Episode 29

"Divine Tree 1 ~The Founder Appears~" is the 29th episode of the Mob Psycho 100 anime adaptation, and 4th episode of the third season.

Synopsis
Mob starts to notice how everyone around him has started acting weird, and the constant common topic seems to be the Divine Tree, and the one who calls itself Psycho Helmet. Teruki gets a gift of homemade cookies that contain a small amount of the mysterious "Divine Tree powder", but he soon finds out its much more sinister "side effect" and who is behind it all. Eventually Mob needs to confront the one responsible for what is happening to the Seasoning City and its people.

Plot
At Salt Middle School, Mob meets Ichi to ask her the reason why she stood him up the day they arranged to meet. She apologizes, stating that the "true" leader of the Psycho Helmet Cult has already appeared, and that Mob shouldn't worry. Mob questions this. Meanwhile, Tome proposes to the Telepathy Club to pray for 5 minutes to the Psycho Helmet everyday, something that disconcerts the club members; the same goes for the members of the Student Council, who puzzles Ritsu and Hikaru.

During one sequence, various residents of the Seasoning City are shown, sampling sweets, foods, desserts, made and supplemented with powders sourced from the Divine Tree.

Teruki complements and eats a cookie made with powder from the tree. Tasting it as he opens his fridge, he states that it tastes nothing but normal, but out of nowhere, the Psycho Helmet appears behind him. Being seemingly controlled, and without turning around, he says that the cookie tasted great and praises the Divine Tree and the leader of it. Teruki then vomits up the cookie, and, stating that the cookie controls people's minds, gets angry and heads to the Divine Tree, where he meets the Psycho Helmet. Both begin to fight, with Teruki questioning the tactics of the leader, and later he manages to identify Dimple as the cause of everything. Teruki starts out with an advantage, but as time passes, he begins to feel tired, while the power of the Psycho Helmet increases more and more.

Toshiki Minegishi, now working at a plant store, is called by his boss to take a break. Before doing so, he manages to see that some of the plants are wilting, but when he tells his boss about it, he keeps insisting him to take a break. Upon doing so, Toshiki sees the Divine Tree's roots coming out of the ground, and manages to understand that the Tree is taking the energy out of the plants. Wanting to remove the root, however, it absorbs Toshiki's energy, causing him to collapse.

Reigen advises Mob to forget about the leadership of the religion, stating that Mob was no good as a leader anyway and proposes to destroy the Divine Tree, because its giant roots are affecting houses, causing people to call Spirits and Such Consultation Office just for that problem. On their way to the tree, Reigen and Mob meet Ritsu and he is brought along with them. Ritsu at first recalls the event that occurred during the Student Council meeting, questioning the Psycho Helmet sect. Later, he shares sweets from the Divine Tree with them because Shinji ended up giving him too many. Reigen and Mob thank him, but both decide to save the candy for later, while Ritsu eats one. Before reaching the tree, Ritsu convinces both of them to go somewhere else first. During the detour, Ritsu keeps quiet and walks faster than Reigen and Mob, which puzzles the latter. Upon arrival, they find the Civic Center of the city, where several people belonging to the sect are gathered. Ritsu and the people around him, controlled, try to convince Mob and Reigen not to destroy the tree and talk, but the attitudes of those people only scare the two and they escape from the place. Despite escaping, they realize that a large part of the population, who are all brainwashed, already know of their intentions to destroy the tree, causing them to escape repeatedly.

Being in a safer place, Reigen then questions if the Psycho Helmet sect is dangerous; Mob claims that at first it wasn't, because they were people who just wanted to have fun in a group, but since the mysterious entity took over, he changed things for the worse, causing them to worship him with deception, claiming that he might be an impostor. Reigen questions Mob's words, saying that if Mob insinuates that he was perhaps the true leader of the sect, to which he rejects. Reigen then states that the sect isn't that bad, stating that every group needs a leader, and that if everyone needs the Divine Tree, it wouldn't be good to take it from them, and he proposes to go back to the office. Mob asks Reigen if he was brainwashed too, to which he replies by saying that this is how it felt to be falsely accused of being controlled. However, when Reigen makes a gesture with his arm and points at Mob, he remembers that it is the same gesture that Ichi, Tome and Ritsu made when they seemed to be controlled, so he decides to go alone towards the tree. Upon arrival, Mob is met by a host of visitors, who call him the "first Psycho Helmet" and cheer him on. Among the visitors applauding Mob are Ichi, the members of the Body Improvement Club, and Tsubomi.

Notes and Trivia
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