Wow, lots of plot in this one (in marked contrast to the last episode, twenty-three, which felt like filler and which only very slightly advanced the overall story). The long-simmering tension between the gaudily-dressed inmates populating the Dark Kingdom asylum finally explodes into outright confrontation, and the various characters get smacked with three or four pretty major revelations. The final one in particular is a real kick in the pants; I'm actually surprised the show had the guts to go through with it, especially at such an inconspicuous juncture.





The episode starts off with a bang -- or, to put it more precisely, with a buzz, as Nephrite attempts to use his heretofore-unseen buzzsaw-on-a-stick to slice up Evil Ami, who got on his bad side at the end of the last episode. Nothing comes of the initial attack, of course; Evil Ami merely dodges out of the way. But Nephrite is so riled up at this point that he keeps swinging, and then goes after Kunzite when he tries to stop him! Holy crap! These morons are always bickering, but this is the first time (at least that I can remember) that they've actually gone after each other. Quite a development, I'd say, and long overdue. Anyway, Kunzite pulls out his sword, and the two of them go at it for while, but Nephrite, being weak from Rei's super-fireball and probably not much of a match for Kunzite on a good day, gets the crap kicked out of him. After the credits, Queen "Nuttybar" Beryl proclaims that she is so disappointed in him (she actually looks grossed out) that she doesn't want to see him again any time soon. Crushed, he reluctantly heads off to take a breather in the depths of the Dark Kingdom caves, no doubt plotting a new plan (quite possibly involving a youma) to get back in the Queen's good graces.

Following this, we get more cryptic stuff involving Mamoru and Zoisite; the latter just doesn't seem to want to stop pestering the former about his past life as "Endymion". Even the Queen openly muses about how great it'll be when she finally meets "Endymion", which (she says) is only a matter of time. Yay.

Anyhoo, Zoisite's constant pestering of Mamoru irks Kunzite, who storms into his fungoid piano room to lay down the law: no more messing around with the willowy young man's memories. Zoisite basically tells Kunzite to get lost: evidently the guy's not as spineless as the other Dark Kingdom dorks. Their conversation is brief, but from it we learn that Endymion used to be their "lord" or "master" in the previous life, and that both Zoisite and Kunzite remember this. Kunzite, however, unlike Zoisite, feels no loyalty towards Endymion and would prefer to get rid of him. Not a huge revelation, admittedly, but for this show it's pretty big news.





The next bit features Usagi and Mamoru. Usagi spots him on the street and instantly turns so mopey that she forgets what she's doing and winds up walking in front of a oncoming car. Mamoru, of course, saves her by knocking her out of the way...and then he calls her an idiot. What a swell guy. (I'm guessing Usagi will store this incident away in the "Romantic Moments With Mamoru" section of her memory bank, right next to the time she went to the beach with him and gave his grumpy ass a piece of fruit. Remember? Remember how sublime that moment was? Surely!) Anyway, the two of them continue on to Crown, where Motoki (busily preparing his turtle for a date with another turtle) proceeds to clue Usagi in to Mamoru's upcoming farewell party: see, he's heading overseas to study at a British college. This news depresses Usagi, but to her credit she tries to remain cheery in the face of it, even telling Makoto a moment later that getting Ami back is what's really important. Hey, she remembered! Good for her. I know when my friends turn evil (which actually happens fairly regularly) I sometimes forget about their predicament for whole episodes to focus on whatever happens to be going on in my love life.

Back at the Dark Kingdom caves, Evil Ami returns part of Nephrite's cape, which was slashed off of him by Kunzite during their little skirmish. This small act of semi-kindness was intended, I think, to resonate later on in the series (astute viewers who have seen the entire run and caught the various hints that popped up towards the end will probably know what I'm talking about), but it doesn't amount to much here. The action picks up again after Zoisite uses his piano-powers to bring Mamoru to a planetarium, where he unloads more "Endymion" crap on him. Annoyed, then angry, Mamoru leaves the building, and is suddenly attacked by Kunzite. In his street clothes, of course, Mamoru can't do much, and gets pounded. He's driven back inside, where Kunzite explains his newfound need to kill him: apparently it just won't do for him to remember his past life, and Zoisite was getting close to reminding him of it. The two fight it out in the "science building", while Usagi and Makoto run to his rescue (before Kunzite attacked him, he had gotten a call from Hina, and had been interrupted in the middle of it; worried, she went to tell Motoki at Crown, where she was overheard by Usagi and Makoto).





(Okay, so this has been bugging me for a while, and this is as good a time as any to get it off my chest: the Sailor Soldiers and the Dark Kingdom freaks do a lot of their fighting in public buildings and office buildings, and these buildings are almost universally depicted as being totally empty in the middle of the day. Considering that Tokyo has a daytime population of about 14 million people -- over 5600 people per square kilometer -- this strikes me as somewhat remarkable. A minor, niggling point, perhaps, but I figured I'd better mention it at some point, lest someone accuse me of overlooking it).

Kunzite smacks Mamoru around, shooting blue laser beams out of his sword, but pauses long enough to allow him to change into his Tuxedo Mask outfit. Still outmatched despite this change of clothing, Kunzite knocks him off a railing and into a huge news studio set, which was, coincidentally enough, inexplicably being menaced by a youma at that exact moment. This youma is mildly interesting; it's vaguely birdlike. Reminded me of Cher for some reason. Anyway, the youma leaves to do battle with Usagi and Makoto, who transform and fight the thing, while Tux Mask continues to get schooled. At last, Makoto takes on the stubborn youma herself, and bids Usagi to go find and save Mamoru. Instead, she finds Tuxedo Mask and Kunzite. Her arrival on the scene is duly dramatic, although I have to say, if I were in Mamoru's place, I doubt I'd feel particularly encouraged: wasn't it only a few hours ago that he had to save the airheaded girl from a completely avoidable traffic accident? Is this really the sort of person he wants backing him up in a fight?

Fortunately for them both, Zoisite appears and softens Kunzite up by sort of pressing a big green fireball at him. Kunzite is eventually able to overcome this, but when Sailor Moon reflects his sword-laser back at him with a big Moon Twilight Flash, he realizes he's in over his head and teleports out of there. (Before leaving, he seems to realize, based on the little light show she put on, that Sailor Moon, and not Sailor Venus, is the all-important Princess -- another revelation that'll probably have some repercussions).





But the big moment occurs at the end. While struggling to find Mamoru (whom she believes may still be in trouble), she lets slip how she wanted to give him that scarf, and then finally (finally!) realizes that Mamoru and Tuxedo Mask are one and the same. (This comes after Tuxedo Mask calls her an idiot, and she is reminded of the morning accident). So the key characteristic shared by Mamoru and Tuxedo Mask that finally allowed her to deduce that they were the same person was...his penchant for calling her names? Yeah, she's really found the love of a lifetime there. Sheesh!

And that's the end (Makoto and Rei polished off the youma somewhere in there, too, but it wasn't anything to get excited about). It's really a pretty good episode, with lots of plot threads getting woven and even some uncharacteristically decent special effects towards the end. And of course, Usagi and Mamoru knowing each other's secret identities is bound to change the entire show's dynamic. So, all in all, a worthy effort.

I mean, for a Sailor Moon.

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