Dragon Ball Super catapults from the absolute absurdity and surreal impulses of its previous two episodes into what appears to be an extremely dire situation for Goku and his friends. In fact it’s a scenario that’s as dire as they come and it’s a far cry from gag crossovers or baseball games.

A major strength of this installment is how to-the-point it is with its mission. It announces its goal right from the start and then it efficiently follows through with it all, which makes its conclusion all the more brutal in its bluntness. Furthermore, Goku’s execution is just one of several that Hit carries out in this episode.

Even though Hit is familiar with Goku, this is just another day at the job for him. The efficiency and speed at which “Goku Dies!” operates pushes the idea that this episode is more so from Hit’s perspective than it is Goku’s, which creates this feeling of helplessness for the audience.

On the topic of Hit and his home world, I could easily spend a whole lot more time in Universe 6 and even watch an entire episode that’s set over there as a fun detour. This is the closest that the series will get to that, but there’s still a reasonable amount of time spent in Universe 6 and the audience gets to feel a bit like a fish out of (their universe’s) water. Dragon Ball Super doesn’t waste this opportunity and there are plenty of strange-looking creatures and vibrant colors that are thrown at the audience.

“Goku Dies!” works so well because the audience knows how worthy of an adversary Hit is to Goku. The series has allowed the assassin to showcase his skills and intelligence over several episodes and so the reveal that Goku is Hit’s next target has a lot more impact than if this was just some random mercenary.