WARNING: The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Season 5, Episode 4, "Make It Happen, Shinso!" now streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation and Hulu.
In Season 5's fourth episode, My Hero Academia highlights Shinso's developed Quirk in action against Class 1-B as the first team fight kicks off. It's a brawl full of twists and turns, but in the end, it's Class 1-A's teamwork and quick thinking that allows them to triumph.
Despite his perceived inexperience, Shinso puts on an impressive display and successfully utilizes both of his new weapons. While the episode shows off Shinso's growth, Class 1-B's dominant start to the match demonstrates their dramatic improvements too -- with Jurota Shishida being the predominant threat to Class 1-A's attempts to win.
A brief flashback shows Shinso giving his Class 1-A team a refresher on his Quirk and explaining his Persona Chords. For his Brainwash Quirk to be effective, Shinso first has to think, "I'm going to brainwash this person," then audibly ask them a question, and if the subject answers, they will become brainwashed. However, he can't use a megaphone or microphone, and he can't ask them to do anything that requires complex thought. As well, a sudden shock can bring a person out of their brainwashed state.
Afterward, the episode picks up where Episode 3 left off, with Shinso having just used his Persona Chords to brainwash the powerful Shishida successfully. However, Shinso's hopes are quickly brought crashing down as Tsuburaba bonks Shishida on the head, bringing the powerful beast hero out of his trance. Shinso attempts to use his Eraserhead-style binding cloths, but Tsuburaba quickly traps him in a box of air, just as he did with Koda. While Shinso's Quirk is powerful, he struggles to keep up with the pace of battle.
Shishida turns his attention to Kaminari and manages to catch him. Kaminari cheerfully electrocutes him, but the resilient Beast Quirk can resist much of the shock, and Shishida tosses his Class 1-A opponent like a rag doll. Thankfully, Kirishima storms into the fray. Kirishima, at this point, has some of the most legitimate experience fighting powerful villains, so it seems likely that he's about to lay down a beating.
Kirishima quickly frees Koda from the airbox he's trapped in, but before he can do the same for Shinso, he is caught and thrown by Shishida. As he plummets back down, he falls right into Shiozaki's vines -- making him the first person captured and out of the contest.
Things aren't looking great for Class 1-A, though fortunately, Asui manages to grab Tsuburaba and successfully threw him in jail. Less fortunately, Shishida retreats with Koda and manages to capture and throw him out of the game as well. As Class 1-A regroups, trying to think about what to do next, Kaminari -- being his usual friendly self -- tells Shinso that he's skilled and likes him even if Shinso doesn't want to make friends. Shinso is embarrassed by the attention, but luckily for him, it doesn't last long. Asui reveals a plan to utilize the mucus that secretes from her skin.
Shishida, Shiozaki and their teammate Rin discuss how best to deal with the remaining members of Class 1-A. Shishida's keen sense of smell notices something odd -- three Asuis heading towards them. As Deku and Mineta recall, what's happening here is that Asui has utilized her rarely-used ability to secrete a stinging mucus. Shinso and Kaminari have rubbed it onto their bodies, and now they smell like her, confusing the otherwise unstoppable Shishida. As well, one of Kaminari's "pointers" that allow him to direct his electricity is still attached to Shishida, who hasn't noticed it.
Shiozaki quickly traps one of the "Asuis" with her vines, and it turns out to be Kaminari. Just like at the Sports Festival, she encloses him with a massive amount of vines to nullify his electrical blast. Kaminari doesn't care, as he only needs a tiny gap in the vines to hit the pointer. He fires off his electrical bolt only for Rin to use his Scales Quirk to blast the pointer away, putting an end to this plan. Rin's voice then tells Shiozaki to reset the vines. As she answers, her team realizes that it wasn't Rin speaking -- it was Shinso.
It turns out that getting captured was part of Kaminari's plan since he knew it would draw much of the attention off of Shinso and Asui. The unselfish idea works well with Asui seizing the opportunity, taking down both the brainwashed Shiozaki and the frustrated Rin. Now, all that's left is Shishida, who immediately takes off after Shinso and chooses to ignore anyone's voice, including his teammates, to avoid being brainwashed.
As Shishida blasts through a hallway of pipes, he reflects on how strong Shinso is already. This time, Shinso successfully uses the binding cloths to pull a pipe down onto Shishida's head. Unfortunately, he's underestimated his opponent, who says, "Villains aren't so weak that they'd be defeated by something like this!" While Shishida looks to finish Shinso off, he continues to ignore Rin's voice behind him. Rin tries to warn his teammate, but Shishida believes it's Shinso's Persona Chords. However, when he hears Rin call him "Apocabeast" -- not his hero name, but one his teammates call him -- he realizes his mistake too late. Asui whips Rin straight into Shishida, knocking them both out and securing a Class 1-A win.
In the end, Shinso was able to make himself useful, but as Deku says, it was Asui and Kaminari's quick thinking that let him shine. Shinso is aware of this too, gently rebuffing Asui's congratulations and letting her know that he needs to step up his game. While it's nice to help out, to be a true Pro Hero, you need to be able to stand on your own. As Class 1-A's victory is made official, Aizawa breathes a sigh of relief. His protege has passed his first test, but his next battle will be against Deku -- who had the luxury of watching Shinso and taking extensive notes.
