Tokyo Ghoul Re – S3E8 – TAKe: One Who Writhes

Previously on Tokyo Ghoul, “mind: Recollections”

Friends, we’re gathered here to start the process of kicking dirt on our show. It pains me to do this but, with only 5 of 12 episodes left, we get a filler episode? A filler episode that answers zero important questions while mostly treating us to characters realizing what we already knew, which couldn’t possibly get tedious at all! What true plot movement we do get could just as easily happened weeks ago. Our new sleek fast pace has slowed to a crawl, and that’s the last thing Tokyo Ghoul: re can afford.

Crisis On Two Consciences

As is becoming a trend, two-time MVP Shirazu shines again with little playing time. Now having wet nightmares about Nutcracker (he was sweating so it counts)he can’t force himself to even see his new powerful quinque. It’s a problem many investigators have yet when Sasaki tries to comfort him with that, in a poignant moment, they realize they aren’t even sure if the 1.7 million bounty was a decent price. He can’t help but think of ghouls as living beings now, no longer just monsters. There’s no way this plays out well with the CCG. As cold and calculating as they are it can always get worse. New Washu, who our old hothead Marude can’t even get behind, is plotting on overthrowing our beloved CCG Jesus, who is only mildly horrible. With him as head, he’s liable to execute the Quinxes anyway, let alone one of them who has lost the will to fight, a road Shirazu seems to be on.

On the other hand, we have Ayato who, being much closer to Hinami than first thought, is again pleading with Tatara to raid Cochlea for her. Not to be outdone by Washu, Tatara not only refuses to do it, but makes it clear to the whole crew that they are pawns and could bounce if they don’t like it. Unlike the younger gung ho Ayato, older, wiser version 2.0 seems more disenchanted with Aogiri each week. Shirazu’s sorrow is Ayato’s anger with both working for fiercely brutal organizations that would murder babies to get the job done.  It’s only a matter of time until Ayato ends up with the :re clique. His big memory with Hinami being her matching his angry face with Touka all but telegraphs it.

Ls As Far As The Eye Can See

I’m officially done with Sasaki. I don’t care about his quest to figure out who he’s sharing a body with. I don’t care about how he feels and I want him gone. He is the embodiment of everything that was annoying about Kaneki and this whole storyline is already played out. Meeting with old characters should makes this a fun plot thread but Sasaki’s meeting with Uta couldn’t have been more stale and boring. There was no suspense, comedy, or anything to the scene past a few questions and a silly lie.

Uta leaves his ghoul eyes out and explains that they are tattooed. However, if you can just say your eyes are tattooed, why wouldn’t all ghouls just do that? The whole scene was almost pointless, and I’m only saying almost on the off chance there was something there that will come back around. I doubt it though, my money is on them underwhelming us for no reason.

The one whiff of Kaneki we get is through his scene with Hinami. When interrogating (see: politely asking questions) Hinami, he has a habit of bringing her books like Kaneki used to. It’s not until she calls him out on it, that he realizes it’s Kaneki’s desire to help her is seeping through, not his choice necessarily. And that’s it for any Kaneki fun this week but don’t worry, we did get a riveting scene of investigator Kuroiwa at a bakery barely saying anything with the least amount of personality possible. I’m sure that’s a fair trade off to someone, somewhere.

Can’t Get Right

Woven all through this was the Gourmet, his servants, and the sudden CCG operation to take them down. It’s thrown so hastily together that they are already bungling Tsukiyama and Sasaki / Kaneki’s first meeting. It has been slow played since the first episode, even scoring the cliffhanger (that was instantly squandered here) last week, and they just slap it together with some elements they mentioned in passing before (Kijima) and some new flashy toys (Ihei). This show literally stopped dead in the water and floated directionless, and then expects us to buy the new direction, without any real transition, and go full steam ahead.

At least, that’s the CCG side, while the Gourmet spazzes out in bed, we learn about his servants and their sense of duty while they run around in circles.  As mind blowing as that tries to be, it does get us to Ihei, a human the same age as the Quinxes, yet stronger, three years deeper into the game, and part of Arima’s squad. Presented as a bit of a ditz, she effortlessly outclasses the squad and these ghouls but loses focus all too easy. As for the not-so-scrubby servants, one gets captured, one gets injured, and the main one, Kanae, finally listens to Chie Hori and slips Tsukiyama a picture of Sasaki that snaps him out of it with tears of happiness and heartbreak.

Nice, but it’s hard to get excited for something that probably won’t happen anytime soon. First off, you just pulled a bait and switch with Tsukiyama in a cocoon last week and then he’s just going kagune crazy this week, so why should we trust you? Also, this thread has been plodding along at a snail’s pace since day one, so why would it suddenly change just now with zero ramp up? Yuma’s capture does bring some urgency, but that can just as easily be shelved for a week or two. I say all that to say this, what the hell happened to this show? I find myself asking who cares over what’s next more each week, and then we get filler this late in the game of a 12 episode season. They have 4 episodes to pull it out but I’m not seeing it. Say what you want about the previous regime, but they never had this slump or hit these lows.