Rewatched Confession Arc recently because I love crying and also feeling all the weird calcified emotions around my heart shatter in real time and I found myself really focusing on Toichiro’s line, “I just need to do what he did for me last time.” The actual thing he says this about (turning himself into a vessel to absorb Mob’s energy) doesn’t happen, but the concept, the idea that everything people do for Mob during this arc is a reflection of what he’s done for them, is I think a really crucial component of the narrative.
Mob tells Teru that he’s just an average person (and sees through the “protagonist of the world” fantasy to recognize the insecure part of himself he’s subsumed), and later Teru tells ???% that he’s just an average person (and sees through his rampage to recognize that “Mob” is still in there, which is what wakes him up). Mob sees Ritsu reject their entire relationship after getting carried away with his powers but unflinchingly affirms that they’re brothers and he loves him, and later Ritsu is the first one to accept that ???% is truly his brother and not a separate entity. Mob refuses to let Toichiro escape the consequences of his actions by dying, and then Toichiro does the same to him. Mob looks at Reigen on the bridge in Separation Arc and knows the best and worst of him and accepts him for who he is–but not completely.
That’s the thing about all of them; what Mob did for them wasn’t enough at first. There’s this block that keeps it from being resolved until they’re able to turn around and offer it back to him. Teru couldn’t help but put Mob on a pedestal, which kept them from truly connecting. Ritsu couldn’t communicate with Mob in the way he needed to in order to resolve their traumatic history. Toichiro still thought that the best way to make up for what he’d done was to sacrifice himself. Reigen couldn’t come clean about his lies, so as much as Mob tried to accept him, all the hurt was repressed instead of resolved, and it didn’t do anything to help Mob accept himself.
That can only happen at the end, when everyone takes turns reflecting back what Mob had given them in a way that lets them finally reach apotheosis–and gives Mob the tools he needs to resolve his own character arc.
Teru knocks him down from the pedestal, realizes that he’s average and tells him so, and although ???% can’t accept that yet, it’s true. He’s just another person like everyone else. His powers don’t make him a god or a monster. And Teru also wakes “Mob” up, recognizing that trapped part of him and fighting tooth and nail to reach him.
Ritsu finally faces his trauma and accepts that it was his brother that hurt him way back then, refuses to let himself be hurt again, and vows that they’ll stop avoiding their problems out of fear. And it’s this that finally makes Mob face the fact that ???% is a part of himself.
Toichiro chooses not to sacrifice himself to stop Mob, forcing both of them to continue to live despite the hurt they’ve caused instead of taking the easy way out.
And Reigen tells the truth.
Reigen breaks open the huge unspoken gulf between them and tells Shigeo the same thing everyone else has been saying: You’re just like me. This isn’t unique; this doesn’t make you special or monstrous or divine. This is what every single human has to deal with. We are all made of contradictions, and we all try to hide from them, but that’s no way to live. You just need to accept yourself. So he does. And he accepts Reigen too.