Review: RWBY Vol.4 – Chapter 12 “No Safe Haven” (Season Finale)

Safety is overrated anyway.

Spoilers Below

Team RNJR faces imminent danger in the form of that Grotesque Centaur Grimm creature from the last episode makes its presence known and its slasher-villain levels of terrifying.

Jaune does his best to rescue Qrow but it lunges towards him and out of nowhere Ren proceeds to use his semblance abilities to make him invisible to the creatures’ vision, however, this is temporary as Ren yells to Jaune “Just get him to safety!”

Jaune takes Qrow behind a house to keep him safe and Team RNJR regroups to stand their ground by going in a circle and taking turns with projectile attacks except for Jaune who reveals a substantial upgrade as his sword sheath opens into having a more powerful effective blade.

After being struck with it, the Creature starts to fully recognize them as a threat and twists its upper body bitch-slapping all of them with his giant hands.

Afterward, the creature’s spine grows longer spikes and shrieks louder sending a shockwave which motivates Ren to climb up on a tree to get a clear shot with his uzi-claw weapons, however, that doesn’t last as it slams Ren into a wall showing how far it can stretch his upper body. Before it can deliver the killing blow, Nora asks Ruby to launch her and intercept his other hand which thankfully grabs her hammer weapon which leads to a comedically awkward scene where Ren accidently looks up Nora’s skirt.

The creature slams Nora to the ground depleting her Aura shield which puts her in even more Danger while the rest of Team RNJR go all-out and Ren starts behaving out of character as he impulsively attacks without concern for himself as Jaune tells him to “Knock it off” and he gets slammed next to Nora with his Aura also depleted. Nora then decides to tackle Ren to keep him from doing anything more impulsively stupid.

Ruby & Jaune cause a distraction with Jaune standing his ground even further with his upgraded sword. (Damn!)

Before Ren can rejoin the battle Nora grabs him without letting go and even bitch-slaps Ren knowing that he’s putting his life at risk.

Ren starts to having flashbacks and realizes this is the exact same spot they hid when they first encountered this Grimm years ago.

showing that he still had the Dagger his father gave him as his only line of defense and Nora assures to him “We can do this!”

Both Ren & Nora get out of the hiding spot and Ruby assures them that she and Jaune will take care of its arms while Nora takes care of the horse part of the creature leaving Ren to attack it’s upper-body. And so Team RNJR goes to work carefully distracting its long-range limbs and provides Ren the cover needed to take it out starting with Ruby stabbing it’s right hand in the ground first, then Ren tackles it’s free left arm with Jaunes shield signaling Jaune to stab it to the ground and gives Nora the order to hammer its face in using the momentum of the fall for extra damage.

And finally in a gamut of emotions, Ren’s inner-thoughts begin to scream “for my mother, for my father, for all those that you slain,” before saying out loud “For myself!” and proceeds to decapitate the sucka!

That was cathartic as fuck! The Grimm monster disappears into black smoke & nothingness and Nora tackles Ren in celebration while Ruby goes to check on Qrow to see that he’s still alive but Qrow remarks that “it’s quiet, good job kiddo!”

Conveniently enough, some rescue ships come to get them to safety giving Qrow the medical attention he needs explaining that they saw the smoke where the Grimm was destroyed and decide to check it out since the town has been abandoned for years and the best part is Qrow will make it in time.

Ruby goes to stay in a small Inn to check on Qrow who leaves behind a note for Yang to find.

As she’s writing the letter, its intertwined with some back story and flashbacks of other characters serving as a mini epilouge.

Ruby struggles not to lose her cool as she tears up a little and briefly stops to check on Qrow once more with Qrow sarcastically saying “aren’t I normally the one saving you?”

And then it cuts to a library And completely ends the letter to Yang with another long paragraph. (Seriously, Ruby, know when to stop!)

“P.S. I’ll be sure to give you the address of where we’ll be staying in Mistral. I’d love hear back from you and Dad and I can’t wait to fill you in on whatever’s going to happen next! Now that we’ve made it across Anima, I really think things are gonna start going our way.”

The episode finally ends when we see Haven’s Headmaster Professor Lionheart conversing with Dr. Watts (one of Salem’s Evil council members) before it cuts to black with chilling violin music in the background.

In the tradition of every RWBY season, We get the post-credits scene in the finale only this time it shows Qrow in a bar with Oscar approaching him. Oscar awkwardly says to him “I’d like my Cain Back”

Qrow is quick to figure out who this is and says to him “It’s good to see ya again Oz.” before Oscar clumsily catches it.

Overview

Contrary to the marketing, the episode wasn’t really 27 Mins long and several fights that were shown within the Vol.4 intro didn’t happen but it delivered well by tying a few loose ends while leaving stuff open for Season 5.

They found a way to make the finale of Vol.4 legitmately emotional without relying on character deaths for the sake of shock value or having the writers lazily press the Deus Ex Machina bullshit button in the form of Ruby’s “Silver Eyes” powers which is an accomplishment in itself.

Volume 4 was a little on the slow side due to them stretching it out with newer pieces of information through more “World of Remnant” segments than usual but I don’t see that as a bad thing. Volume 3, while somewhat flawed, was a rollercoaster of emotions and action. If you keep that kind of thing up constantly, it gets old fast.

I seriously loved watching the final monster fight of Vol.4 The payoff knew how to deliver, and Ruby’s letter was emotional without going to Diabeetus Blvd. And was a lot to write as I sometimes found myself rewwinding parts of it just to make sure I got a word accurate.

Also after last episode 11, Ironwood was spot-on not to trust the Headmaster of Haven, as this Dr. Watts character who we haven’t seen since episode 1 has made another another appearance and with the implication that the Professor himself could have ties with Salem’s Evil Council in some way (and the Headmaster’s full name is Leo Lionheart? I wouldn’t be surprised if this individual is a Lion Faunus).

Hopefully in the next Volume we have RWBY getting back together, which part of me feels will happen but they’ll most likely devote Vol.5 to having the girls irrationally fight amongst themselves until the villains plans are complete because lets face it, realistically it would feel too simple and a much shorter season if they were all assembled as a team without finding closure or common ground again, plus, do you really think Yang would easily forgive Blake’s previous behavior in Vol.3? I don’t fucking think so!

Above all, myself along with the fans are excited for Season 5. I have a feeling it will be a return to form with the fast-paced action people loved about Seasons 1 & 2 but without the build-up of tease that lead to nowhere in Volume 3.