Kamen Rider Zi-O Episode 4

[nightjaeger]

I clearly don't understand the rules of the show. And you know what occured to me? The Timejackers should be called TimeJAKQ. :P

I thought I understood the rules in episodes 1 and 2.

1. TimeJAKQ goes back in time and makes Another Rider. The Rider ceases to have ever existed.
2. When the Another Rider is temporarily defeated, the Rider exists again, briefly.
3. When the Rider exists again, it can help Zi-O.
4. With the Rider’s help, Zi-O can go back to when the Another Rider appeared and kill it.
5. Zi-O takes the Rider’s power. The Rider ceases to have ever existed. Zi-O gives the Rider a black RideWatch to give him in the future.

…

But that isn’t what happened with Ex-Aid.

Ex-Aid simultaneously never existed and helped Zi-O physically fight Another Ex-Aid… and the timeline with the sick kid didn’t add up to me… if the "genius surgeon" was telling Zi-O and Tsukuyomi that the boy needed to come to him a year earlier for help with his cardiomyopathy, then whether that happened in 2018 or 2016 was irrelevant – unless the dad became Another Ex-Aid before the kid got sick… which he didn’t… because the TimeJAKQ gave him the Another Ex-Aid powers after the kid got sick and was being taken to hospital.

Can someone not just explain the rules to me, but explain how they worked for both the Build and Ex-Aid arcs?

I really like the special effects; I especially liked the nice touch where the "2016" from the back of Another Ex-Aid became the time caption. I'm also digging how Zi-O just... kinda... sucks at doing the Riders' hissatsu attacks. Oh well - he wins in the end.

Where did Zi-O get the thing he attaches the RideWatches to at home?

I adore Sougo. He's... like... the loveliest Rider ever.

I really like the show, but I'm struggling with the rules. Where's Kobayashi Yasuko when you need her? She'd make it all make sense.