The Promised Neverland 2nd Season Episode 8

Lambda Facility Breakout

I was a bit surprised to find that we actually got to see inside Lambda Facility in episode 8 of The Promised Neverland 2nd Season. But, I was far more surprised to learn that the person who recruited Norman into the facility was a human, not a demon. I didn’t see that coming at all.

And, from what we saw, it would appear that my theory about Norman working for the demon nobles now is completely shut down. Everything about this episode seemed to disprove that theory. Rather than being a traitor, Norman views himself as a martyr for humanity.

That’s all fine. I don’t mind my theories being wrong. In fact, when my theories are wrong I think that’s more exciting because it means I wasn’t able to predict every aspect of the series.

However, (because of course there had to be a “however”) there were some things I didn’t quite understand in relation to Lambda Facility. First, was there really a point in introducing Peter Ratri and his goal of taking over the farms? Everything he was working for was destroyed five minutes later, so he seemed pretty pointless.

Next, Norman was able to plant bombs around the facility and detonate them how exactly? He mentioned always being under surveillance, exchanged “secret” notes in plain sight, and had access to no bomb-making materials. How did that plan work?

I guess Norman’s plan worked thanks to Miranda’s people who had already infiltrated the facility. But even that doesn’t really make sense. Norman slaughtered everyone there and yet they helped him? I don’t really get it, but whatever. I don’t think this season is good anyway, so it’s not worth me putting more thought into.

Tracking Mujika

Speaking of things I don’t really get, what did Norman expect would happen when he attacked the demon town while Emma & the gang were out searching for Mujika and Sonju? Last week, he mentioned that he would simply kill Mujika and Sonju if Emma brought them to him. But how was that going to happen?

Does Norman really believe he and his three followers could defeat Mujika, Sonju, and the children without taking them by surprise? It would be one thing if Norman was pretending to go along with their agreement and then had the demons killed. But by attacking the town, he threw away that element of surprise.

Maybe his allies have superhuman abilities thanks to the experiments performed on them at Lambda Facility. And they clearly have experience with fighting against demons. But I still don’t see how they would take down Sonju with the children helping him. Norman wouldn’t let the other children be killed.

Since we saw another one of the giant, CGI demons again in this episode, it made me think about the quality of this season compared to the first. Obviously, the first season didn’t include bad CGI demons because there weren’t any demons. But based on the art in general, I don’t think the first season would have used CGI.

Everything about the first season looked a lot cleaner. And on top of that, we have the writing of this season compared to that of the first. I know the manga fans hate this season because it’s different from the source material, but I don’t care about that.

I just think that the writing of this season is inferior anyway. Everything that made the first season good in terms of its writing is now gone. There’s not really any suspense, hardly anything is explained in satisfying ways, and I’m not sure where it’s trying to go. I don’t see it wrapping up in an anime original ending this season. So where is it going next?

The Evil Blood

From what we saw in this episode, it doesn’t seem like Norman learned the phrase “evil blood” from demons. It’s possible, but for the most part, we didn’t see him interacting with demons at Lambda Facility. There were demons working there, but he was mostly around other humans.

With that said, I did remember that we actually learned of the term evil blooded earlier in this season. Remember how the old demon visited the temple in which the children were living on the outskirts of town? That was referred to as the evil-blooded temple, wasn’t it?

And at the end of this episode, we learned that the old demon himself has evil blood. So if we consider that and the fact that he would go to the evil-blooded temple to pray, we can probably assume that he was one of the original followers of the Mujika of legend.

I would have said that the old demon is a noble of some sort since he has evil blood, but we already know that’s not the case. He was at the temple to pray that his family would be able to have enough to eat. If he was one of the nobles manipulating the flow of human meat, that wouldn’t have been the case.

Of course, that then brings up the question of why his family doesn’t also have evil blood. It’s blood, so you would think that his descendants would inherit it. I don’t know why this wouldn’t be the case, but apparently, it’s not. Probably for some plot progression reason, if I had to guess.

You might also wonder why he didn’t give his family his blood to stop them from needing to eat humans to keep their form. I think that’s much easier to explain. If he really is a follower of the original Mujika, he knows that non-nobles with evil blood are hunted down and killed. So, by not giving his blood to his relatives, he was actually protecting them.

Conclusion

What do you think of The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 8? Do you feel the whole Lambda Facility thing was rushed? What are your thoughts on this season compared to the first? And who is the old demon with evil blood? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.