The following contains spoilers for Episode 22 of Blue Lock, "Voice," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
With only two weeks left, Blue Lock is right in the middle of its climatic arc. This will be the last match of the season, and at the end, there will be some characters left behind. It can still go either way, especially as Episode 22 showed us this week, with both the White and the Red Teams playing their absolute best and matching one another every step of the way. At the start of "Voice," it looked like Isagi or Rin would continue to be the central focus point - but it didn't stay that way for long.
This week, it was all about Meguru Bachira. Last week, we went so far as to propose that Bachira is the "villain" of Blue Lock, since he has the potential to be Isagi's biggest rival on the pitch. In this final match, though, Bachira has been suspiciously absent and not playing that well. Nagi even brings it up, pointing out that Bachira will not be the one that they choose to move onto the next round with if he keeps playing as he does. And finally, we get to see Bachira's true awakening. But what factors led to this dramatic shift in his play style, and pushed his character forward this week?
Escaping the Past
Bachira is the character we have seen the most flashbacks for in Blue Lock. As a child, he was already a skilled soccer player, and enjoyed playing with the ball even when no one else would play with him. Because of his skill, and his quirky personality, eventually he found himself always playing alone. That's why he developed his "monster," a being that he could always count on to play with him and push him forward. At the start of Blue Lock, he even said that Isagi also had a monster, and that was what first drew them together.
Bachira came to Blue Lock to make friends he could play soccer with - to find other monsters, if you will. And for a while, he was doing exactly that, which was helping him become a great player. But as Rin and Isagi outplayed Bachira, though, he began to realize he would be left behind again. "Voice" reminded Bachira of the less positive parts of his childhood, when he had the monster and no one else with him. If the Red Team loses this game, he knows that Isagi will not choose him anymore - he will choose Rin. And that begins to motivate his transformation.
His Inner Voice
Bachira's flashbacks in Episode 22 are not all negative, though. He also often sees his mother when he has flashbacks, and this time was no different. His mother was always a comfort to him when he had no one else, reassuring him that he wasn't weird, and that he should do whatever makes him happy. This time, too, she inspired him to chase after what she called his "inner voice." Bachira's mother was an artist, and had her own inner voice she listened to when creating her paintings. Bachira is an artist himself, just with a different medium; a soccer ball.
When Bachira begins to listen to his inner voice again, he can take the next step of his transformation. He realizes that all this time playing with the monster has made him reliant on it, and on other people. Instead of pushing himself forward and leaning on his own skills and talent, he has been looking for those things in other people. He has been relying on others to play soccer, and that has held him back. The other players in Blue Lock have been ruthlessly selfish in their own development as strikers, and it's time for Bachira to do the same.
Saying Goodbye
Once Bachira begins to listen to his inner voice, he is able to finally say goodbye to the monster. The other thing that Bachira realizes is that Isagi never had a monster like he did; Isagi was a monster to Bachira, and that was why he wanted to play with him all the time. Bachira has to not only say goodbye to playing with his monster, but he has to say goodbye to playing with Isagi, too. Once he is able to do that, and stop relying on both of them, he is able to shine himself and play the best soccer he has played in the whole series.
Blue Lock has always been about developing ego, and pushing oneself to become the best player no matter what. In the end, there will only be one winner, after all. Bachira has not been a part of that mindset until "Voice," but now he has joined it as well. And that means he can finally play on the same level as players like Isagi and Rin who have been doing that the whole time. He outplays Chigiri, Nagi, and Barou like it's nothing, and ignores his own teammates while selfishly rushing the goal.
Episode 22 ends with the only person standing between Bachira and the game winning shot being Isagi, and that is where it will pick up next week. Now that Bachira has left everything behind that was holding him back, and is listening to his own inner voice, the only person that may be able to truly stand up to him is Isagi. That sets him up to be a great antagonist against Blue Lock's main character, especially with their history of friendship. Bachira has become his own person, and we can't wait to see what happens to him next.