We, of course, have the trademark pre-fight stare down. It never stops being a great way to up the tension and anticipation. You'd think it would come off as just time killing, but it seems to work really well in situations like this.
Speaking of time killing, the episode does stop to show us the grand priest shrinking the bleachers so that the few remaining spectators would be closer together. To its credit, the ensuing awkwardness did bring a bit of levity to the episode. I did wonder where the four exempt universes were, though. Are they in a different set of bleachers? Either way, it does allow the two groups to banter back and forth much easier. It should make for some interesting exchanges as the fight progresses.
Well, "fights" is the more accurate word, as the two teams branch off into three separate showdowns.
Not surprisingly, Goku wants another crack at Jiren. The two face off briefly, and Goku even manages to get the taciturn alien to open up a bit about his motivations, but it isn't long before Vegeta jumps into the fray.
Common sense would suggest that Goku had to amplify his super saiyan blue power twenty-fold to barely hold his own and, as such, the ensuing match up would be a curb stomping of about the same proportions, but Vegeta manages to fare better than you'd think he would. He even gets to put his tactical analysis to use and figures out how to evade Jiren's rapid fist attack. This allows the prince to actually land a solid hit against the seemingly unflappable opponent.
This also makes for a nice fake-out as it seems like Vegeta is on the verge of going ultra instinct, but doesn't. He later says that Kakarot can keep it, suggesting he might try some other mode of upping his power. Goku has ultra instinct, Gohan has the mystic power, and giving Vegeta something else would make for a bit more variety in terms of character appearances. For now, though, Vegeta's sticking with the good old blue form.
The fact that Goku is there to back him up also helps keep things so that it at least looks even. Normally, the two don't do the whole teamwork thing. In some cases, it seemed like they spent more time fighting each other. Here, though, the two do rather well working in sync. Goku cries foul once early on, but after that, the two put their focus on their actual opponent and do so in a pretty coordinated fashion. Whenever Jiren swatted one away, the other one was right there to attempt an attack.
Granted, this doesn't faze Jiren at all, but the whole sequence was still exciting and fun to watch. It also made for a nice instance of subtle character development for the two saiyans.
As this goes on, Frieza takes on Dyspo. You'd think having a pride trooper take on one of universe 7's greatest villains would lead to a playing up of the hero vs villain angle through dialogue, but it never really comes up. Maybe it's something that will be elaborated on later, but right now, we just see Frieza act cocky and dismissive. His line about Dyspo's skill amounting to "being really good at running away" was some decent shade throwing on his part.
It does seem like Dyspo won't prove much of a challenge. Frieza's finger beams seem to, at the very least, be keeping Dyspo too occupied to take on any of the other fighters and Frieza is utterly bored when his opponent attempts to use the after-image technique.
When Frieza manages to grab Dyspo's wrist in his tail, it seems like the tyrant has won...until Dyspo turns the tables and starts laying the smack down. While Frieza still has his golden form to act as an ace up his sleeve, it's made clear that this fight won't be as easy as he thought it would be.
Rounding out the showdown, we have Gohan and 17 taking on Toppo. To be fair, I think this is the first time where Toppo comes close to living up to his reputation as a tough fighter. We actually see him doing things that show he's a formidable opponent, like completely no-selling Gohan's kamehameha wave. It still seems like it's a bit of an informed attribute, but at least he's not just bear-hugging people.
While what we see of these latter two fights is entertaining, they take a back seat to the main event against Jiren.
The universe 11 powerhouse remains unimpressed and chides Vegeta for his arrogance. This, in turn provokes Vegeta into attempting to take Jiren out with a final flash.
Now, he's used this attack pretty frequently, so you'd think it would be old hat at this point; but Vegeta does spend a decent amount of time charging it. Not nearly as much as he did against Cell, but for Super, it was one of the bigger attack build ups.
Speaking of, Vegeta even challenges Jiren to take the attack head on. It's a bit odd, as this is what Jiren did against the spirit bomb, and it was even explicitly stated that withstanding enemy's strongest attacks was his thing, but it does make for a parallel to the aforementioned instance in Z.
The results are, of course, the exact same. Vegeta thinks he won, laughs, and realizes that he was completely wrong as his target turns the tables and knocks the saiyan prince down a peg.
At first, it seemed like Vegeta was eliminated by Jiren's blast, but when the smoke clears we just see him on the ground. The gray eyes make you think he's dead, but it's made clear that he's still breathing at least. It makes for a heavy cliffhanger, as one of universe 7's strongest gets knocked down with Jiren still not breaking a sweat.
You could argue that this is another instance of Vegeta acting as the jobber and succumbing to the worf effect, but Jiren's strength was already established and any other outcome would have come off as bizarre. The sequence itself was also executed well enough, that you felt the weight of it.
Sadly, said weight is completely deflated by the next episode preview, where we see Vegeta is back up and in the fight again. As a fan of the character, it's good, but it's another instance of the show completely avoiding tension and suspense. Let the fans wonder what's going to happen with Vegeta down for the count, let his return be a surprise. If they had put the preview's focus on other things, it would have completely caught viewer's off guard and it would have had a much bigger impact.
That notwithstanding, though, this episode was quite good. It was well balanced, giving each fight just the right amount of time, while also giving us the showdown with Jiren that we've all been waiting for. On top of that, we actually start to see Jiren's personality come out a bit more. There's still room for further development, but progress is still progress on that front.
There's only 8 minutes left to go and the tournament could still go either way. So far, both teams are still as intact as they were in the episode's opening, though it's only a matter of time before the scales start to tip one way or the other.
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