And by nuclear fire be cleansed.
Normally you’d think that adults, compared to kids, will be the ones most in control of their mental faculties and their grip on reality but, as the absurd exchange in the tent shows, everyone can succumb to the pressures of altered realities. Denial is a pretty powerful defense mechanism, and it can even make you deny things that are obviously in front of you. I can’t exactly blame those adults Saya tried to give the talking down too, because it’s a natural defense mechanism to dislike things that are uncomfortable, but these are the sort of denials that get people killed. It’s honestly much, much too late to be in a state of denial when the world has taken a massive shit on itself. No amount of denial is going to drive the undead back into the mouth of hell.
Again, because they are badasses, the main cast or sort of immune to all this denial crap, and realize there are far more important things than trying to deny the undead out of existence. Like finding their parents.
While Takashi has pretty much been the de facto leader of the group since day one, he still finds it odd that people place so much trust in him. So much trust that even within this sanctuary, his allies are still willing to follow him back into the belly of the beast. He himself admits that he has no special fighting ability like Kohta, Rei or Saeko, mental aptitude like Saya and Shizuka or… uh… mascot factor like Alice. He’s just an average guy thrust into the leader role.
But like I said before, it’s because of trust. They trust him enough to make decisions for them and to lead them down the path of survival. He may not be the best but he can do what he must when the need arises. As Saya’s father points out, he has grown to become a fine young man that earned the respect of his peers, even if he is indecisive at times. This indecision can become a problem later on, now that he’s pretty much accepted the leader role, a weakness he needs to overcome before tragedy strikes.
Also he is obviously GAR, as any leader of badasses must be.
Takashi’s down to earth leadership skills again are put into comparison to that of Shido, who returns to show his face as a “survivor” of the chaos that has befallen the world. Enough has already been said about the personality problems that the man so obviously possesses, but none of them so effectively brings his true nature out than Rei’s threat and subsequent refusal to kill him, despite his own prodding that she do so.
And that narcissism right there. Beyond the logic and the entire issue of, you know, asking to die, a true narcissist cannot stand a blow to his ego. A denial of his identity strikes straight into his heart when Rei refuses to kill him. He seems to find glory in tormenting her and asking to die from the hands of a “murderer”, and by denying him even that, she denies the narcissist’s need for ego fuel. The face he makes says it all. She outright defies him. He cannot stand it.
Tainted by the darkness, as GAR-daddy points out, Shido and his cult are thrown back into the undead wasteland to fend for themselves. Perhaps a cruel fate for his brainwashed followers, but for Shido this is karma biting him in the ass. Or should I say, karma in the form of zombies coming to bite him in said ass.