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The Promised Neverland Episode 12 Review

As a final episode it is more or less impossible to avoid spoilers, and to be honest, I’m not really going to try so if you haven’t watched the final episode of The Promised Neverland yet, go and watch it. It’s brilliant. There you go, reviewed.

The Promised Neverland Episode 12 - Norman

Of course, it is left wide and completely open for a sequel but it did something that I appreciate in books with multiple volumes as well. That is, it resolved the most immediate dilemma even if other issues still need to be addressed and other conflicts are yet to be resolved. In this case, episode 12 gives us the escape from Plant Three with Emma, Ray, Gilda, Don, and all the kids, over four years old.

The Promised Neverland Episode 12 - Climbing the wall

Yes, that is right. Emma made the heart-breaking decision to leave the kids behind. Prompted by Ray, doubts by Norman, Gilda’s fears, and her own uncertainty about the ability to succeed, Emma rationalised the situation and decided that given they don’t harvest kids until they are six, she has two years to figure out how to come back and save them. It might be a pipe dream and one that could not be fulfilled (given she couldn’t even guarantee living through the first night) but it was enough to allow her to leave them behind and act without being paralysed by grief.

The Promised Neverland Episode 12 - Emma and Phil

This episode brings all the planning together and shows the twists and turns. It has Ray coming to terms with the fact that Norman utterly outplayed him and being happy enough to be wrong. It has Phil’s role given meaning even if he is still a bit of a wild-card. And mostly, it has Emma. A fiery and determined leader who takes on the advice and guidance of those around her to make the best decisions she can and guide the others.

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THE PROMISED NEVERLAND 1/8 SCALE PRE-PAINTED FIGURE: RAY

It didn’t all go beautifully smoothly, but neither did they throw too many things in their path. One can only assume that more dangers are coming their way but this episode ended on a triumphant note and it is a wonderful place to leave this series for now. Hopefully it isn’t goodbye forever but even if it were, there’s enough resolved here to feel content and not like the story just got chopped off at the knees.

The Promised Neverland Episode 12 - Morning

All I can say is, wow.

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Karandi James

The Promised Neverland Episode 11 Review

The contrast in the way Emma and Ray see the world couldn’t have been clearer this week. We’ve seen these two bump before with Emma’s stance on rescuing everyone and Ray’s far more pragmatic view of the world and just in general Emma rushes at everything with energy and enthusiasm where Ray is more cautious and slow to act. However, it is in their final plan that the contrast becomes beautifully clear.

The Promised Neverland Episode 11 - Emma and Ray

Emma still has hope despite playing the defeatist card for months. Partly this is because of the gift that Norman gave her, a potential plan that could overcome even the most recently discovered obstacle as well as insight into what Ray was planning. But partly this is because she is Emma. Actually being defeated and accepting it doesn’t seem like it fits her personality at all. We saw in the beginning of the season that Emma continued to compete against Norman in tag even though he always won. Each time she would try to think of better ways to outmanoeuvre him and while she continued to fail she never surrendered the war. Emma brings that resilience to the fore in this episode.

Meanwhile, Ray has his own plan. And I’ll admit, from Ray’s perspective it is a very good plan. It accomplishes his actual goal which was to save Norman and Emma (though too late for Norman which makes him even more desperate to save Emma), and is a plan that relies only on himself, which given his years planning alone makes perfect sense. It is a very Ray plan and one that doesn’t take his own safety and survival into consideration at all.

I can’t be the only one who flinched horribly as he poured that flammable liquid over his head. It was a truly horrifying moment, made more-so by the general feeling that this anime might very well go through with it. While outside of Connie’s death the anime hasn’t been gratuitous in death and horror, there’s the ongoing sense that things could go there at any moment and as a direct result scenes such as this one really make you sit up and sweat a little for the characters.

And even though Emma did have a plan to counter Ray, it isn’t as though they got off scott free. Both Ray and Emma had to part with their ear to leave the trackers in suitable locations. These kids are eleven (or twelve in the case of Ray after midnight) and they actually cut off their own ears, bandaged them up, and kept going.

I don’t know about you but I’d have cried over stubbing my toe at that age.

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It is a really beautifully executed episode bringing everything together in a suitably dramatic fashion as we lean in to the final episode. While there are so many questions left unanswered, and a lot of these will probably remain unanswered unless we get a second season or unless I read the manga faster, so far only read book 1, I’m hoping that at the very least we find out what the deal with Phil actually is… oh yeah, and whether Norman is still alive.

The Promised Neverland Episode 11 — Will these cuties survive or are they just future fodder?

This series is just good and I really want to binge watch it from the start again just to see if it holds up when you know the twists and turns of the narrative, but that will have to wait a few months. Either way, I’m loving where this has gone and this episode was solid viewing. Very much looking forward to the final episode.