Re: Episode 12: Daybreak: Beautiful Dream

Matsuri Washuu learns that most of the ghouls have been wiped out and imagines claiming the glory, only for his helicopter to be torn apart by the One-Eyed Owl. Eto then turns on Sasaki as he faces Tsukiyama and Kanae, mocking him and insisting Arima would have dodged her strike with ease. She orders Kanae to attack, driving Sasaki deep into his own subconscious.

There the manifestation of Ken Kaneki taunts him as powerless, but Sasaki chokes the vision and tells it to die. Long-buried memories surface, revealing an abusive mother who beat him whenever he pestered her. Kaneki claims his salvation was to make everyone love him and die in style, yet Sasaki decides it was wrong to want anything, accepts his past, and resolves to stop dreaming. He tears off Kanae's arm as Eto notes that he has awoken.

Reborn, Sasaki lodges a steel bar into Kanae's eye, dodges the attacks with ease, and impales him. Recognizing that Kaneki's memories have returned, Tsukiyama is also run through, a coldness Eto observes. Nearby, Shirazu keeps fighting Noro and forms a new kagune to protect the memory of his sister. Before dying, Noro recalls the infant Eto being left in his care by Kuzen and tells her he will go on ahead as Urie strikes the finishing blow. Shirazu, half his stomach gone, slips away despite the squad's frantic pleas, and his death devastates them.

Sasaki confronts Eto over why she came, learns Yoshimura had wanted him to save her, but declares he sees no reason to spare her. When she reforms her enraged kakuja with extra eyes and mouths, he gains higher ground on the roof, impales her, and bisects her as she confesses her love and licks his eye. He addresses her by her human alias, Sen Takatsuki. Ui's squad then witnesses Sasaki devouring the Owl's kagune, which he explains was needed to replenish himself after heavy wounds.

The episode adapts Re: chapters 53 through 58, with a title that puns on replace. Sasaki throws Tsukiyama from the building, but Kanae leaps to save him, confessing his love and apologizing while Tsukiyama calls him by his real name, Karren, in his final moments. In the aftermath, Touka Kirishima and Renji Yomo rescue the surviving Tsukiyama alongside Chie Hori and Mirumo Tsukiyama, while Aogiri Tree steals Shirazu's body as Furuta watches. Several manga details are cut, including Shirazu's plea about his sister, Kanae's corpse, and Noro's mummified face.