I'm starting to sense a rhythm here. Whenever the Squad experiences victory, defeat is hot on its heels to humble them. The team just had a resounding success in defeating the Thinker, a mutual enemy of both the Squad and the kingdom they're supposed to be allying with, but it's pretty clear at this point that there's no victory that would satisfy the queen. Spoilers for Suicide Squad Isekai Episode 8 follow.

Suicide Squad Isekai Episode 8

This is a problem we often saw in the Arrowverse, especially in the later years: every win was accompanied by a major setback. But instead of it helping show us how the heroes persevere through hardship, it instead felt like a hamster wheel of victory and defeat. When the heroes can never move forward, it stops feeling like a serial story. Suicide Squad Isekai has had some awesome moments and some confusing, frustrating ones. We're still enjoying it, but it feels like a few of these setbacks could've been culled.

After the team heads back to report their victory, they find themselves subjected to backwards logic that suggests that their victory is something for which they should be punished. King Shark is sentenced to execution, and the remaining heroes drink themselves into a stupor as they try to figure out what to do next. Amanda Waller passes judgment on the team, and Princess Fione discovers the first clue to her mother's strange behavior.

This episode doesn't move the story forward in any major way, but it's also hard to call it filler per se. I've seen countless "filler" episodes of anime through the years--the heroes head to a hot spring or beach to relax after a series of heavy episodes, or a character has a side adventure that doesn't factor into the greater story. It's filler because it's meant to fill the timeslot for that show between major episodes, during a national holiday, or something like that.

This episode is none of those things. It's about how fragile the team's solidarity is in the face of a hopeless defeat, and what an upward hill their mission really is. It's a goof-off episode, but it doesn't feel like an episode meant to relax. It's as dark as it is funny.

And this episode is very funny. The writers once again play around with Clayface's powers, with him reenacting famous movie scenes for some city dwellers of a world that has no idea what movies are. One of my favorite moments has the squad going ham at the tavern while Rick Flag stares blankly. Peacemaker loses his patience and a crucial article of clothing.

But it's all informed by the fact that nothing they do means anything. Despite their hardships, neither the Queen nor Amanda Waller wants to give them any recognition for the risks they've taken. They're blamed for problems they did not create and held up to impossible standards from every angle, and given absolutely no recourse. It makes it impossible to develop any kind of forward motion. If the show was longer, too, I'd feel somewhat differently; there's a little more room for flexibility and filler in a situation like that. With a ten-episode season, though, I expect something that feels a bit more tightly paced.

With that said, this is the third-to-last episode, meaning that things have to start wrapping up and moving forward, and I'm still very invested in seeing where they go.