The Last Smile

The Last Smile (最期のsmile) is the forty-fourth and penultimate episode of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. This episode features Kamen Rider Build's first televised appearance since Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: True Ending, the apparent deaths of Poppy Pipopapo and Parado (for the second time) and the final appearance of Gamedeus.

Synopsis
Gamedeus Cronus has grown massive and become the strongest Last Boss! The Gamedeus Virus expanded and the pandemic has gotten worse. The Gamedeus Virus can now be transferred from person to person, turning the infected into Bugster Virus foot soldiers! Two Bugsters witnessing this symptom, Parado and Poppy Pipopapo, decide to take action. "There is something that only us Bugsters can do…" Poppy says as she rushes to Ex-Aid…

Plot
A newswoman alerts the public of the Bugster virus pandemic as the infected-turned-Virus foot soldiers chase victims down, even breaking into her studio and infecting her. Super Gamedeus summons Kaiden, Aranbura, Salty, and Revol to face the Riders, Nico noticing the spreading infection; Super Gamedeus reverts to Gamedeus Cronus as he says that defeating these infected people will kill them. Ex-Aid Muteki Gamer, Brave Legacy Gamer Level 100, and Snipe Simulation Gamer Level 50 try fighting the Bugsters while keeping the infected people at bay without hurting them, a watching Parado and Poppy deciding to take action. Brave defeats Aranbura before running into the infected Virus Kiriya; Snipe keeps the infected away from Nico, defeating Revol and Salty, as Nico tries helping other people escape, but is shocked when she sees Riku and his mother among the infected. Elsewhere, Genm Action Gamer Level 0 decides to fight the infected people, but is interrupted by a surprise arrival, Kamen Rider Build, who mistakes him for Ex-Aid and tries to collect a sample. Build switches from RabbitTank to GorillaMond when Genm fights back, but accidentally takes out one of his lives, realizing this isn't Ex-Aid before apologizing and leaving.

Hiding from the infected, Ex-Aid thinks of using Doctor Mighty XX to cure them when Poppy takes it and leaves. Emu follows her to the hospital's roof, where she explains that she will plug the Gashat into herself to disperse the vaccine's effects to every patient, but doing so will make her disappear; she always knew that all Bugsters, even herself, would eventually have to die to truly keep humanity safe. Emu pleads for her not to, but Poppy insists she wants her last act to save the patients, apologizing for not keeping their promise to play DoReMiFa Beat before plugging the Gashat into herself. It drops and she fades into a cloud of sparkles as she tells Emu to protect everyone's lives and smiles; the cloud rains down on the city, reverting all of the infected Viruses back into people. Her voice tells Hiiro not to eat too many sweets, Kiriya not to lie so much, Taiga to be nice to Nico, Nico to take care of Taiga, and Kuroto to not cause trouble and to make fun games. Kuroto says she can't disappear without his permission, but her image appears and silently comforts him before fading, the last sparkle disappearing in his hand as a rainbow appears overhead.

Masamune sees the pandemic has been stopped and is confronted by Hiiro, Taiga, Kuroto, and Kiriya; he says he has dedicated his whole life to building his dream for Genm Corp. to be the best game company in the world into a reality and that it will come true, becoming Super Gamedeus again. Parado tells Emu they can't waste Poppy's sacrifice. As Brave Level 100, Snipe Level 50, Lazer Turbo Proto Combat Bike Gamer Level 0, and Genm Zombie Action Gamer Level X-0 fight Super Gamedeus, however, they quickly realize they are doing nothing to him, being taunted to have Earth's entire population join Kamen Rider Chronicle to face him. He knocks them all back when Emu steps up, taking out Mighty Action X and transforming into Ex-Aid Action Gamer Level 1. Ex-Aid jumps and rolls around to avoid Super Gamedeus' extending arms before landing a successful hit to everyone's surprise; he quotes Asuna that only Level 1 can separate Bugster from patient, which they can use to separate Gamedeus from Masamune. The other Riders take Snipe Shooting, Brave Quest, Genm Action, and Lazer Bike Gamers Level 1 and join in, kicking, slashing, and shooting, Snipe performing his body bullet attack before Super Gamedeus knocks them all back with a barrage of lasers from the eyes lining his arms. He flips around to use his lower half as a sword, but Para-DX Perfect Knock Out Gamer Level 99 catches it, freezing Super Gamedeus in place with a blue glow; the five Riders take this chance to use Taddle Bang Bang Bakusou Mighty Critical Strike. The resulting explosion knocks them all out of their transformations and separates Masamune from Gamedeus, but Parado is still holding Gamedeus, Doctor Mighty XX in his Driver. Parado tells Gamedeus they'll die together, Gamedeus evaporating; Parado hopes that this made up for even a little of what he's done, thanking Emu for the brief but fun ride, who runs over as Parado fades away, the last speck of him disappearing in Emu's hand.

The moment of silence is broken by Masamune, noting that Emu now can't transform, and without Muteki Gamer they can't hope to defeat Cronus. He raises his Kamen Rider Chronicle Gashat and proclaims that their fate has led them to a Bad End.

Continuity and Placement

 * Kamen Rider Build:
 * Build's appearance in this episode is at least 1 year before his next cameo in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: True Ending's post-credits scene.
 * Ignoring the inconsistencies with Build's setting, this episode should happen sometime after Build's discovery of GorillaMond being a Best Match form in episode 2.

