"Don't get used to this image, fanboys."
Episode 3 picks up right where last time left off, with the Hopper Brothers fighting Kuuga and Decade. As such, the two agree to put aside their differences to fight off the invaders. The man in the trenchcoat monologues that he had wanted Kuuga to team up with the Hoppers to kill Decade, so he sends the Hoppers back through a Dimensional Wall. He then disappears, claiming that this is just the beginning.
The girls take this time to chew out their respective Riders. Natsumi rants to Tsukasa about how he shouldn't be fighting other Riders, and Yashiro asks Yuseless why he would try to kill someone who is clearly human. Tsukasa defends himself, claiming that he has sucessfully saved the world in stopping the ultimate evil from coming back. As such, Yashiro leaves to gather the police to destroy the Grongi's hideout on the mountain.
Yuseless, for some ungodly reason, decides to eat a meal at the Studio with our heroes. He comments that Tsukasa's photos are terrible, and Tsukasa counters saying Kuuga's story is boring. He's none too thrilled by the cliched "Hero fights to impress the girl" idea. Understood, the original Kuuga's story wasn't based around that, but the even-tempered moral side of Yuusuke is still present in Yuseless, but we'll get to the character's real problem soon. Yuseless exposits that back when he first got his powers, the trenchcoat man appeared and told him that Decade was the true enemy. They see a news broadcast saying that black smoke is coming from the mountain. As if Decade wasn't weird enough on its own, we have to drag Lost into this. As Yuseless rushes to help, Natsumi tells Tsukasa his job's not done yet.
The Ultimate Evil fully awakens. The guy has a name, like all Grongi, but it's a long name, so we'll call him Boss Grongi. The smoke he spreads starts turning the people who inhale it into Grongi, who proceed to attack Yashiro and the other cops. Tsukasa attacks the Boss Grongi, who says he wasn't supposed to awaken. Tsukasa is knocked away as Yuseless takes Yashiro to the hospital.
At the hospital, the cops receive treatment as the city is quickly overrun with Grongi. Tsukasa theorizes that the same dimensional rifts that changed Yuusuke into Yuseless alongside everything else brought the Boss Grongi back, likely to justify why he never showed up in the original Kuuga series. Yuseless refuses to fight, opting to stay by Yashrio's bedside. Tsukasa laces up his boots to fight instead, citing that since he's from another world, the smoke won't affect him. Don't know how he came to that conclusion, but at least he's moral enough to go help those in need at the risk of his own life.
Yashiro asks Yuseless why he isn't out fighting the Grongi, to which he claims he has no more will to fight. His motive was to make her smile, which she always did whenever he would save the day, but now that she's on her deathbed, he doesn't see the point anymore. She brushes his statement off and makes him promise to kill her if she turns into a Grongi. Yuseless agrees and Yashiro gives him some advice. If fighting for her smile made him strong, fighting for the smiles of everyone on Earth will make him invincible. He takes this to heart and leaps back into action, Natsumi staying to comfort her.
"Maybe fighting these guys alone wasn't my best plan..."
Tsukasa arrives and the Boss Grongi claims that Tsukasa is a strange being who is neither Grongi nor Human. Given what we ultimately learn of Tsukasa, this makes sense. Boss Grongi says that the transformation of human into Grongi is only natural, given our violent nature. The goal of the Grongi in the original Kuuga was to make humanity a species as brutal as the Grongi, so this would be the natural conclusion to that concept. Tsukasa finds himself agreeing with Boss Grongi, but fights anyway. Decade puts up a good fight, but he ends up flailing wildly, and finds himself too far outnumbered and is knocked out of his armor. Tsukasa is terrified that his journey would end here so abrubtly, but fortunately Yuseless arrives to help in the clutch, telling Tsukasa about his 'smiles' philosophy.
With the arrival of Kuuga, Tsukasa gains his second wind and delivers a 'Shut Up, Hannibal' speech to the Boss Grongi. In spite of humanity's violent nature, there is also our caring side. Whether it be Yuusuke Godai, Friend to all Children, or Yuseless, fighting for people's smiles. As such, Tsukasa swears to defend Kuuga's smile for him. Boss Grongi asks Tsukasa who or what he is, which leads to only one response.
"I'm just a passing-through Kamen Rider. Remember that!"
Decade and Kuuga wipe out the Grongi army and Tsukasa's Kuuga cards return to proper working order. He activates a card labeled 'Final Form Ride', which transforms Yuseless into the Gouram, a beetle-themed armor for Kuuga's motorcycle. The Gouram form allows Decade and Kuuga to pull off a combo attack to finish Boss Grongi once and for all. In spite of this, Tsukasa claims he still can't remember where he came from.
The two return to the hospital, but Yashiro is already dead, Natsumi telling them she was smiling to the end. Tsukasa leaves Yuseless to grieve, telling Natsumi their job is done here.
Back at the Studio, Eijiro finds that one of Tsukasa's photos, one of Yuseless and Yashiro smiling, actually looks okay. It's still warped, mind you, but not terribly so. Tsukasa tells Natsumi that even if his end goal is unclear, he's saved Kuuga's World since the Grongi are all dead. Eijiro reveals a new backdrop of Castle Doran in the moonlight, indicating the next world they visit will be Kiva's.
The episode concludes with the trenchcoat man saying he'll never forgive Decade, as a white bat follows Yuseless after he puts flowers on Yashiro's grave.
Transcend (the full title is Transcendence or Transcendental, but we're keeping to the two-character theme here), wraps up the Kuuga arc nicely. Yuseless is given a good send-off and is painted as a hero in his own right. Which makes his continued presence irritating, but more on that later. Tsukasa is shown to be rather moral and thoughtful toward the greater good, but not utterly invincible due to his failure to fight off the army of Grongi. The theme of Kuuga, human kindness winning out over human violence, remains strong and ultimately sets a pretty good standard of what's to come for the Kiva arc. However, the Kiva arc is where the flaws of the series begin to show. My continued defense of Decade will go into the Kiva World with Episode 4.
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