Episode 16

Episode 16 is the fourth episode of season 2 of The Promised Neverland anime. It aired on January 29, 2021

Synopsis
After hearing Minerva's message, Emma and her friends decide to first build a foundation for their livelihood at the bunker, but were attacked by masked men.

Plot
Emma hears, to her surprise, William Minerva's voice, but her hopes are somewhat dampened by Ray, who explains it to be a recording. In said recording, Minerva explains his intentions into doing this because he saw countless children be sacrificed to demons and couldn't bear it any longer, thus starting a shelter behind their backs for children that became aware of what was really happening. He leaves the rest to the kids, and leaves a map in the pen titled "FUTURE" should they ever want to go to the human side of the world, and the recording ends. Meanwhile, a couple of kids look around the blood-stained cell, finding a book describing one escapee's descent to madness after seeing user after user disappear and never seeing them again. Emma and Ray decide to build a foundation on the shelter for Phil and the others to use once she rescues them from the farm. And so, they start to do everyday activities using the skills they learned in the forest: Foraging, hunting, playing in the desert, growing their own vegetables among other things. In the midst of all that, in a prison, a Grandma and several demons go to a cell, where they meet Isabella, locked up and beaten.

During their stay, Don and Gilda scan the radio and CCTV system for anything unusual, but find everything normal. Soon, the children get a little antsy due to the lack of choices in food for themselves, as they're tired of eating the same thing day after day. After a heated debate, Emma and a few others agree to find some new food to eat.

Back in the forest, the group has not been able to hunt down anything and seem ready to give up. However, one of the kids catches a fish they nicknamed "Goowee" due to its sticky residue, although had difficulty restraining it and eventually it jumps to the bag. The group realizes they can catch them, and proceed to attempt to catch a quarry of them, though most failed miserably.

Back at the shelter, the fish are cooked and mixed with the herbs Gilda picked in the forest. However, everyone was wary of eating it, so they drew straws, and the piano kid was picked. He tries to weasel out of it through any means, including not playing the piano anymore, only to be harshly rejected by the whole group. "Fortunately", so to speak, the kids that discovered the Goowee decide to try it as they were the ones who discovered it, as well as Ray, simply due to being bored. The 3 take a bite and chew and swallow it, whilst Don kept track of their wellbeing and times how long it would take for them to puke it out. 20 minutes pass, then 30, then nearly an hour, when they can't hold it any longer and loudly declare it to be delicious, the rest of the kids dig in, leaving none for Emma, Don, and Gilda.

During graveyard shift, Don and Rossi monitor the CCTV system for anything unusual until dawn, while Emma tucks the young ones in before heading to bed herself. Suddenly, an explosion is heard, downing the power of the shelter and knocking the 2 late-night shifters unconscious. 2 men barge in the shelter with guns and scout the place, looking for the kids, unknown to them that they escaped and hid down the caves, unknown to them that Don and the other kid are still up there. Upstairs, the two come to and made a plan to get out of their predicament, when suddenly one of the two men barge in the room, demanding Don to surrender, which he does, before the kid behind him throws a rock at his head, stumbling him backwards, giving them time to escape. In the foyer, they encounter Emma who guides them to safety after taking care of the other man. Back in the cave, the group runs to escape their captors only for them to drop in from holes above. Emma and Ray push one of them down a deep hole and escape through another route. Once on the surface, they gather the kids and order them to run into the forest, then look at the remains of their shelter one last time before retreating.

However, the forest is blocked by a group of armed soldiers who have all the kids at gunpoint, ready to pull the trigger. They demand Emma and Ray to drop their weapons and surrender. Unbeknownst to them, the demon the kids have encountered a couple of days back was roaming around the area and proceeds to wreak havoc on the standoff, killing all the soldiers and about to stomp on some kids before Ray shoots it in one of the eyes, leaving it writhing in pain. The demon, enraged, chases the kids once more, as they all split up into the darkness of the forest.

Back at the prison, one of the demons held a flower of death and was planning to use it on Isabella after a heated debate with his bosses due to the variety of options they had on her. He decides to make a deal with her: He'll give her freedom and something desirable if she manages to bring back all the children, alive or dead. But only if the operation he sent to capture the kids failed, unknown to him that they indeed perished to a demon. Seizing the chance, Isabella agrees to it, and swears her allegiance to the demons once more.