Boruto episode 218 covered the final stages of the fight against Isshiki Otsutsuki. Last we saw everyone, Kawaki hid from Isshiki while tortured by memories of his childhood. Isshiki, still Jigen at that point, abused Kawaki constantly. The motif of a broken vessel is one that Isshiki constantly reified in Kawaki’s life; Isshiki took care to dehumanize Kawaki and remind him that he was nothing more than a means of reincarnation. Obviously, this episode was not going to have as much action as the fight between Baryon mode Naruto and Isshiki. But, where it lacked in hand-to-hand combat it had emotional and character-driven content in droves.
However, little did Isshiki expect to be outsmarted by Kawaki. As Isshiki gloated about his victory, he realized that Kawaki's karma was coming off, and that he had impanted karma on a shadow clone cast by Kawaki.
It was a huge moment for fans as they saw Naruto's favorite student use his iconic move to take down the enemy.
However, their joy was short-lived, as soon after Isshiki's defeat, Momoshiki possessed Boruto's body, and the first thing that he did was to drive a kunai through Sasuke's Rinnegan.
Although many fans knew that Sasuke would be losing the Rinnegan someday, they never expected it to be so soon. As with the manga, Boruto Episode 218 manages to keep the story taut and capture the essence of despair radiated by the chapter that this episode is taken from.
I felt like this portion of Boruto episode 218 could have been a bit less recap and a bit more dialogue directly from Kurama. However, Naruto’s sadness, alongside Kurama’s dry sense of humor and wit, came through well. For the past several episodes, Naruto has very much acted like a serious Hokage. In the face of death, he was confident in himself to the last minute and gave his all against Isshiki. In Kurama’s final moments, his voice nearly jumped an octave and we got to see a juvenile level of sadness more like Naruto in part one than a grown man. This was even more impactful as Naruto wakes up to Boruto reacting to his apparent death just as he just did to Kurama’s real one, reminding him of his remaining responsibilities despite the loss of someone who he was perhaps even closer to than Sasuke.
