Haven't seen tack in a while, I always figured his pic was from the final gamble, but I guess not.
I'm kinda dissatisfied at this ending. For plot purposes, I still think Lalo deserved better (admittedly I didn't care all that much about him mostly 'cause I didn't get enough of his thought processes until the very end.) He had too many decent options. To continue my thought process as to why he didn't strap himself to the chair and die that way, I guess it was to keep his options open as tacitly admitting defeat like that would still be a gamble if he could drag Baku down with him. But once he had him, the fact that he didn't immediately go for Baku's last Bios is kinda disappointing. If you're anchored, how hard could it be to drag someone else under? He had good chances to swipe it, or at least hamper the respirator, in my opinion. I think he still would have failed (i.e. they'd purge Lalo and Baku would make it out alive anyway), but Baku's final move of trying to condemn Lalo would not have gotten any traction, and as the penultimate boss (and ultimate pure antagonist - Hachina is a friend so the conflict is different), I think he should have been spared that Usogui quirk.
@BossCrab I might disagree with your assessment a little bit. Ever since the air-saving strategy was re-proposed, it (not immediately) reminded me of the one strategy that was proposed very early on right after the rules were finalized, of what if someone gained a lead and simply took a breath out of each bios to prevent them from being available to bet? The rules to dictate what happens when someone runs out of bios to bet before all 5 games were up was never really clarified; I can't recall anything aside from "referee judgment" if there was ever a way to prevent this loophole. I should call in
@catx3 to answer that one I guess, but again, the fact that it was allowed at all, perhaps only in reasonable quantity(?) opens up some avenues for trickery that, if not clarified absolutely, is a bit disappointing in a manga such as this.
Also disappointed that I never got to see the dream team (Caracal, Voja, ____, _____) in action. Would have made the 'Baku Gonna Win' principle even more entertaining.
Still a good fight throughout the game itself, is the batch continuing until Baku's perspective is finally revealed?