I said before that the odds were stacked against Gohan due to the structure of narrative story telling. That seemed to play itself out as Gohan is almost immediately blinded by Lavender's....smoke breath? It's also poison, so yeah.
While this fight wasn't quite as fast paced as the previous one with Buu, it managed to work rather well in its own right. There was a nice back and forth as Lavender would gain an advantage and than Gohan would find a way to counter and regain the upper hand for a while before Lavender changed up his strategy, forcing Gohan to once again come up with a new counter. It managed to show that both were fighting smart. Even the opposing spectators give the competitors credit at various points during the fight.
It would have been nice for Gohan to hit super saiyan 2 again, but alas, we only see him hit first level. Maybe that will come later, this is an exhibition after all. It seems to impress the others, even the pair of Zen-ohs, so it wasn't a total bust.
Of course, given that even that transformation expedited the poison's spread, it may have also been for the best. It seemed like Gohan was pushed to his limits as it was. It's quite possible that hitting super saiyan 2 would have killed him.
The idea of giving Gohan a senzu bean is brought up, and there is precedent for it to be OK, but Gohan actually declines, saying that he wants to really test his abilities. Even with the differences in personality and upbringing, it shows that this really is Goku's son. You can tell that the latter is quite proud of his son's resolve. The senzu beans also come in handy when it comes to needing an antidote for the poison after the match is over.
I was convinced that Gohan was going to lose, but in the end, the match ends in a tie. Really, I think this was the best way to go. It allowed Gohan to get a strong showing, but it also keeps the third and final match relevant and necessary. Gohan does apologize for not being strong enough, but Goku makes it clear that he's impressed with how strong Gohan has gotten.
Before said concluding match can begin, the high priest announces to all, the stakes of the tournament. Suffice it to say, they're as shocked as Beerus, Goku, and Supreme Kai were when it was first announced. You would have thought that the high priest would have already conveyed this to the others the same way he did to universe 7, but I suppose it is easier to just announce it once while everyone is together anyway.
Furthermore, he reveals that these are two of the weaker universes of the 12. The fact that Universe 7 beat Universe 6 in the last tournament doesn't come up, oddly enough. We already knew from Goku Black that super saiyan blue was beatable, but it's still hard to imagine that they're on the lower end of the spectrum. On the plus side, we know that our heroes are in for some serious fights.
There is a weird development when the high priest announces that 4 of the universes (1,12,5, and 8) will be exempt from erasure due to their high strength. Didn't they say that only one universe would survive? Why can't the gods keep their own rules straight? First it was "the winner gets a wish on the super dragon balls...no they get nothing except continued existence" and now it's "all but one will be destroyed...except for these ones". Maybe the randomly changing circumstances are meant to add a "wild card" element that adds some unpredictability to things, I'm not sure.
I know the Zen-ohs are child like, maybe this is supposed to reflect that? If their attention span and commitment to consistency is that weak, maybe Goku could have just talked them out of the whole erasure thing. Then again, the high priest does say that the two omni-kings were planning on cleaning house anyway, so it likely wouldn't have worked. The tournament does give one of the weaker universes a chance to survive, so there's that at least.
If those universes are exempt from erasure, are they even fighting? If they are...why? It doesn't seem like there's much point. I could see giving them some sort of bye round as a way to save time, but removing them from the equation entirely is a strange decision. After all, the whole point was to have all 12 universes compete. Weird.
Just as the last episode ended with the succeeding match about to begin, so too does this one end with Goku and Bergamo, the last of the trio de dangers, entering the ring to begin the decisive final fight of the preliminary.
Overall, this was a solid episode. Even though it was "just another fighting episode" it played out differently enough that it didn't just feel like a rehash. There was still tension as Gohan's life was in danger and Lavender was able to keep turning the tables, but it wasn't to Gohan's detriment.
The announcements from the high priest were oddly placed, and they do run counter to a lot of what was already established, but it was nice to have it there as it gave the episode a bit more meat in terms of plot development. It also gives us some vital information that lets us know what the universe 7 fighters are in for in the episodes to come.
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