Hell's Paradise Season 2

Episode 8

Narratively, this episode didn't progress a lot. The most this episode did was establish the second-phase boss fight after our heroes finally gained the upper hand. In some ways, that does make the episode a little bit disappointing because I was almost expecting this boss fight to be finished by the end. I did enjoy the additional backstory that was established, building on some of the reveals from last week, but I couldn't help but feel like the episode was stalling a bit. Don't get me wrong, it was still a gorgeous spectacle to appreciate, but this felt like half an episode's worth of content stretched into 25 minutes.

There are two main narrative beats established in this episode: one at the beginning and one in the middle. The early narrative further established Tamiya's character and tied in his personal journey to how he now understands Tao. I do appreciate that the show gave the dumb brute of the group a little bit of depth. Apparently, ever since he was younger, he wanted to be known as one of the greatest swordsmen ever to leave his mark on history. However, he became so obsessed with those labels and accomplishments that he lost the ability to look inward. There's a lot of irony with his character because he literally had to physically strip himself of body parts to gain the ability to look inward and manifest his Tao. I would've been perfectly fine if the show had established that he was a stubborn idiot who needed to do this to get more insight, but there is now a philosophical layer to his character that arguably brings things full circle for the sake of the fight. Like other things in the show, I wish this were established much earlier, rather than having it all sorted out here after the development had already happened, but the directing is still strong in its execution.

The episode's main emotion came from Ju Fa and Tao Fa's backstory, which really impressed me. The show is giving these monsters some character to showcase how human they might actually be, despite them technically being these artificial flower people. It's established that Rien was one of the first Tensen and seemed to assign the immortality study methods to the rest. Ju Fa and Tao Fa were specifically prepared together because their method of… experimenting required two people. The problem is that the Tensen also seem overly aware of the emotions and suffering of the creatures they consume to maintain their abilities. That's really messed up and explains why they need to look down on humans as livestock as a coping mechanism, because it's easier to kill animals. This also further drives home the point that the Tensen might be going through intense emotional suffering for absolutely nothing. This leads to insanity being seen as a means of comfort rather than a genuine descent into madness.

I do like that the show is starting to humanize them and ultimately makes me wonder what the end goal with them is supposed to be. Mei originally seemed distinct from the others because they had enough empathy to want to defect, but it looks like a few of the Tensen may have had the emotional capacity to do so. Are they all going to turn on Rien by the end, or are they too far gone? I will say that the scene where Ju Fa embraces Tao Fa, because they are desperate to lose their minds so they don't have to think about the pain of what they're doing, was actually pretty gut-wrenching. I'm curious about the thought processes of all the Tensen, which I wasn't expecting to feel for most of the show's run. I wonder if they'll feel relief if our heroes are actually able to put them down?

Rating: