It’s been a very busy few weeks for me. I had an important uni deadline last Friday and I had to catch up on a bunch of work stuff that I neglected because of that afterwards. So I had to think really hard to try and remember what happened in last week’s episode. But it was revealed to us that the President of the United States is sending assassins after Gyro and Johnny to reclaim what I believe to be the body of Jesus Christ, which his father went on a pilgrimage to bury in the United States. Also, Johnny got himself a limited edition Labubu. I think it’s speaking either Italian or nonsense to him. Let’s move on.

Considering this episode is called “Tusk part 2” I wouldn’t be surprised if Tusk is the name of this Labubu and not the name of whatever stand is currently harrowing Johnny. Remember that he was being fished through the feathers and beetles in his surroundings? It looks like the Labubu is either directing Johnny’s stand ability to do things or simply helping him. Also I swear it said “Johnny” so I think it’s friendly towards his new host. Things are definitely getting more and more interesting.

Johnny is starting to put things together too. He’s figuring things out very quickly and without the context that we as viewers have. The Steel Ball Run is being used to gather the mummified parts of a corpse and these parts give the person who is holding on to them some sort of power. It does feel bad knowing that this latest villain is likely not long for this world, considering he’s clearly mentally unwell. With the help of Gyro’s steel ball, Johnny is starting to figure out a direction to go into. Despite this guy’s personality, I find the power design to be very cool. Johnny is basically playing Meccha Chameleon in real life (the game where you paint yourself to blend in with your surroundings). It’s confusing the hell out of our poor villain.

Let’s not forget that as nice as Johnny and Gyro’s relationship has been, Johnny is in this for his own reasons. With the help of spin, this corpse or stand abilities he is hoping to repair his broken legs. Despite our villain’s shortcomings, he can be pretty clever at times too, sending Slow Dancer to go search for his boss and flush him out. Johnny uses this pinch to resonate with his newfound abilities and indeed name his new power tusk, as it’s gone beyond just the use of nails.

But we aren’t out of the woods yet. Using the unconscious body of Gyro as bait, our terrorist lures Johnny in and the two are sent hurdling towards him with the hook through them. I do wonder what his end goal is, considering he has now fully shown himself and is probably about to be turned into roadkill. Johnny tells Gyro that he will not give up the corpse that has entered his arm and it is now up to Gyro to deliver the finishing blow before the two of them can have a proper conversation about what the hell is going on. I bet the language on his arm is Italian and Gyro can read it, but we’ll probably get to that after Gyro sends his steel ball through this annoying guy’s face.

And yeah, I think I saw this coming to an extent, but this guy is really out here trying to prove himself to other people. It looks like he’s been down most of his life and finally wants to show off that he is smarter than people think. Unfortunately – and not through any fault of his – he isn’t smarter than people think but instead he’s doing other people’s dirty work for them without even realizing he’s being used.

Oh, it’s not Italian, it’s Latin, that makes sense. The writing means “move your legs”. Very apt for a saint to give Johnny the power to move his legs as one of their miracles. So the theory here is quite simple but makes for a great background for this story. If you have the body of a saint – someone who performs two miracles after their death – you will have a thousand years of glory and prosperity. And the only two states that have managed to do this so far are Venice and the Vatican. Surely the president of the United States is angling to become a third. And Gyro is already catching on to the fact that this might not just be your everyday saint. It might in fact be the body of Jesus Christ which feels all but confirmed.

Despite being a great team, this now does mean that Johnny and Gyro have different goals. The upside of this is that if things go well, their goals don’t have to be in conflict with each other. Gyro wants to win and Johnny wants to find the corpse parts. Both can reach their goals, but they have to be quick to make up their mind because Sandman and Dio are right there. The four dash towards the finish line and through a little bit of unintended sabotage on Johnny’s end, Gyro loses his focus and ends up being fourth, with the victory going to Dio and second place going to Johnny. This is sure to cause some conflict between the two, but Gyro’s face here was very funny.

Damn, this fictional president is probably much more clever than the actual presidents we’ve had in the US lately. We learn a little bit more here, as it is revealed that the president has already found one of the parts of the corpse. With this, we are headed towards the third leg of this journey. Gyro and Johnny are working together to win the race, find the body parts and save the child that caused Gyro to go on this journey in the first place. It looks like both Mr. Steel and Lucy are far from on board with the president’s shenanigans and if I can make one more bold prediction, I want to say that the man with them in the train – the third character in the president’s cabin that hasn’t spoken yet – is somehow related to Gyro. They have similar facial hair and we all know facial hair is genetic, right? Either way, I thought this was a fantastic episode and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Thanks for reading!