A Dad calls out to his young daughter Sachiko that dinner is ready. When Sachiko comes for the food, she accidentally steps on her dad’s glasses breaking them. She apologizes and her Dad says that he’ll just have to buy new ones. He’s just glad that Sachiko isn’t hurt.
This leads to a trip down to Kagemura Glasses shop for new glasses. The Dad tries on one pair of glasses then asks for Sachiko’s opinion. She says they look good, which is all the dad needs to hear. (I always try on a bunch of glasses before buying). The clerk says that although they are a new store, they are already getting great reviews.
Later the duo go to feed the water fowl at a pond. (DO NOT FEED BIRDS BREAD!!) That’s when a little extra piece on the Dad’s glasses starts to light up. The Dad tries to take off the glasses but can’t seem to get them off.
A creature appears in the lens saying that Shocker requires the Dad’s aid. The figure orders the Dad to report to Shocker. The dad walks like a zombie (or pre-cybermen) away from his daughter despite her cries. When Sachiko tries to stop him to see what’s wrong.. he pushes her to the ground.
Sachiko then runs to a nearby man, the man appears to have fallen asleep with a book across his face. Sachiko tells the man (it’s Hongo) that something is wrong with her dad and she needs help. When Hongo approaches the man, he gets thrown to the side in much the same way Sachiko was.
Hongo tries again to communicate with the dad which starts a bit of a fight. Sachiko runs up to the two demanding that Hongo not be mean to her dad. The dad manages to say that the glasses are calling him before he tosses both Hongo and his daughter aside.
Hongo asks Sachiko if the man was really her father. Sachiko is crying but manages to nod for confirmation. Hongo asks about her mother but it turns out that Sachiko’s mother died last year.
Sachiko’s father meanwhile is walking down a creepy abandoned looking staircase. When he reaches the bottom he hears a creaking sound. Sachiko’s dad turns around to see the monster of this episode laughing at him. His vision gets blurry..
At the shop Sachiko is showing Hitomi a doll. Hitomi tells her that if she pulls the string then the doll will talk. A little distance away, Ruriko and Mr. Tachibana sit at the bar. Mr. Tachibana can’t believe that it’s been 3 days and there is still no sign of Sachiko’s father. Ruriko wonders if it might be one of “those” disappearances.
Mr. Tachibana thinks that it might since 42 people have gone missing over the last two months. (SERIOUSLY?? Wow, Shocker upped their game). Ruriko wonders what could have happened to those people which is when Hongo arrives.
Mr. Tachibana asks if Hongo has discovered anything. Hongo admits that he has figured out that all the missing people have recently bought new glasses from a boutique called Kagemura. Ruriko offers to go investigate the boutique but since Shocker may be involved (oh they definitely are!) Hongo is reluctant to let her go into such danger.
Ruriko points out that none of those that vanished have actually gone missing from the shop. Hongo has to admit that is true. Hongo wishes that he could go with her but unfortunately he has an experiment to run. (Dude.. what experiment could be more important than someone’s life??)
Apparently Hongo’s experiment has to do with the levels of sound that mammals can hear. He’s doing the experiment because the day he fought with Sachiko’s father, he heard a sound that no one else could. Hongo couldn’t identify the sound or its source. However he suddenly remembers that Sachiko’s father was talking about the glasses calling him.. could the sound be coming from his glasses?
After he figures that out, Ruriko calls. She tells Hongo that she just got back from the glasses shop and other than a really creepy clerk.. nothing seemed strange. She also tells him that she bought some new sunglasses. Hongo says that he has to run another experiment before he comes over. He also warns her not to wear the new glasses.
The warning comes too late as she was already wearing the glasses when she called him. The glasses start to take effect when she’s on the phone with Hongo. The Shocker wasp woman shows up in the lens of the glasses telling Ruriko to come to her. Ruriko begs Takeshi to help her as she can’t take the glasses off. She ends up going to down the same creepy staircase.. then screams.
Hongo finally shows up at her apartment to find that Ruriko is gone.. and the glasses case is empty. Hongo the contemplates the idea that the glasses just might hold a special device to send and receive signals. Those signals are then taking control of people and making them disappear.
Hongo realizes that only Shocker would do something so evil on such a broad scale. Then he takes off on his bike (again with no helmet.. GET A HELMET!!!) Hongo waits patiently for the shop to close then follows the creepy clerk to the latest Shocker hideout.
At the Shocker hideout the thug is reporting to the Bee lady that this particular group of humans has been found to be too weak. The Bee woman then orders them to dispose of the weaklings since Shocker has no use for them. Hongo finds the room being gassed, when he tries to do something to help the people, he gets surrounded by Shocker thugs.
