Mob Psycho S1E9: "Claw ~seventh division~" (continued)

More resolved and less intimidated than they were before, the captives start trying to work on an escape plan. The guards are probably expecting them to (a suspicion that is confirmed for the audience in a brief aside, as the guards are shown watching the prisoners' huddled conversation and inferring the truth. They don't seem to be taking the risk of them succeeeding at an escape all that seriously, though), but hopefully they'll underestimate them by thinking them scareder than they are.

Before the prisoners can plan anything though, Ritsu has a question he needs to ask all of them.

Okay, Elvis-hair isn't being reasonable here. Ritsu spent one afternoon with them, at least a week ago. I wouldn't remember their names after that. I don't think most other people would either. Even without all the wackiness that's been taking Ritsu's attention since then.

Anyway, they give him a second round of introductions. From right to left in the screencap above, their names and powers are:

1. Girl. She has minor clairvoyance.

2. Elvis. He has minor telekinesis.

3. Blondie. He has minor thermal manipulation and pyrokinesis.

4. Minecraft Bill. He's telepathic, but limited to very minor mindreading tricks except with his brother, Minecraft Steve, who he shares a stronger mental link with.

As for the escape plan, well. Ritsu knows that they're underestimating them, because they didn't bother to check their belongings very carefully before throwing them in the cell. Which means he still has a slightly-bent metal spoon on him.

They didn't even...fucking hell, the Claw is a joke. They'd actually be a bigger threat as a collection of independent supervillains who happen to be doing things in around the same time and place than they are as an “organization.”

Well, okay then. I must say, I'm a little disappointed that this is turning out to be much less of a "shit gets real" twist than it initially sold itself as. The Claw is only barely more threatening than Dimple's cult at this point. Hell, with their motives being focused on forced recruitment with a preference for psychic children, they pretty much ARE just a bigger version of Dimple's cult with more mind-punching capabilities. There's nothing inherently wrong with minor, incremental escalations on principle, but they were built up as so much more than that, which makes it a let down.

Anyway! While Ritsu sits back and lets the guards underestimate his own powers for now (I guess he just assumed that Koyuma didn't tell them? I mean, his assumption was correct, but how could he have guessed that?), Blondie squints, bares his teeth, and makes constipated noises as hard as he can, and manages to heat the end of the spoon red hot and semisolid. Elvis then sticks it into the lock of their cell door, and - putting himself through a similar amount of effort - twists the molten metal into a lockpick, getting the door open. The guards are waiting, and glad to have see a demonstration of the captives' powers, but they turn out to be no much for Ritsu when he reveals what he can do himself.

These guys either don't have any powers of their own yet, or theirs are just weak enough that they're impossible to notice against the backdrop of Ritsu's. He's even able to maneuver them into a security camera blind spot before initiating the beatdown...and they just kind of let him walk into that corner before engaging him.

Okay. Either this is doing some sort of deliberate subversion of expectations here with how shitty the Claw is at their job, or it's just the author not knowing how to make the plot work without the villains being impossibly stupid.

Anyway, Ritsu explains to the others that he needs to keep the bad guys underestimating them. Hence, letting them make the lockpick, and then waiting until he was out of the camera's sights before showing his own powers.

Okay, apparently the characters and the author have ALL forgotten that Koyama saw what Ritsu could do back in the alley scene.

Or else the author forgot that the characters don't know that Koyama is too dumb to tell the rest of his cell about Ritsu.

Or else Koyama just forgot what Ritsu could do, and the author forget to communicate to us that this occurred.

Look, one way or another, this sequence is determined to be forgetful, and consequently forgettable.

Ritsu asks Girl if she can use her clairvoyance in conjunction with Bill's telepathy to find their way to Steve's location. She says that she'll try. Everyone looks a little irritated with Ritsu for first forgetting their names, and then casually referring to them as "powerless" compared to himself. This is going to have repercussions at some point.

Back outside, Teru and Mob have reached the edge of the facility. There are a couple more of those unscarred mooks guarding the entrance. Mob for some reason has cold feet against assaulting Claw agents now (I really am having trouble keeping track of his characterization at this point), and leaves these two to Teru. Who expresses gratitude that he saw Tarada's psi-whips enough that he thinks he can copy the technique.

He never needed those to telekinetically grab people and beat them unconscious before, but I guess maybe it improves his range or something, idk. He drags the guards into the bushes and knocks them out. They scream a lot before he can pull them away, but that doesn't alert anyone else. And I guess there aren't any more of those security cameras that were just established out here either. Because reasons. One of the unconscious guards starts trembling, and suddenly gets back up, now with clownlike rosy cheeks and a creepy smile, explaining that he's glad to have finally found an unconscious esper who isn't too powerful for him to hijack.

Teru is wary of this, seeing how readily and comfortably Dimple will just possess people. Dimple assures him that no, really, he's not evil or dangerous. Mob assures him that yes, really, Dimple is both evil and dangerous. Teru wisely defers to Mob's assessment, but allows that they can't pass up whatever allies they can get right now even if they have to keep a close eye on them.

Dimple also explains a bit more about possession. The more psychically powerful the host, the more Dimple can do with them. However, more powerful espers are also harder to take control of, especially with Dimple in such a weakened state after his defeats by Mob and Teru. He tried to take over Tarada after they knocked him out earlier, but even unconscious his mind was too shielded. Just like Ritsu's back a couple episodes ago.

