It’s still confusing, but at least the plot feels like it’s going somewhere.

My thoughts exactly. I don’t really get Beta’s involvement in all of this or what the thorn’s use with regards to Bam will be. Can he make special use of it because he is an irregular? They have said before that Jahad can’t be killed by a regular, perhaps this is why.

As for Novick (I had to look his name up), I think they didn’t want him or Ran on their team in the beginning, but kept them alive due to Bam’s insistence. So, I guess they are now confident enough that Bam is trapped irreversibly that they can dispose of the pieces they kept around to keep him happy.

I also just wanted to note that they had webtoon Daft Punk explain a bunch of rules again this episode that have had absolutely zero impact on the plot. At the end of the day it came down to just fighting, points be damned.