The following article contains spoilers for Tiger & Bunny 2 Episode 8, “You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover,” now streaming on Netflix.
Up to this point, Tiger & Bunny 2 has had an episode spotlighting each of the new members of Stern Bild’s First League — except for the mysterious He Is Thomas. While the season has offered brief glimpses of his backstory, he’s remained in the background until now.
That all changes with Tiger & Bunny 2‘s eighth episode, which opens on He Is Thomas and his partner Mr. Black attempting to apprehend a criminal. When the duo briefly loses focus for a second, the criminal shoots a civilian in the leg, causing He Is Thomas to go berserk and beat the perpetrator to a pulp.
The incident causes a massive media storm and results in He Is Thomas’s temporary suspension from the First League, leading Thomas to declare that the incident validates his belief that all he can trust in is himself, to the protests of his fellow heroes. Barnaby sympathizes with the newcomer’s plight — after all, he was also a heavily guarded loner back in the first season.
It’s here where Thomas’s backstory is finally revealed in full. After being orphaned by a car accident, Thomas and his sister Ruby were sent to an institution. Thomas wanted to stay with his sister but had trouble being adopted due to anti-NEXT discrimination — a recurring theme throughout the season — and the orphanage’s director attempted to re-home Ruby by herself.
The incident led to Thomas and Ruby running away, finding shelter in the slums. However, the pair were accosted by a group of criminals, and Ruby was inadvertently shot in the leg during the altercation. The two were eventually found and sent back to the institution, and Ruby alone was re-homed. The incident goes a long way to explaining why gunshots are such a trigger for Thomas, hence his actions at the beginning of the episode.
Since the incident, Thomas has been a lone wolf, preferring to rely on his own strength to get by — a creed internalized due to Thomas’ idolization of an infamous vigilante called L.L. Audun. Audun was the greatest rival of Mr. Legend, the acclaimed superhero mentioned several times in the first season, and who lived by his catchphrase of “believe in nothing but your own strength.”
Thomas isn’t the only one who internalized that creed, as it is revealed that Fugan and Mugan, the sinister silver-haired duo who have been picking off heroes, also worship Audun. While their motives remain a mystery, it’s a revelation that goes a long way to informing the mysterious pair.
Things start looking up for Thomas when he helps an elderly couple get home and they invite him to dinner for the favor. Thomas usually sticks to a strict bodybuilding diet of chicken and broccoli, so the fact that he devours the lasagna served to him by the couple shows that he has the capacity to lower his guard from time to time. He then watches a broadcast of the heroes, all squeezing Thomas’s signature stress ball in solidarity with the hero. He finds the effort touching, and the episode seems set for a sentimental resolution like the rest of the episodes this season — but then things take a sinister turn.
It turns out that the kindly elderly couple are in fact serial burglars who have drugged their guest, hoping to frame a sedated Thomas for their crimes. Unfortunately for them, they have no idea that Thomas is a NEXT, and he retaliates by beating them and departing, vowing that he’ll never make the mistake of trusting people ever again, ending the episode in the same place it started.
Thomas isn’t the only one things go wrong for, as during the episode’s final scene, a rescue at a museum has horrible results for Kotetsu and Barnaby. As Kotetsu is rescuing exhibits, an explosion sounds, and he turns to see a charred Barnaby hurtling through the air before the episode hard cuts to credits. It’s a dour note to end on, and a harsh wake-up call that the light-hearted antics that have defined the first half of the season are officially over. Now comes the time for drama.
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