I guess I would say that was an improvement, though based on the last couple of episodes that’s not much of a limb to be out on.  But for an episode that had so many elements which should have been satisfying, I found it oddly lacking in that department.  It was anti-climactic quite literally, in that it was effectively the end of the Renril arc.  The season finale (remember it’s only 20 episodes) looks like it’s going to more in the postscript/epilogue vein, possibly setting up a major timeskip.

To summarize what happened as best I can suss it out: Bon offed himself so that Fushi could make a copy, possess it, see all the ghosts that had been following him around and remember them without having to go through the nokkers to do it.  At this point Fushi goes on a resurrection spree, starting with old friends and eventually extending to people he’s never even met.  With the cat out of the bag now, Fushi can wield this power seemingly at will (which is dangerous in its own right, though Fushi isn’t especially corruptible).  Basically, humans can decide when they die whether they want to move on (like Pioran did) or stick around – as the likes of Gugu and March et al did.

This is quite moving, theoretically.  All these spirits stuck around Fushi because they didn’t want him to be alone, basically.  They got no gratification from it in the sense that he couldn’t interact with them in any way – all they could do was observe.  So when they finally get to do so now it should have been a really powerful moment.  Especially with Gugu, the human with which Fushi indisputably formed the strongest bond.  But I didn’t feel much if I’m honest, which saddens me because I thought about this moment quite a bit.  Maybe it’s because the build-up to it has been so clunky.

The off note in this lovefest is Eko, who’s been taken over by Kahaku’s nokker.  Fushi is still inside Bon’s body – partly so he can see the spirits to be sure, but also it seems as if his “original” form is not available to him at this point (possibly it’s in Kahaku’s possession).  Kai goes off to help Eko while Fushi is creating his immortal army.  And a hell of an army it is too – Gugu alone is worth a few divisions at least.  Kahaku lures his nokker back (into his face) and away from Eko, leaves a farewell letter for Fushi with Kai (declaring the Guardians a failure and their project over) and rides off into what seems like a pretty hellish future.

And that seems to be that, pretty much.  With Fushi’s newfound, anxiety-amplified powers and the immortal strike force he created with them, the nokkers are no match for Renril’s defenders.  There’s a lot to do next week even so – again, I expect a major timeskip either in that episode or just after it.  Will there be a new weapons race now that this war has unleashed what it has?  How will Fushi get the nameless boy – the one form truly indispensable to him – back?  And who will choose to stay with him and who to part company?  I feel as if I should care about the answers more than I do at this moment, but that’s not to say I don’t care at all…