Oddly, Jiren is the one who has the most to say about it. Sadly, it isn't particularly complimentary. He can't even commend the guy for his nobility. He just says it was a dumb move and that Vegeta and Goku weren't worth the trouble. Maybe they're trying to paint him as more villainous so that the viewer roots for Goku, but it seems odd given his status as pride trooper. While I don't read the manga, I have heard about how he is characterized there and it seems like a much stronger iteration just due to the fact that it feels more like a super hero than what this guy is giving us.
Despite being exhausted, Vegeta vows to keep fighting. You might not think much of the development, seeing as characters have been able to recover rather easily in this tournament, but this time, his burnout is for reals as the prince doesn't even have the energy to go super saiyan.
Nevertheless, Vegeta keeps fighting. You can guess how well this goes. Much like his futile battle with Kid Buu, the sequence is interesting in that Vegeta spends almost the entire outing getting his clock cleaned, yet he still comes out looking like a badass just because he keeps getting up and refuses to quit. Sadly, Jiren isn't quite as impressed or unnerved by it as Kid Buu was.
Still, Vegeta notes that he doesn't have to beat Jiren. He just has to keep fighting to ensure that universe 7 wins.
You know, if he had thought of that like, a minute ago, 17 would still be alive and the team would be in much better shape. Your timing sucks, Vegeta.
Either way, Vegeta is shown to be determined to keep his promise to Cabba, as well as protect his family. It's nice, but we've seen it twice before already in fairly rapid succession. I kind of feel like there's a diminishing emotional return on this particular card.
It did give us a (possibly unintentional) nod to "Rocky V", as Bulma appears to Vegeta in a vision and tells him to get up. I was amused by that.
Even with a complete fluke save by the heel of his boot, Vegeta is unable to hold on for much longer and eventually gets eliminated. That's not a spoiler, it's in the title. Vegeta does make one last ditch effort to turn the tide by giving Goku some of his energy, but the saiyan is relegated to the bleachers. True to form, Krillin comes through with a senzu bean. Apparently he had those this whole time? I guess it makes sense to have them and it does explain Roshi's recovery. I just found it odd that it took this long for that to come up.
You wouldn't think that Vegeta's energy orb would do a whole lot, but it allows Goku to get back on his feet and even allows him to go into his blue form. Of course, he's up against Jiren so it doesn't help that much and it isn't long before he too is burnt out.
Remember how I said that the last episode didn't have much in the way of tension due to the fact that universe 7 had such a drastic numbers advantage? Well, having lost 17 and Vegeta in rapid succession helped mitigate that greatly.
Sure, Jiren's beat down of Goku is a pretty blatant animation loop, but it still felt pretty brutal and you actually felt like universe 7 was in trouble. I mean, yeah, Frieza's still around somewhere, but he's apparently down for the count, so it really does feel like it's down to Goku to win this one for the gipper.
Just as Goku is millimeters away from getting knocked out, he once again conjures up the power of ultra instinct. The gods are amazed by this (though Khai and Belmoud are annoyed), though I got the impression that this is what Jiren wanted. He could have knocked Goku out of the ring in one punch, but he didn't, choosing instead to just keep hitting the saiyan again and again and again and again. Just when Goku was about to fall out, he stops his assault to point out that this is the end and "winds up" as it were. He doesn't come right out and say it like Cell did, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the case.
It would have been cool to see Goku in Ultra Instinct working with Vegeta in his super blue form, but I get why the writers decided to have it play out this way. Ultra instinct is the big cahuna, so you have to save that for the final showdown.
Where Goku's previous transformations put more emphasis on defense, this time we see that Goku is more in control as he is able to land a rather devastating hit on Jiren in the episode's closing moments. Expect the showdown to act as the central focus of the next episode.
This episode was an improvement over the one that came before. It actually helped address some of my criticisms, though it still has its faults. Vegeta got to go out in a sort of blaze of glory, but there was quite a bit of padding. The emotional moments with Vegeta weren't quite as effective and ate up time. We also had a lot of animation loops that were hard to ignore. It's a step in the right direction, but it still felt lackluster compared to some of the arc's previous episodes. Hopefully the final showdown between Goku and Jiren can really step it up so that the arc (and possibly even the series?) can end on a high note.
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