The confrontation between the kids and their parents leads to a showdown that changes things significantly for everyone. Among PRIDE, cracks widen between the various members, but a new reality means differences must be put aside. For the kids, could it be finally time to live up to the show’s name?

Last episode ended with the delicious and infuriating cliffhanger of the kids and the parents facing off across the pit drilled by PRIDE, with the kids ready to unleash their powers to take on their elders. This episode wastes no time in getting into it, but the resultant fight isn’t necessarily what you might have hoped for. By the end of it, thanks to an intervention nobody was expecting, the kids are faced with the reality that challenging PRIDE will be a lot harder than they had realised, and the parents are faced with the reality that everything they’ve worked for really may not have been worth the impact it has had and may continue to have.

If the show to date has focused on the multiple widening fractures between the members of each group then, this one addresses how those differences and issues must be subverted by each group as they come to grips with bigger challenges. Interestingly, for each group the core pillar of that new challenge is the same, but that doesn’t mean that they are going to be working together.

For PRIDE this means that despite new revelations which really drive some deep wedges and cast one of their number in particular into an even darker light, they need to try to work together to ensure the safety of their children against a larger threat. That might be easier if their children were actually talking to them of course, or even if all of them were working together, and that’s without considering the related goal they all feel is necessary to achieve it.

Meanwhile, the kids are essentially running scared. Last time out they had discovered that the plans of PRIDE went far beyond the murder of a over a dozen street kids, and encompassed a threat to potentially the whole world. Now, they have to face the reality that they aren’t just up against their parents, and the power they’re facing is an overwhelming one, even to their elite group and its collective abilities. What comes out of it though, is that in the kids case their struggle unites them, in a real sense. Regardless of the petty (and not so petty) squabbles that might have got in the way before, they’re there for one another, whatever the stakes.

And of course, we have Jonah, and his new ally Frank. Just exactly what Frank hopes to gain from teaming up with the guy who has been sleeping with his wife and is the real father of his daughter is at this point, unclear. Early impressions of Frank were that he was weak, but now he seems to be smarter and a bit more mercenary – certainly he was more than willing to betray Karolina’s confidence to Jonah last week, but now he also seems genuinely concerned for the girl he still considers to be his daughter. Nor is it entirely clear whether Jonah is simply using Frank as an ally of convenience or actually has solid plans for their working together moving forward.

And as things rush towards the conclusion of the series, all of this plays very cleverly with the viewer and our emotions. While the PRIDE parents may no longer be the immediate threat to the kids, it’s still difficult to forgive what they’ve done, or to see them as sympathetic, even as they are planning to try and secure the safety of our protagonists. It’s impossible to get a true read on Jonah or Frank, and it all adds up to give us the same feeling as our heroes – of a world pressing in on them from all possible angles.

The final shot may just be one of the most simple and iconic ways to end this sort of show, and the recent news that it’s been commissioned for a second series means that cliffhanger leaves us with all sorts of possibilities for next time.

Verdict: The perfect ending to one of the best comic book shows I’ve seen. Proof positive that small concept and low budget can work when done properly, with characters and drama that were allowed to breathe and develop at their own pace. 10/10

Greg D. Smith