The mooks are much less useful hosts, with their limited psi-powers, but they're his best option for now. Anyway, even if this guard isn't very powerful, he's still part of the facility's crew, which means he can be useful for getting them deeper into the base without having to fight every step of the way. Fair enough. Onward!

As Ritsu and the other captives slowly navigate through the halls, trying to dodge patrols and trusting Girl's ESP perhaps more than they should, the rescuer party runs into another lone mook. They may have been able to let Dimple handle this, pretending he caught these two poking around outside or whatever, but Teru and Mob are too trigger happy, and the rando ends up embedded in a wall after both boys TK-blast him at once.

Teru reminds Mob that this isn't what they planned. Mob is to save his powers for when they meet the Scarred and keep himself fresh and untired. Leave the mook artificial-espers to Teru.

No mention of Dimple having a guard body they could use to bypass fights altogether. I thought that was the reason they even allowed him to possess that guy, but neither of them seem to have thought it an option in this encounter. Huh. Okay then. Not sure what they're thinking Dimple even is planning to do, then. And why they aren't more suspicious of it.

The next mook they run into, Teru is able to capture without knocking out, and it proves easy to intimidate information out of him. They're told that the prisoners are being kept in the basement level, so they go looking for the stairs and/or elevator leading down. Mob visibly cheers up at the news that there are, in fact, a group of children being held here; Terada brought them to the right place, and they can rescue his brother. Hppefully they won't end up going right passed each other.

Of course, they haven't been even remotely subtle in their invasion so far, so the facility has by now gone onto full alert. Ritsu's ploy down in the prison would have probably attracted attention by now too, but Mob and Ritsu have created a very strong unintentional diversion. Anyway, down in the evil meeting room, the Scarred are appraising the live security footage of the invaders. Koyama identifies at least one of them as the kid he had to retreat from earlier, infers that he and his companions must hace defeated Terada and his men as well, and insists that this time, knowing what he's up against and with home field advantage, he can beat him. When the others suggest that the entire group go up and confront Mob and Teru together, Koyama gets really pissy.

He's determined to make up for his earlier failure. He can't actually be as confident in his ability to win this as he's acting, though, after last time. Maybe he's just afraid that his career in the Claw is over anyway if he doesn't make up for that humiliation, so he might as well take a longshot here since he has nothing to lose. It's not like it's possible to be killed in battle, after all.

The others are irritated at this, and seem to prefer that he stay with them and let them hit the invaders with overwhelming force of numbers, but Division Leader Ishiguro approves his request.

I get the feeling that Ishiguro is just handing a tiresome underling enough rope to hang himself with. Even by Claw standards, Koyuma seems like a difficult person to work with, and he's liable to get even worse when he inevitably doesn't get picked for Claw Prime's retinue despite being one of the division's most powerful espers after today's events. So, let the dumbass get himself humiliated twice over so that Ishiguro has a good justification to get rid of him himself.

I also suspect that Ishiguro thinks watching Mob, Teru, and Dimple fight a really powerful opponent will give him and his other Scars a much better tactical assessment of what they're dealing with before having to fight them themselves. So, two birds with one stone.

Koyuma goes to intercept them. And does so bombastically, with no attempt at stealth or surprise, even though he said that his mistake last time was not taking the threat seriously. I want to say "what an idiot," but at this point it's starting to feel like the story's stupidity rather than the character's.

It turns out that Dimple is a gamer. Or used to be one, maybe.

Anyway, Teru (and Dimple, assuming he actually does have combat-relevant powers with this body; we haven't seen him use any yet) stand aside and let Mob take point like they planned for Scars. This time, Koyuma is allegedly taking Mob seriously from the outset.

However, Mob is also taking Koyuma seriously from the outset this time. And knows not to let him get close enough to use the spray. And also has given up most, if not all, of his moral reservations when it comes to Claw members.

He didn't even need to be at 100%, huh.

...or maybe Mob has been at 100% for this entire episode?

That would actually explain a lot. And it would hint that yes, EVENTUALLY, being at 100% stress levels will start to wear down Mob's ability to exercise restraint and care. I wish it was communicated better, though, if that is indeed the case.

Dimple comes to a different conclusion, though. Maybe Mob doesn't actually have to be at 100% stress levels to use his full power. Maybe it's just that when he's any less stressed out than that, he just doesn't feel like doing so.

Hmm. In that case, ??? might not be another entity inside of him, so much as the abandonment of conscious thought altogether in lieu of pure fight-or-flight, when his powers get the equivalent of a high adrenaline rush. It's a theory, at least.

Back in the inner sanctum, the remaining Scars and their division leader resolve that this is, in fact, a threat to take very seriously. They will all go out to interdict the intruders as a group, now, and they'll fight to win.

There's no telling what role Ritsu and Co's escape will play in what happens next. Anyway, that's the episode.

In a word? Disappointing. For the most part, this just feels like an unironic example of the kind of dumb, lazily-written punchy stuff that OPM was meant to parody. And, aside from some well-done animation, it's not even a particularly good unironic example of that.

Hopefully things will start getting interesting again after they've beat these dorks and we can resume looking at Mob's relationship with his brother, Teru's philosophical trajectory, Arataka's double-edged lessons about self-control and friendship, etc. Or at least comedy. Remember how funny this show can be, sometimes? I hope it does that again soon, if nothing else. The infiltration sequence didn't even have any very good gags.

This is definitely the weakest part of the series until now. Which is too bad, because it followed right after (and seems to be the conclusion built up to by) the best part until now.