Jack is back and sadly this is the weakest episode so far of the second cour. A big part of that is because it was more or less pointless as while it brings Jack back into the war after a long absence, it really didn’t accomplish anything. This episode mainly revolved around Jack torturing mages to gain information to infiltrate the Black Headquarters and attempt to kill off Fiore. But well once the servants return she says “I will get you next time!” and runs away. So the attack failed and thanks to Jack’s noble Phantasm, the Black team know nothing about her powers or what she looks like despite coming face to face with her. So nothing was truly accomplished. This isn’t how i thought Jack would re-enter the story and I fear that she is becoming another pointless mid-boss much like Avicebron was.
I originally thought that Fiore and the crowd would wish to recruit Jack seeing as she’s a rogue servant and they need all the help they can get to face off against the red servants. I mean sure, there’s the morality issue of joining up with a serial killer but this is the team that was literally breeding people to die in war. Rather silly to have them care about the sanctity of life now. If it’s a danger of her betraying the black side then you can have Joan bind her with command spells. It’s doesn’t make much sense for them to prioritise killing Jack over taking on the gardens of Babylon. Shirou is currently working on a plan that could have devastating consequences for all of humanity so why is it that Jack running around killing mages is a bigger issue?
Not sure why Jack is doing this in the first place as taking out the Black team wouldn’t help her chances of getting the grail at all. They bypass this off with her just being crazy and wanting to kill people but still this just seems far too forced a development. After all, even if she succeeded that would mean it’s her up against all the red servants in the giant death castle. Even if you are crazy those odds are far too disadvantageous. That’s not the only forced element here as when Fiore was attacked a single question went through my mind. Why wasn’t she using her command spell? Command spells do have the power to transport a servant to your side and that’s one of the best reasons to have them in reserve and yet here Fiore seems to have forgotten about it completely. The light novel explanation is that she was just so scared and not thinking straight which does fall in line with her inexperience with combat.
However they also showed her using magic and planning to get her gear which does mean she had some logical thinking. Really if she was trying to find a way out of the situation then the command spells should have come to mind. When it comes to this episode, the word of the day is forced. It feels forced for Jack to attack the black team. It feels forced for her to just retreat after pulling all this. Really this whole sudden conflict just feels forced as if the story just remembered that Assassin of black is a thing and is now trying to find the fastest way to remove her from the plot. As some last notes, I like how they showed that Fiore is unaccustomed to cellphones as mages tend to be rather clueless when it comes to technology. I also like that Sieg is at least getting some payback for his newfound power and I just hope it isn’t somehow negated with another powerup.
I have to admit that I was never too much of a fan of this team in the first place, at least not anymore, since polarising characters like Vlad or Darnic have left. Hell, Gordes of all people is one of the most interesting characters here because he’s actually flawed and I was suprised how he turned out to be a proper character – considering his stereotypical “stupid villain” design and his actions during the first episodes I assumed he was just some one-dimensional cannon fodder. So this is a small plus for me.
Aside from that it feels like the characters are just too heroic and nice to me. The combination Shirou, Karna, Semiramis and crazy Shakespeare are far more interesting and entertaining imo and I hope they won’t get rid of them the next time.
Also I don’t like how they’ve skipped all background on Jack and her master so far. In the pilot chapter and the later LN they explained what she actually is, why she exists and what her master is, as well as some few infos on the “children of Ceaușescu” and all that suff, here nothing. So far they’re just some random psycho-loli team that casually interferes with the MCs’ plans.