In the words of another 2016 heroine: “Let’s make confessions and lose our shit!”

In typically explosive, surreal, and dynamically animated fashion, Flip Flappers delivers a penultimate episode that puts a capstone on our main character arcs and gives us plenty of time next week to tie up the rest of the loose ends. While “Pure Howling” sometimes loses focus as it jerks from scene-to-scene, trying to weave multiple stories together very quickly, it more than makes up for any disjointedness with two beautifully staged and immensely satisfying emotional climaxes. Any week I get to write “MY HEART!” in my notes is a good one in my book.

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Mother knows best?

For a show that began with so many abstractions and mysteries, Flip Flappers has developed into a remarkably tight narrative, answering questions, fulfilling foreshadowing, and continuing to strengthen its thematic through-lines and character arcs at every step. While I can’t say I’m as emotionally invested in the current arc as I was in previous ones, I don’t think there’s any question now that the storytellers know exactly what they’re doing and where they want to go. Bonus points, too, that this journey comes with an incredible view.

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Be careful what you wish for.

Our opposing organizations clash at last, but (as always) most of the real shakeups surround our protagonist. Cocona’s trust is shattered and her world turned upside-down thanks to a series of reveals that threaten not only the relationships she holds most dear, but her very sense of self. Not to mention Mom is being, like, a total control-freak. It’s hard out here for a teen, that’s for sure.

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The once and future partner?

Cocona’s come a long way since we first met her. From a directionless girl looking to fill any role, even that of a villain (an amorphous child herself, in a sense), Cocona has slowly developed goals, ideals, and deepening relationships. She has a partner, she has a wish, she has resolve. Her most immediate internal conflicts have been tackled, so it makes sense that we’d turn our focus outwards again, to her relationships with others and her understanding of how they view her.

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Robots in disguise.

Keeping with its fondness for classic coming-of-age genres (fairy tales, magical girls, yuri school stories, etc.), Flip Flappers goes all-in with giant robots this week. It’s something of a bridge episode in terms of story and character arcs, but the Tron-like city, swooping and smeared action sequences, looming monsters, and multiple mecha transformations easily make it the busiest and most visually exciting episode since “Pure XLR”‘s desert battles.

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A Papika for all seasons.

As last episode’s final scenes suggested, Cocona and Papika’s actions in Pure Illusion are starting to affect the real world, and not necessarily in a good way. Fittingly, this is also the moment when the series itself shifts from a sequence of loosely connected, episodic adventures to a more fluid story, as “Pure Component” is all about dealing with the repercussions of what’s happened before and setting the stage for what’s coming next.

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Walking a mile in senpai’s shoes.

Cocona and Papika’s journey through adolescence continues, although in a different direction from last week. It looks like Flip Flappers is developing a rhythm here, alternating between stories of awakening sexuality and stories of deepening understanding and empathy for others. And with a place as flexible as Pure Illusion, “seeing the world through someone else’s eyes” can be a whole lot more than just a metaphor.

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Yuri Cocona Arashi?

Cocona and Papika return to Pure Illusion only to find themselves smack-dab in the middle of a scary movie, trapped in an all-girls boarding school that repeats the same 24-hour loop each day. While the “Echo” in the title probably refers more to the way this school is a warped reflection of their own, the episode also strongly echoes Ikuhara’s Yurikuma Arashi, combining horror elements with “Class S” romance tropes to craft a genuinely creepy and undeniably queer adventure for our two explorers. Or, as a Twitter friend put it: The Gang Goes to Yuri Hell.

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