Cast

 * Emu Hojo (宝生 永夢): Hiroki Iijima (飯島 寛騎)
 * Hiiro Kagami (鏡 飛彩): Toshiki Seto (瀬戸 利樹)
 * Taiga Hanaya (花家 大我): Ukyo Matsumoto (松本 享恭)
 * Kuroto Dan (檀 黎斗): Tetsuya Iwanaga (岩永 徹也)
 * Poppy Pipopapo (ポッピーピポパポ): Ruka Matsuda (松田 るか)
 * Kiriya Kujo (九条 貴利矢): Hayato Onozuka (小野塚 勇人)
 * Parado (パラド): Shouma Kai (甲斐 翔真)
 * Nico Saiba (西馬 ニコ): Reina Kurosaki (黒崎 レイナ)
 * Masamune Dan (檀 正宗): Hiroyuki Takami (貴水 博之)
 * Rider Gashat (ライダーガシャット): Hironobu Kageyama (影山 ヒロノブ)
 * Narration, Gashacon Bugvisor II/Buggle Driver II Voice, Kamen Rider Chronicle Gashat (仮面ライダークロニクルガシャット): Junichi Suwabe (諏訪部 順一)

Guest Cast

 * Kamen Rider Build (仮面ライダービルド): Atsuhiro Inukai (犬飼 貴丈)
 * Gamedeus (ゲムデウス): Masashi Sugawara (菅原 正志)
 * Toko Suzuki (鈴木 塔子): Miyuu Sawai (沢井 美優)
 * Riku Suzuki (鈴木 陸): Rihito Matsuura (松浦 理仁)
 * TV Announcer: Marin (麻鈴)

Suit Actors

 * Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Muteki Gamer: Seiji Takaiwa (高岩 成二)
 * Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Level 1, Kamen Rider Genm Level 1: Satoshi Fujita (藤田 慧)
 * Kamen Rider Brave Level 100: Jun Watanabe (渡辺 淳)
 * Kamen Rider Lazer Turbo Level 0, Kamen Rider Brave Level 1: Jiro Uchikawa (内川 仁朗)
 * Kamen Rider Lazer Level 1: Toshihiro Ogura (おぐら としひろ)
 * Kamen Rider Snipe Level 50, Gamedeus: Eitoku (永徳)
 * Kamen Rider Snipe Level 1: Minoru Watanabe (渡辺実)
 * Kamen Rider Genm Level 0, Level X-0: Yuji Nakata (中田 裕士)
 * Kamen Rider Para-DX Level 99: Kazuya Okada (岡田 和也)
 * Kamen Rider Cronus: Kosuke Asai (浅井 宏輔)
 * Kamen Rider Build: Yuya Nawata (縄田 雄哉)
 * Salty Bugster: Hajime Kanzaki (神前 元)
 * Aranbura Bugster: Yasuaki Ishii (石井 靖見)
 * Revol Bugster: Shigeki Ito (伊藤 茂騎)
 * Kaiden Bugster: Shogo Teramoto (寺本 翔悟)

Rider Gashat

 * Gashat Used:
 * Ex-Aid
 * Maximum Mighty X, Hyper Muteki, Mighty Action X
 * Brave
 * Taddle Legacy, Taddle Quest
 * Snipe
 * Gashat Gear Dual β (Bang Bang Simulations), Bang Bang Shooting
 * Lazer (Turbo)
 * Bakusou Bike, Proto Jet Combat
 * Genm
 * Gamer Driver
 * Proto Mighty Action X Origin, Dangerous Zombie, Proto Mighty Action X
 * Para-DX
 * Gamer Driver
 * Gashat Gear Dual, Doctor Mighty XX
 * Poppy
 * Doctor Mighty XX
 * Cronus
 * Kamen Rider Chronicle
 * Level Used:
 * Ex-Aid
 * Muteki Gamer, Action Gamer Level 1
 * Brave
 * Legacy Gamer Level 100, Quest Gamer Level 1
 * Snipe
 * Simulation Gamer Level 50, Shooting Gamer Level 1
 * Lazer (Turbo)
 * Proto Combat Bike Gamer Level 0, Bike Gamer Level 1
 * Genm
 * Action Gamer Level 0, Zombie Action Gamer Level X-0, Action Gamer Level 1
 * Para-DX
 * Perfect Knock Out Gamer Level 99
 * Cronus
 * Gamedeus Cronus

Full Bottles

 * Bottle Used:
 * Organic: Rabbit, Gorilla
 * Inorganic: Tank, Diamond
 * Form Used:
 * RabbitTank, GorillaMond

Errors

 * Build, much like Takeru before him, mistakes Genm for Ex-Aid. However, chronologically, the only time they would've met is Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: True Ending, which hasn't happened yet.
 * Although, it is possible for this misunderstanding to happen if Build had only heard of Ex-Aid but was not fully informed of his physical appearance, much like how Takeru saw a sketch of Genm, but was not fully aware that Genm was black, rather than pink like Ex-Aid.
 * It is unknown how Kuroto reclaimed the purple-colored Proto Mighty Action X Gashat, since said Gashat was one of the Proto Gashats that were returned to Masamune after the first Reset.
 * When the Level 1 Kamen Riders are knocked out of their transformation after the finishers, "Gashun!" was played from their Gamer Drivers, even though it has already been played when they removed their Gashat to activate the Critical Strike attacks.
 * It's possible this was for the Gashats' removal from the Kimewaza Slot Holders instead.
 * When Emu transforms into Level 1, he is briefly seen putting his palm up to touch his profile, but it doesn't select until he brings his arms down.