Welcome back to this week’s breakdown for The Promised Neverland! Episode 10 is a mix of anime-original scenes and those adapted scenes chapters 100, 165-172 and 176 of the manga . I’m still separating technical spoilers for anime-only fans, which are clearly marked. However, for those that still want a deeper dive into those scenes, I would encourage you to read them at your own risk. Now with that said, let’s move on to the episode!
Emma and the others gather together in a meeting to discuss more of the details of their return to Grace Field House. Norman details how Peter Ratri, as the gatekeeper, has the Sisters and Moms of the farm at his command, and the fact that he is actually the younger brother of James Ratri/William Minerva. Meanwhile, in Grace Field, Peter hears listens to Vincent’s request of a guarantee of his safety in exchange for information about the kids’ plan.
As it turns out, Vincent turning coat was a ruse that was actually part of the plan all along, and we see the other steps that the kids took to prepare for the event. Sometime after that, in one of the other houses, Phil is playing tag with an older boy named Simon, when the Mom in charge of them calls all of them inside. She announces to the children that everyone is being adopted and will move out together that night, which terrifies Phil. Back at the underground caverns of the forest, the escapees take measures to prepare their weapons and equipment while on the move. Emma apologizes to Mujika and Sonju for making get involved in their matters, but Mujika gently shakes her head, and just tells her that they’re doing that because they’re friends. Emma then calls to Ray and Norman, wanting to talk to them about something in particular.
That night, as Phil and the rest of the kids in Grace Field get ready for their “adoptions,” Emma kicks off the plan, with the hot air balloons the Lambda group set up starting to float into the sky. Having ramped up the security of the farms thanks to the information Vincent gave out, Peter readies for the kids’ attack. The outdoor security shoot down some of the balloons, but are surprised when they find out they were decoys set to explode once they reached the ground, causing giant fires in the vicinity. While all of this is happening, Sonju and most of the Lambda group jump down from the balloons they were in and start attacking the guards.
As all of this is happening, the balloons holding the escapees, Norman, and Vincent land in the area that once had House 3. They break into headquarters using the old, unused well nearby, and disarm the demon guards indoors, while Vincent and Anna hack into the computer system. As the Mom and Sisters in Phil’s group try to figure out what’s happening, Phil suddenly finds Jemima in front of him. It turns out that she, Yvette, Rossi, and Mark have infiltrated the other House’s groups as one of the children, and each gave the other former House 3 kids a message from Emma. With the systems now hacked, Emma and the rest destroy the security camera system.
Going back to Phil, he goes to Simon and asks that they continue their game of tag, whispering something that gets Simon excited. With Vincent finished reconfiguring the security’s audio, Emma sends out a message to all the kids from the Houses to start running for their “game of tag” and traps the Moms and Sisters by the gates. All the children reach the giant room where the elevator that leads to the portal is located, and Emma shares a heartwarming reunion with Phil. She tries to use the lever that powers the elevator, but as they find out it doesn’t work, all the Moms and Sisters suddenly appear from the upper balcony of the room with guns pointed at them.
Peter and Isabella enter the room, with Isabella welcoming her “precious children” with her own gun in hand. With the system back to its original setting, Peter forces the kids to put their weapons down at threat of gunfire. Peter gloats about how their rescue plan was doomed to always fail from the start, and Emma tells him that for the sake of their family and future, she would not give up on her plan, no matter what their planned “destiny” was supposed to be. This answer satisfies Isabella, and then she and the other older women point their guns at Peter. It’s then revealed that she only took up the offer Grace Field gave her because she was tired of the entire system, and wanted to destroy it from the inside. She also shoots the device away from Peter that would have activated the chips on the women’s hearts to kill them, just as he was about to use it.
Peter is shocked by this, but then regains his composure when he tells them that reinforcements from the other farms are coming in to help them. However, before these reinforcements arrive, the citizens of the demon village stop them and break into Grace Field themselves to help the kids out, with Sonju leading them. Vylk and Mujika enter into the room where everyone is in, with Vylk telling Peter of on the suffering the farms caused by limiting their food and causing degeneration, which is why the villagers came in to end their rule right there. Peter falls down to his knees, in despair at the thought of conflict coming back from the old promise being broken. As the episode ends, Emma walks up to him and offers her hand to him to make her own offer:
Let me first say, this was a bounce back from Episode nine in terms of the plot quality. I was very pleasantly surprised at how the anime managed their own version of the return to Grace Field, and how they managed to get Phil and the other younger children more involved in the plan, especially when it came to the infiltration method they used. I did suspect Vincent’s last scene in the previous episode was not what it initially looked like, but I didn’t suspect that it to be revealed as a ruse so early on before the plan started. What really shocked me was that the demon villagers would actually come in to help the kid, and confront Peter on how the farms messed up their lives; that was a pretty welcome addition.
That being said however, the biggest issue this season has once again showed up in it adapting the manga scenes to its context. Without the insight and experiences gained from those un-adapted scenes, certain moments from this episode just lack the power and emotion it would have brought the viewers in the same way the manga readers experienced. The issue of internal monologue not being presented also comes into play once again, because while brief, covert moments of genuine emotion are nice, it would be nice to see how Isabella feels about the children coming back, or how Phil wonders if his nervousness trying to keep the secret of Grace Field was something Ray also experienced when he was younger.