Before Hongo can even fight the Shocker thugs, the glasses clerk comes out holding Ruriko.. he then transforms into a Shocker thug. Apparently the clerk was just waiting for Hongo to track him down to the hideout. Shocker then offers an ultimatum, either Hongo lets them inject him with a poison needle or they kill his girlfriend.
Shocker’s plan isn’t to kill Hongo but instead to paralyze him and then complete his cyborg transformation. Hongo can’t think of any other options so he agrees to be jabbed. Although the Shocker people don’t notice that he has something in his hand and when he squeezes it.. he bleeds. It seems to help clear his mind a little bit but he still falls unconscious.
Hongo wakes up chained to a chair. He’s still holding that item so he squishes it again. It might be some sort of electric shock but whatever it is.. it helps him wake up enough to start breaking his chains. Unfortunately, Hongo hears footsteps so he has to feign unconsciousness.
The Shocker thug notices something wrong with the chains right away but Hongo quickly beats up the thug. Hongo then forces the Shocker thug to show him the way to Shocker’s victims. Hongo releases the victims and finds Sachiko’s father! His good luck doesn’t last though because the Bee Woman shows up with more thugs.
A fight breaks out and the Bee woman gets stabbed by Hongo. She is really offended by being stabbed so she pulls a lever which activates a trap door.. and Hongo ends up falling. Hongo’s fall activates his transformation into Kamen Rider, so he just jumps back up out of the hole. After beating up the Bee woman some more, he grabs Sachiko’s father and leaves the building.
When they leave the building they run into Ruriko. She’s concerned about Hongo since she doesn’t know that he’s Kamen Rider. She begs Kamen Rider to go back for Hongo. Kamen Rider reassures her that Hongo is safe and not in the Shocker building anymore.
Once they are safe, Hongo goes to wash the blood off his hand, a moment later and his wound heals completely. Hongo is more convinced than ever that he has to hide his cyborg abilities from Ruriko. After he leaves the bathroom, Sachiko reunites with her father but her father doesn’t respond to her at all.
Hongo realizes that Sachiko’s dad may have had his memory erased.. possibly by the gas. Ruriko says that it’s too cruel and wonders if the father will recover. Hongo says that he should return to normal after a while. However the father won’t remember anything about the warehouse even when he does recover.
Back at the Shocker hideout the Bee woman blames the shop clerk for their failure. The Bee woman kills the clerk but is warned by the mega PA boss that failure won’t be tolerated. The Bee woman says that she let Ruriko go free because she has a plan. (That explains why Ruriko wasn’t wearing the glasses that wouldn’t come off before).
At the cafe, Mr. Tachibana tells Hongo that he doesn’t think that Shocker will let this go. Hongo agrees and wonders what Shocker will do next. That’s when Ruriko comes up to them with a couple cups of hot chocolate. Hongo tosses the drinks which makes Mr. Tachibana wonder what’s wrong with him.
Hongo grabs a nearby fly and puts it in the drink to prove it’s poison (what did the fly ever do to you?? Poor fly RIP). Mr. Tachibana can’t believe that Ruriko tried to kill them but Hongo grabs her to look for a sensor. Sure enough there is one disguised as an earring which is controlling her.
Hongo takes the sensor off of Ruriko and shows it to Mr. Tachibana. He explains that it’s the sound waves from the sensor that were controlling her and since Hongo could hear the strange noise, he was tipped off that something was wrong. Ruriko collapses crying because she almost killed her friends.
Hongo tells Mr. Tachibana that he believes that he will be able to follow the sound to Bee lady without having to actually follow her orders. He tells Mr. Tachibana to look after poor Ruriko then heads off on his bike.
Well he’s still not wearing a helmet while riding his bike but at least he transforms into Kamen Rider pretty quickly so I don’t have to watch him being reckless for long. Kamen Rider then gets ambushed by Bee lady and some Shocker thugs.
Kamen Rider manages to take out the thugs and then starts a fencing match with Bee lady which of course he wins. He tells her that bad people like her have to pay for their crimes.. she basically tells him to shut up. Kamen Rider has no choice but to end her existence with a Rider Kick.
Sometime after the battle, Sachiko’s father thanks Hongo for his help. Ruriko brings Sachiko to meet them and we finally get the happy family reunion we were promised. Ruriko and Hongo both smile as they watch the father and daughter happily reunite.
That’s the end of Kamen Rider: Episode 8!