Review: Sailor Moon Crystal Act 22 - Hidden Agenda - Nemesis

Wise Man captures Chibiusa, and Pluto senses it when the Time Key she dropped begins to react. There is a reaction to Queen Serenity, King Endymion and Tuxedo Mask rush to see if everything is alright with Sailor Pluto, while Sailor Venus, Artemis, and Luna try to gather more information on the Death Phantom and Nemesis. King Endymion and Tuxedo Mask arrive at the Time Door, where Pluto is laying on the ground. She tells them that Chibiusa is lost somewhere in space and time. Tuxedo Mask chases after her without a Time Key.

Back on Nemesis, Usagi continues to look for her friends in the Black Moon's Palace. She stumbles upon a room where Rubeus and Saphir are discussing about the other Sailor Senshi in the Dark Chamber and that they should just dispose of them now. Usagi passes out and Prince Demande retrieves her and brings her back to his room. As he tries to have her way with her again, she wakes up and runs away continuing to look for her friends. Usagi stumbles upon Saphir who is making more Drones for their army. The room is the Malefic Black Crystal Reactor room. The only person who knows how to control it is Saphir, and if it goes out of control, its energy would destroy the entire planet. Saphir tells the origin of how Wise Man and his brother, Demande met and how their goal is to destroy the Legendary Silver Crystal. The Malefic Black Crystal has Demande entirely under his control, Saphir wants to break the control from him by killing Usagi. As Saphir is about to plunge a Black Crystal into Usagi, the Silver Crystal reacts making her unable to be killed.

The light from the Silver Moon Crystal is able to be seen by Wise Man and Tuxedo Mask, who are even at a far distance from Nemesis.

The Silver Crystal blows Saphir away. Usagi feels overpowered from the crystal and transforms into Sailor Moon. She is able to sense her friends and calls out to them through telepathy. They wake up in the Dark Chamber and they all transform. Venus is also able to sense that her friends are alright as well. Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury end up getting out of the room and into the Black Crystal Reactor. Demande and Wise Man join Saphir. Sailor Moon gets posessed by Neo Queen Serenity and she tells him the Malefic Black Crystal is dangerous. Demande thinks peace and harmony is an illusion and as long as it exists, the universe will be forever doomed. Sailor Moon and the others attack Demande, but he has a barrier around him. He uses his third eye causing them to not be able to move. The Reactor begins to melt down due to the Silver Crystal being so close to it. Rubeus tries to run away, but a mysterious apparition behind Wise Man calls him out as a coward, Wise Man kills Rubeus, the Black Moon Palace begins to crumble. Sailor Moon manages to strike Demande, breaking them free from his Third Eye. The Sailor Guardians with the help of Sailor Pluto manage to escape the palace and get back to Earth. Saphir and Demande flee.

Tuxedo Mask is still looking for Chibiusa, when the mysterious apparition from behind Wise Man appears to him. He thinks its Usagi, as she lures him away.

Sailor Moon and the others are reunited with Sailor Pluto and Venus. Pluto and Endymion explains Tuxedo Mask went to go look for Chibiusa, both of them without Time Keys.

This episode has finally began to push this story arc to its finale. We don't have a whole lot of back story as it was pretty much covered entirely with the past few episodes. The episode also follows the mangas plot 100% accurately. It's good to finally have the whole team almost all back together as well now, minus Tuxedo Mask. With this story arc also close to finishing it was nice to get a bit more development with Saphir and Demande as well. One of the things I don't really like about this version of the Sailor Moon franchise (manga included) is how we don't really get much development from Rubeus. He was mainly used as a guy who sent out boot camp wannabe drones to try and find Chibiusa and when they were all eliminated, they kind of just kill him off in a very anticlimactic way. This episode was a very fun episode, can't wait to see next weeks when Black Lady officially debuts.

Rating: 7/10