap car –> high end car –> futuristic Tron like supercar” but it just looks like they peeled him. The Tesla Cybertruck of final forms. It just doesn’t work for me.
As for El Dorado, first of all, I get why he’s named that. City of gold, he wants to make the world gold, etc, etc, but wouldn’t Kamen Rider Midas be a better name? The man that turned everything he touched to gold?
RELATED: The Weekly Ride Review with Ethan Legendary Feature: Kamen Rider Gotchard Legend Arc Episodes 32-35
Do you remember during the Legend arc review (above, for the reminder), I went on a whole tangent about not liking Legendary Legend? Well, if I had £1 for every time Gotchard introduced a powered up golden Rider form that had an awkward chest piece that looks like it restricts the suit actors ability to move much in it, I would have £2; which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it’s happened twice. Also, looking at the two suits side by side, it’s weird how the tertiary final form parallels the final villains design so much, right? Both complementary colours with magenta/pink accents in the chest piece. It’s not just me, is it?
The Good
Kenta Kamakari (Geryon’s actor), Yasunari Fujibayashi (Spanner’s actor) and Reiyo Matsumoto (Rinne’s actress) all earn that paycheck. Their performances over these episodes have really shined. The cinematography was on point, as normal and most of the emotional moments over these episodes hit as hard as they needed to. If I’m honest, the only miss was Lachesis. After the way she had been treated for most of that episode and all the death flags, I saw it coming from outer space. Despite the performances being on point, the setup and execution let it down for me (pun not intended). With one Abyssal sister left, I’m half expecting her to go in the final. That said, maybe the fact they wouldn’t have anyone to use the Dreaddriver and her actresses ability to do her own stunts might save her!
The Conclusion
While I’ve been harsh on these episodes, I did enjoy them plenty and wish we could have gotten more time with Spanner and Rinne’s final forms before Rinne get a post series V-Cinema (please don’t let me down on this Toei) and Spanner shows up in Outsiders.
Overall, like with the end of every tokusatsu season, I’ve a sense of excitement and sadness. It will be emotional to see the end of these characters stories and say goodbye to these friends that have been there with me the last year. My first full year of the Weekly Ride Review. Expect tears in the next one…
What do you think? Do you like the two forms I complained about? Did episode 49 also bug you? You’re surprised I didn’t go on a smug rant about how I called it being a Geryon endgame, aren’t you? As always, I’ve been Ethan: Writer, review and Kamen Rider actually capable of having a good looking golden power up for The Toku Source and I’ll see you next time.
