Mr Cheng has won.

The massive events of the last episode are tiny compared to this. The season finale energy is remarkable and the show’s mix of character and action has never worked better than it does here.

The widening threads of the previous few episodes are all tied together here and the payoffs for all of it are as surprising as they are beautiful. The reveal that Mr Cheng is only doing this to try to resurrect his daughter is brought to the fore and gives him some welcome grounding and added complexity. The Mogui and Mr Cheng aren’t the same creature. Just like Jentry and her powers, they are host and magic existing as one. But where Mr Cheng is being fed from, Jentry is fed by her powers. She’s Jentry Chau with or without them, but with them she has one foot in either world and is capable of saving both. The show’s biggest emotional arc is closed here, and seeing Jentry not so much accept as run towards her heroic destiny is just the latest in the show’s long line of smart emotional writing choices.

It shares space this episode with Xiao Lan, Mr Cheng’s daughter, being written like a child. She’s terrified of her power, of being alive again and the havoc she causes rips across the worlds and finally puts everyone on the same page. Not everyone makes it off that page but the show never makes a death feel cheap. This is the end of the world, caused not by evil but by fear. Everyone steps up, everyone plays their role and those that fall are honoured in a closing montage that almost plays like a season signoff.

But this show is too clever for that. The animation’s fluidity and grace works with the script to make both better. The image of Jentry reunited with Gugu, busy possessing a truck sized spider, is sweet, horrific, goofy and fantastic, Jentry tearing the Mogui open to reveal Mr Cheng is even more powerful.  This show looks and sounds like nothing else you’ll see right now.

Verdict: Smart, compassionate writing that turns over its last ace in the closing minutes, this is the best episode of the show so far. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart