Given how much last week’s episode managed to pick up after a rough start, I’m happy that this one seems to be continuing that upward trend. I’d say it’s probably the happiest I’ve been with this sequel since it started. After a few weeks of build-up, this arc is finally starting to dish out some much-needed payoff—and while it doesn’t make for a particularly beefy episode, it does make for a pretty exciting one.

As Natsu and the others continue their fight with the Dragon Eaters, Gray, and Lucy finally arrive to provide some backup. Now that they’re at a clear disadvantage, the Dragon Eaters finally decide to retreat for real but not before giving them all a warning that there’s an entire guild’s worth of Dragon Eaters they have yet to face—and it probably won’t be the last we see of them. When Team Natsu goes back to figure out how to deal with Mercphobia without killing him, they find that he’s started going on a rampage and attacking the town. This leads Karameel to reveal that she’s responsible for Mercphobia’s current state—as when his powers started growing to the point of endangering the town, she sought out the White Mage to have his powers sealed away before he could take responsibility by taking his own life. However the White Mage didn’t take away any of his magic power, but rather his control over it, so he’s become her puppet and has no way of stopping things on his own.

Now, there seems to be no choice left but to kill Mercphobia and it’s one that Natsu isn’t happy about since he knows that Mercphobia is a good guy and didn’t do anything wrong here. It’s a pretty interesting conflict—and given how gung-ho Natsu was about slaying all the Dragon Gods when this quest started, it would make for a pretty solid bit of irony if Natsu has to go through with it in a way that doesn’t leave him with any satisfaction. Of course, given Mashima’s general aversion to having anyone die in this series, I don’t know if I expect the show to follow through on this. It’s probably more likely they’ll find a more convenient and non-violent solution. While the latter option would be way less interesting, the situation here has at least been set up well enough that either outcome feels like it would work, so as long as the resolution isn’t too weird, it seems like there’s a good chance this arc could end on a high note.

Speaking of the White Mage, we don’t get too much with Touka’s side of things this week but what we get is pretty strong. When Gajeel and Jellal start questioning her on her intentions, she reveals that she wasn’t lying about joining the guild to meet Natsu—but that she also wanted to meet Wendy because she believes her enchantment spells are the only way to separate her from the White Mage. The White Mage isn’t just willing to sit back and let this happen though, so she causes Mercphobia to go on a rampage to take out Wendy and seems to have potentially used her sealing magic on the entire guild. While the latter seems even more likely to be a fake-out than having Natsu kill Mercphobia (especially since we don’t have much context for how she pulled it off), it’s still one heck of a note to end on. It does at least establish Touka as being more of a serious threat than I was expecting when this whole thing started. Now that we’ve got all the pieces placed down, it’s time to see how this whole thing plays out, and while I’m still anticipating a few left swerves, I can genuinely say I’m excited to see how this all wraps up.

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Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest is currently streaming on
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