The Promised Neverland – Season 2 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Two Worlds

We begin episode 2 of The Promised Neverland Season 2 with Emma and Ray confronted by the two hooded demons. They introduce themselves as Sonju and Mujika. Emma eventually catches up with the rest of the orphans too, breathing a sigh of relief when she realizes they’re unharmed. Not long after, the pair eventually sit together with the demons and begin praying.

Emma and Ray are understandably sceptical, especially after what happened with Mother last season, and eventually catch up with Sonju in private while the other orphans are asleep. There, they learn that this pair are heretics from demon society. They don’t eat brains for religious reasons and the real reason they saved Emma and the others was curiosity. They haven’t spoken to a human for a long time and wanted to engage with them.

Ray and Emma understandably have a millions questions, but before they can ask them they’re told an old tale about the world. When demons arrived on Earth, things inevitably escalated into endless fighting and bloodshed. Eventually, human and demon came to an agreement to segregate the world in two; the humans on one side and the demons on the other. The area they’re currently on is the demon side. It turns out their ancestors, the ones left behind, were done so as a peace offering.

Well, demons took advantage of this and began an entire breeding system at the farm. Grace Field (the one these orphans are from) is esteemed and highly regarded as one of the top farms in the world. It’s been around 1000 years since this agreement came into force too, meaning the world has been like this for a long time.

Emma and Ray are understandably shocked but now have a shred of hope to cling onto. Emma and the others decide to set out for the human-only world but learn that in 1000 years not one person has managed to come and go between the two worlds. That won’t dampen Emma’s spirits though, who decides to at least try and find the exit point. Sonju even offers to lend them a hand as well, at least to navigate until the end of the forest anyway.

The next day, the pair set out but this time remain more determined than ever to change the fate of their worlds. Emma and the other orphans concoct a new plan to try and save all the other kids from the other farms. They’re going to bring all of them to the human world. With a more elaborate escape plan, Sonju helps the kids with basic survival skills they’ll need for the journey ahead.

After walking for some time, Sonju decides to scout the area outside. Emma tags along too, wanting to learn how to kill a living being to survive. Determined to take advantage of this (man?) Emma heads out and practices with this bow and arrow, killing a bird.

Sonju has a special way of killing though, involving a vampiric plant impaled inside a body to soak up the blood. If the flower then blossoms, it’s safe to eat and interpreted as the Gods accepting their offering. This technique is called Gupna, and it seems it may be extremely useful for their journey ahead.

When Emma retunes to the cave, the orphans comment that she seems to be a little different but she smiles nonetheless and brushes these concerns aside.

The Episode Review

The Promised Neverland returns and this time delivers an episode with more background surrounding the world and what’s going on. So it seems like there are two worlds but within that, Emma seems to be the key and catalyst to what’s happening. It’s not initially clear whether there’s an ulterior reason for the kids being bred to be smart beyond “brains tasty” but I have a sneaky suspicion it could be to do with this boundary between two worlds.

There’s a suitably ominous and mysterious presence surrounding this and it’ll be intriguing to see what actually lies beyond that and whether this is all a big, elaborate scheme concocted by humans to keep the demons at bay by sacrificing their own.

In fact, the story we heard about the past seems to hint as much, with these sacrificial lambs being bred solely to keep the peace between worlds. Now that Emma, Ray and the others have left the farm, this actually has far wider ramifications. It actually threatens to upset the delicate peace treaty keeping everything ticking by relatively incident free. Could we see an all-out war between demons and humans in the future?

For now though, The Promised Neverland delivers another decent episode which builds up its second season nicely, leaving the door wide open for the future episodes.