天下制覇

Budget recovery episode.

Impressions:

A quiet recovery episode was expected after blowing the budget with wall to wall action last week, but this was still far duller and free of content than it needed to be. This could've been an important bit of growth for Sophie or even Sword, or a chance to show what really drives them, but even the drama was relegated to maybe about three or four minutes of platitudes at the very end. It wasn't even good drama, just a spontaneous bit of crying followed by Sword's Advice For Life. The middle montage bit was especially telling as an exceptionally blatant advertisement for whatever CD they're shoving. I almost feel like they could've gotten away with it had it come at the end after Sophie's little dramatic moment later, as kind of a "letting go of the past and living in the moment while you can" thing, except that it came before not after. Probably because they felt a need to end things with the Legion of Doom sitting around steepling their fingers as they make plans to eat orphans.