This time we got some focus on Yosuke and started to get a better picture of how the world inside the TV seems to work. Have to give my sympathies to Yamano and Saki. Can only imagine the nightmare of being stuck in that world and having their shadows bring up the darkest parts of their personalities. Could see how badly Yosuke was beat up psychologically by his shadow and they didn’t have the advantage of anyone coming in to save them. Was interesting to have the fight mixed into the beating up on Yosuke since it gave his shadow some personality. It’s not just about physically winning the fight, but having Yosuke accept that side of himself. People do have aspects of their personalities that they wouldn’t want thrown out for all to see, but that’s just what happened here. While in part he was motivated by wanting to find out what happened to Saki there was a part of Yosuke who was in it for the excitement.

For that reason can’t really say Saki was everything that we heard her voice saying. I’m sure part of her thought Yosuke was annoying and didn’t think of him that way. But it doesn’t mean she completely hated him or her family. It’s just the situation she was in was stressful. She took a job at a place that would put her at odds with her family, but really if that shopping district is seriously suffering not like there would be a lot of other options to work. Would have to be the worst kind of ending to get harassed by your dark side and then killed.

Nice to see the lead gained a bit of courage on his stat sheet in this episode XD. Being willing to go into the TV world with Yosuke and accept helping Kuma with finding out who is responsible requires some guts. Glad he managed to snap Yosuke out of his denial, through an accidental punch to the face XD. Guess now it’s clear what the contract he accepted was. Taking on this investigation and finding out who is responsible for putting those women into the TV.

Creepy encounter early in the episode for Yukiko. Some guy just waiting at the dates and asking her out in that weird manner. Luckily he just left without incident, but clearly she has to be on her guard. A bit naive not realizing what that was about and that she’d been easily shooting people like Yosuke down. Not that she doesn’t have the right to turn down those she isn’t interested in. Clearly popularity has its dark side in attracting pretty much everyone. That interview at the end was clearly leaving her uncomfortable. Some people in that industry can be pretty pushy.

Poor Chie having to hope the guys were going to come back in one piece. The brilliant rope plan didn’t really work out. Naturally after they’ve gone into the TV it doesn’t stay active and just leaving a rope in the middle won’t change that. Though in the end she did get paid off pretty well with those meals.

Maybe a key question is what is Kuma? I mean they unzipped his head and there was nothing in there. Considering he’s living in that world I suppose it’s not completely strange, but it is a little weird.

Plenty taken care of in this episode. They got back home in one piece, found out Saki was dead, Yosuke faced his shadow and gained his persona. It is interesting on that note to see that the shadows spewing the darkest stuff apparently turn into a persona after being defeated. Of course clearly that didn’t happen with our lead Narukami which creates questions by itself. Still, talk about gaining power after paying a price. First Yosuke had to go through hell before gaining that strength. At least Narukami doesn’t have to carry the whole workload by himself.

I thought the OP was an alright song, though think they could have just stayed with the game opening song and put a new visual to it. It wasn’t the prettiest OP we’ve seen this season, but it was alright. The ED was a fine song too and had some good symbolic value. Showing the magician card that fell to Yosuke after they won the fight and all those cards moving into Narukami at the end.

A better episode overall I thought. They did still jump around, but it wasn’t that jarring. The music again was nice in the battle and when Yosuke was accepting his other side. Will keep on enjoying this series for certain.
Score: A