"Sarracenia is a genus comprising 8 to 11 species of North American pitcher plants, commonly called trumpet pitchers. The genus belongs to the family Sarraceniaceae, which also contain the closely allied genera Darlingtonia and Heliamphora."
- Wikipedia
A young woman is abducted from a greenhouse exhibit by the titular monster, and her very young brother runs and cries to Ruriko, who gets Takeshi involved, and eventually Kamen Rider appears to save the young woman and defeat the vile plant man (not that one). The bulk of the story is really taken up with exploring the young boy's home life, as he lives with his older sister because their parents are dead. The boy learns to be brave and makes a "man's promise" with Takeshi that involves him giving away his favorite model airplane. It's fairly standard Japanese TV of the genre and era, and it carries better than it might because Hiroshi Fujioka, who plays Takeshi Hongo, has an innate warmth that endears you to him. You root for him because of his innate strength and decency.
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| He looks like a plant, we're doing better this time! |
This is the first episode to feel fairly rote, there's no advancement or changes in the overall plot of the series, nor any surprising character developments. Someone stumbles into Shocker's traps, and Takeshi is called upon to save them. Nevertheless, this episode featured some nice touches that do help to remind us of or reinforce the world building that's been going on so far. For one, Shocker abducts the young woman to subject her to the cyborg-ization we've only previously seen Takeshi undergo, and the man they test before her dies from the procedure and is unceremoniously discarded into some sort of chute. That makes the case for Shocker's evil pretty effectively right there, their cyborg process works on only certain individuals, and fails often enough that they have a chute for the dead bodies that inevitably pile up.
Additionally, while we've heard from the narrator that Takeshi Hongo is alone and apart from humanity as a result of being made a cyborg, we've never really seen any evidence of that... until now. While comforting the young boy, and promising to save his sister, he grasps the young boy's hands firmly, and accidentally burns the young boy's hands. Whatever they did to make the effect, it's convincing, and the boy's hands look like he touched a hot stove. Takeshi is heartbroken that he hurt the child, even accidentally, and finally we as an audience have an understanding of the downside of being a durable cyborg who fights for justice.
Kamen Rider: Episode 4 gets a 3/5.
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