Time for Heaven! New Moon! New Priest!
Episode 22 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Part II begins with a flashback between Pucci and Dio. Dio recounts the many visitors that would arrive at the Louvre to look at artwork like the Mona Lisa and Milo’s Venus. Dio grabs Pucci’s arm and evokes the possibility of him betraying him. Dio provokes Pucci to steal his Stand “The World” from him, saying that he can become the “King of Kings.” Pucci refuses Dio’s offer because he doesn’t want to harm someone he admires. Dio apologizes to Pucci for bringing up the idea and confesses that no one has ever put him at ease like Pucci. As an apology, Dio offers Pucci a bone and tells him that this bone will serve as a connection between himself and Pucci. He promises Pucci that it will give him power. In the present, F.F. has turned into tiny bits. Whitesnake advances to retrieve her Stand disc but stops after hearing a buzz and voice coming from a transceiver. It doesn’t recognize the voice but the unknown individual calls out F.F.’s name. Whitesnake demands the person to tell him who they are, but they don’t respond. Suddenly, a storm cloud forms out of nowhere, signaling to Whitesnake that Weather Report is the one on the other end. The storm clouds begin dropping rain, allowing F.F. to reconstitute itself. She tries crawling away. Whitesnake tries to advance in her direction, but the rain’s downpour forms into the fog, blocking his view. Whitesnake hears a clicking noise in the rain and Pucci realizes it’s morse code. F.F. is letting Weather Report know who Whitesnake’s Stand user is, which bewilders Pucci. Although stressed out, Pucci remains confident that he hasn’t lost yet. He plans his next course of action with Whitesnake. Meanwhile, F.F. has gotten away. Before she could rest, she meets Weather Report, and the two decide to look for Jolyne and Anastasia. In the marshlands, Jolyne asks Anastasia questions about why he’s fond of her. Anastasia tells Jolyne that he finds her attractive because her willpower is giving him hope for himself. Their semi-romantic moment is interrupted by Green Baby, who grabs Anastasia’s hair and takes a bite out of it. He puts the baby down and it starts chewing dirt. Before Jolyne could nurture it, Anastasia grabs her and tells her to get down. He senses the presence of two individuals and warns her. The two individuals end up being F.F. and Weather Report. F.F. greets them and proceeds to heal Jolyne’s eye injury she sustained during her bout with Yo-Yo Ma. She informs Jolyne that Pucci is Whitesnake’s Stand user. Jolyne asks Weather Report if his wounds healed and hug him. Anastasia’s jealous of the situation and demands that F.F. separate them. F.F. doesn’t budge and explains that there’s nothing wrong with Jolyne and Weather Report’s reunion hug. Anastasia points to the Green Baby, who has fallen asleep. He proposes that they murder it before it becomes dangerous. This is a nod to what he says at the end of the prior episode. Jolyne is against the idea but Anastasia believes it is an abomination that should not have been born. F.F. takes his words to heart and bickers with him. Anastasia asks Weather Report to support his stance, but Weather Report denies his offer. Weather Report swiftly says that Anastasia will be the one to die here. He proceeds to plunge his hand through Anastasia’s chest and then crush F.F.’s head with his Stand. He also pulls out her disc, wiping her out for the time being. Jolyne protects herself from his attack but is pushed back. Weather Report sheds his disguise, revealing himself as Whitesnake. He had used his illusion abilities shown in the last season to trick our heroes. Pucci reveals himself and notices the Green Baby nearby. He announces this toddler will lead him to “Heaven.” Pucci plans to use its powers, but before he can head in its direction, Jolyne stops him. Pucci stares at Jolyne and says he will need to kill her first. Jolyne is wounded but doesn’t plan to back down. Whitesnake throws a swift punch at her arm, but Jolyne dodges the attack by recalling it back via her thread. With her thread, she ties Pucci’s hands to hers by crafting some handcuffs. She announces her plan to take back her father’s and F.F.’s discs and to end Pucci’s life. Jolyne pulls Pucci in to deliver a violent axe kick to his neck. Whitesnake deflects her attack by swiping Jolyne’s other leg. Jolyne summons Stone Ocean. The two stands clash for a bit. Whitesnake ties Stone Ocean’s wrist with the handcuffs’ chain and tries chopping the link. However, the links transform into thread, cutting Pucci’s hand. Pucci explains that Whitesnake is a distant Stand and won’t fair in a fight against Jolyne’s Stone Ocean. Nonetheless, Pucci’s confidence is that his powers will be enough to defeat Jolyne. Jolyne’s Stand and memory disc are seconds away from falling to the ground. Pucci believes he can end this fight early if he can get his hands on her discs. Jolyne ignores his words and plans to attack him harder. While he can pull her discs out at any moment, Jolyne knows she can deliver a decisive blow if he dares get closer. Pucci compares Jotaro to swallows in a rude manner to throw Jolyne off. Jolyne attacks Pucci with a punch, but Pucci