We’re now waiting for the last episode now, and with a certain plot point from manga left in the manga that needs to established, I hope the anime makes a good conclusion for this season in the likes of both this one and Episode eight.
Other Notes
- I admit, I was very concerned when I saw the preview with the hot air balloons earlier this week because it seemed too ridiculous to me back then. I can buy it now that I finished the episode, but it does beg the question for how Norman and the others managed to make enough of them in a short period.
- The anime was a lot kinder to Simon this time around, since the manga had him shipped out on March 2046
- I just found it weird that we haven’t seen Carol, or any of the other babies and toddlers in the house be brought out to the gates with the older kids.
- I’ll have to do some more in-depth digging into it, but I do remember there being extra information on the old well near the House in the fanbook, other than the fact that it had used now-used up underground water springs in the past.
- Everyone watching this show knows that this is all taking place in a human farm, but actually hearing terms like “breeding house,” and especially “breeders” for the Moms and Sisters, really freaked me out.
- It’s nice to see Ray go a bit feral every now and then.
- Mark crying happy tears when he saw Naila again was so cute! I almost forgot how close those two were with each other.
- The other children of Grace Field must really be built differently to not freak out and cry from all the guns that were both pointed at them and even fired at at certain points.
- The crowd of demon civilians at the outer gate looks much large than the village we’ve been following for a while now, and I assume that this is probably because the citizens from there probably spread Mujika’s blood to the other nearby communities during the plan’s preparation period.
[Manga Spoiler Zone]
Like I’ve said in past episode articles, the biggest issue Emma has now in bringing everyone to the human world is that she never made a promise with The One in the anime, since she has never gone to or even heard of the Seven Walls. Keeping in line with the manga’s logic, the new promise she made ensured the safety of every cattle child and adult in the demon world as they crossed over, at the price of giving up her memories of her family as her reward for The One. The imagery of the Day and Night that was supposed to be in the temple in the manga, is now decorating the ceiling of one of the rooms in Grace Field HQ, which implies it’s most likely gonna come up as the last (unexpected) thing Emma would have to deal with before everyone goes to the human world. Since she also made this promise before returning to Grace Field, as well as the fact that she actually prepared for what might happen to her in doing so, manga!Emma showed she understood and empathized with Peter on the sacrifices he made in maintaining the old promise his clan kept for so long, while anime!Emma, unfortunately, did not have enough experience to come to this conclusion (so far).
I’m not sure how the last episode is going to tackle the remaining 6-8 chapters. We saw that glimpse of her without her neck ID number in the OP, and I’ve already addressed what would lead up to it in the previous paragraph. There were certain un-adapted scenes from the chapters I wanted to talk about in the previous section, but I wasn’t sure if they were just as they’re described, or if they’re actually gonna show up somehow next week. Like I said, I’ll keep my hopes reasonably up, but I am still kinda nervous about it at this point.
Other Notes
- With all I’ve mentioned about the issue of the promise earlier on, this scene with Emma right here makes me wonder if this is supposed to be foreshadowing to her address this specific thing soon.
- The manga initially had Sonju go through a mental struggle before feeling guilty for wanting to eat humans again after Emma told him she’d be fine dying from that if it was either him or Mujika that did it. I wonder if this is either a lead up to or the actual equivalent for that scene.
- Okay, so this Sister here looks like an older version of a previous House 3 child named Michelle. Since Legravalima apparently doesn’t exist in the anime, this means this possible AU version of Michelle chose to take the offer of being a Mom instead of being eaten up by her after her shipment.
- Considering the initial plan that Peter and Isabella had involved (fake) gassing the captured escapees from the Paradise Hideout, it’s probably for that best that this part especially was not adapted at all in the anime.
- The Day and Night painting is finally shown in color, and it is gorgeous.
- Peter and Emma talked about destiny in the conversation near the end, so I guess this will lead with last episode ending with “screw destiny” too, maybe?
- The first recruits Isabella made as Grandma make a brief appearance when Vylk and Mujika enter the room.
- It’s going to be so messed up if Peter decides to off himself like in the manga in front of around 160 kids witnessing it this time around.
- Since Sonju and those villagers managed to get to the demon manager of Grace Field at the surveillance room, and with Mujika especially around, that means there’s a good chance Isabella would survive to come to the human world…right?
- Mujika wasn’t crowned Queen by the High Priest and Four Sages in the anime, and the imperial soldiers that were supposed to come from the Capital were turned into extra reinforments from other farms, so I’m guessing if she does end up in a similar position, it’s going to involve the masses that have taken her blood already.
- It’s a shame we don’t get to see Peter be humiliated as he tries to run away from Emma’s group…but, that also means we don’t get to see his creepiest panels either.
Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments section.
The Promised Neverland is streaming on Funimation & Hulu in the US, and AnimeLab in Australia.
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- The Promised Neverland Season 2, Episode 11: The Finale - 03.28.2021
I did think of Michelle as soon as I saw that lady but for some reason my imagination led me to believe shes Normans mother lol