English Dub Review: The Promised Neverland “130146”

Do you remember how it all began?

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Norman elaborates on the cliff, saying that’s why the security is so lax, but also that he’s realized that this likely means the farms are on a hexagonal property surrounding the cliff. Their real way out is the headquarters, which has a bridge. He may have never intended to escape, but he at least managed to get one more piece of crucial intent to get insure the rest escape. Despite Emma and Ray’s protests, Norman says his goodbyes. At his send-off, Ray can’t bring himself to show up, while Emma tries one last desperate attempt to deactivate his tracker, forcing Norman to shove her off to avoid the device from being found. Confident the others will make it out, he accepts his fate and is taken to the gate, being killed shortly after.

The rest try to get back to planning, but Ray has completely shut down, utterly destroying the remaining morale. At her lowest point, Isabella comes to Emma proposing she become a mom, but she refuses. Months pass as Emma and Ray go through the motions awaiting Ray’s approaching departure. The night before, Emma finds him singing in the church as a way to say goodbye, but both admit they haven’t given up hope.

OUR TAKE

Here lies Norman. He never scored.

And here we are at the true “Dark Night of the Soul” moment, and the episode meant to fully feel the impact of Norman’s departure. It twists the knife A LOT to make this point, throwing in tearful goodbye after a tearful goodbye, heartbreaking flashbacks, and just a general dour mood that is appropriate for losing a main cast member. Norman was definitely the brain of the bunch, being the closest thing to a leader they had and the one who thought the most even headedly, so moving forward without him will be a massive challenge. To his credit, Norman never gave up hope in his friends to escape themselves, but he probably knew that his being a casualty would set them back quite a bit. Hopefully, they can remember the key bits about the way out after getting past their despair.

The unfortunate part is that the emotional fallout permeating the episode also ends up making it feel a bit emptier in terms of plot. After last week played feels parkour with my heart, the main point of this week seems to just be driving the point home that Norman will die…and then he does. It’s a fitting time to slow the pacing down a bit to really feel how hopeless everything is, but it’s hard to describe in detail beyond that one major point. I mean, there is Isabella offering Emma a shot at the mom position and Emma refusing, but her taking that over escaping would be almost TOO dark for this show. The final scene and the preview seem to promise things will be ramping up in the last two episodes, so I more or less know this season will be ending on, if not a high note, then at least an exciting one.

Other than that, however, there’s not much else to say about this episode in particular. Obviously, it was still pretty much up to par with everything else (aside from some odd sound issues that might be up to Adult Swim) so I have no doubt the final two will continue that trend. As I think I’ve mentioned, a consistently good show can get a bit more challenging to review, at least for me, without touching on the same good points over and over, so I guess this is just one of those times. But hopefully the last time.