responds with the same gesture. Unfortunately, Pucci inserted a cross under his fingernail, giving himself more range in his attack. He evades Stone Ocean’s punch and pulls Jolyne’s disc out more. The disc now blocks Jolyne’s view and Pucci takes the opportunity to attack her from above. He’s confident that he has this fight in the bag and tries dealing the final blow. Stone Ocean reacts swiftly and strikes Pucci in his chest and hand. The impact sends Pucci flying farther away from Jolyne. Pucci tries to ponder the situation, but Stone Ocean follows up with a flurry of punches. Pucci realizes Jolyne’s become a strong fighter. He’s angry that he didn’t wipe her out sooner. At his breaking point, Pucci takes out Jotaro’s memory disc and throws it. Pucci tells Jolyne that a disc will vanish if it’s inserted into someone who is on the brink of death. He points her toward Anastasia, who is out cold due to Whitesnake’s assault from earlier. Pucci tells Jolyne she has a decision to make. Either defeat him and lose Jotaro’s disc forever or abandon their fight and retrieve Jotaro’s disc. Jolyne’s frustrated by the whole dilemma. Pucci says he already knows the information needed to control the toddler. He knows it’s risky without Jotaro’s disc but doesn’t mind taking the gamble. Jolyne deals a flurry of punches toward Pucci but decides to abandon the fight to retrieve Jotaro’s disc. Free from her grasp, Pucci heads toward the Green Baby and recites a secret passcode to draw its attention. The Green Baby takes interest in Pucci. Whitesnake plunges his fist through Pucci’s hand and extracts one of his bones. This bone resembles the one Dio gave him. He gives his bone to the toddler as it proceeds to devour Pucci’s arm and pulls him inside of a bush. Pucci declares he’s finally entered “Dio’s World.” Meanwhile, Jotaro’s disc is about to fade away. Jolyne can’t retrieve it and decides to stitch Anastasia’s wounds. Jolyne doesn’t know what to do and decides to call for someone to help her. At the same time, Anastasia summons Dive Down and communicates to F.F. remains. For Jolyne’s sake, Anastasia asks F.F. to take over his body to eject Jotaro’s disc from it. A spiritual figure flies out of Anastasia’s body and Jolyne assumes the worst. However, it ends up being F.F.’s soul instead of Anastasia’s. F.F. tells Jolyne that her journey has come to a close. She tells Jolyne that she’s healed Anastasia’s wounds and will be departing to the afterlife. Jolyne’s bewildered and hurt from this exchange. F.F. tells Jolyne that she doesn’t want her to bring her back, as she’ll only come back as a different person. F.F. salutes Jolyne one last time before fading into the sky. Jolyne yells out F.F.’s name one last time. The episode concludes by panning its camera at a transceiver on the ground. The “real” Weather Report is on the other end and says he’ll be on his way.
The Episode Review
If I had one word to describe this episode of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, I’d use the term “unexpected.” This is one of the series’ best episodes by a landslide. Whitesnake not only fooled our protagonists in this episode, but I found myself tricked by his illusion abilities. This was a remarkable episode and the best one to come out of the second batch of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean. The conversation between Dio and Pucci at the start was fascinating. Dio had no issue allowing Pucci to take his Stand away from him but knew he wouldn’t do so considering how fond Pucci is of him. It really paints how intelligent and cunning Dio is as a villain and shows how loyal Pucci is to him. The fight between Jolyne and Pucci was nerve-wracking and engaging. I adored the tactical and physicality utilized. Weirdly, both characters underestimated the other, as Pucci’s comments show his incompetence in underrating her ability. I’m a bit disappointed that Jolyne didn’t conjure up a quick tactic to grab her father’s memory disc and stop Pucci at the same time. However, it feels correct for her character to prioritize her father’s disc besides Pucci from reaching the toddler. I’m a bit upset that F.F. has fallen in battle. It makes me wish we got to see her interact with Jolyne and her friends more. We received some flashbacks in the prior episode that showcase the fond memories they had together. However, we only receive brief stills of said time and never experience that. I argue it would’ve been best to give us an extra episode or an impactful scene where F.F. and Jolyne were the closest they’ve ever been. This would make her death and depressing scene carry greater weight and an impact on fans. Nonetheless, her final words to Jolyne touched my heart, but the sequence wasn’t heavy enough to make me feel sorrow for her. Overall, this episode delivered impeccable animation, writing, and music. This episode kept me entertained, engaged, and excited for what’s to come from its final two chapters. With F.F. down for the count, I’m unsure how Anastasia, Jolyne, and the others plan to defeat Whitesnake and Pucci. Pucci’s actions with the toddler make me wonder if he’ll get some sort of power-up that triumphs over the other’s Stand. There’s a lot at stake, so it will be nice to see how this wraps up.
