WARNING: This article contains spoilers for unOrdinary episode 188.
The last chapter of unOrdinary left off with John taking his fellow students by surprise, revealing that he wasn't without powers after all. On the contrary, he literally threw Zeke's friend into the ground and sent a crowd scrambling in fear. Zeke himself is left with the realization, "Those papers weren't a lie after all. He really is Joker!"
It's the culmination of years acting like someone without powers, so that the tragedy of Bostin High School wouldn't be repeated. But what is John's reward? It's being shunned and bullied because he seemingly lacks power, and by extension, a place in Wellston's hierarchy. Slowly, he's driven to return to the heights of his power and establish absolute authority like he did in Bostin.
His ability, aura manipulation, allows him to copy the abilities of others and even combine them to create devastating attacks. It's put on full display as he smashes through Zeke and his allies, stealing Zeke's Phase Shift and using its enhanced speed alongside his own significant combat prowess to take them down. It's the moment where the bullied takes down the bullies, but John's gone too far in that direction. Even when Zeke admits defeat, John doesn't relent. Instead, he tells Zeke of what would be occurring if their positions were swapped: John would be getting beaten continuously, as he did so much in the past. A scowl appears on John's face, and Zeke realizes that this time, he's the one who's powerless in comparison. From there, John brutally throws Zeke around and stops only when Zeke's on the verge of death.
There's a brief flashback to Claire as she calls him out for brutality, asking why John continues to beat others when they're down. John didn't have his answer then, but he has it now: because that brutality is exactly what happened to him when he pretended not to have abilities. His trauma from the word "monster" is brushed aside. "So what if I'm a monster," he thinks. "Everyone is just as f-ked up as I am!"
It's then that John, standing over Zeke's knelt form, announces that the school belongs to him and declares himself king of Wellston. Anyone who dares to cross him will be met with Zeke's fate, he says, as he kicks his defeated opponent one last time. Arlo's troubled, but even the former king can't do anything about it. "John is the strongest. He always has been. And now, you've heard it officially. He's declared himself king." As Arlo leaves a crowd of onlookers, he murmurs, "All hail the new king of Wellston... John."
There's a certain irony that can't be missed: Arlo created what he thought to be the perfect system of hierarchy after Rei's graduation, and that system kept everyone in line. But by the laws of that hierarchy, once John became the king, that system was what drove everyone into a panic. Now the future of Wellston is uncertain as it lies in the most unpredictable and vindicative character we've ever seen in unOrdinary.
John's story fiercely brings historical parallels to the French Revolution of 1789, and in particular, John holds certain parallels to Maximilien Robespierre. John represents the people of lower class, that is, the Third Estate, in a setting ripe for revolution. The title of "King" itself stems from the monarchy one might commonly find in the medieval and early-modern periods, and it's shown many times throughout the series to see how high-tiers relentlessly make the life of low-tiers a living hell. Yet, like how Robespierre was driven by an obsession to hunt down advocates of a monarchial system, John finds himself unable to take his eyes away from the hierarchy that benefits high-tiers. The change in his ideology over the series is stunning: he begins by wishing to help the low-tiers, and is now at a state where he can only focus on taking down the high-tiers. Now, he's established himself as the King of Wellston. The question is clear: what path will he take? Will he begin the Reign of Terror, likes Robespierre did, or will he attempt to establish a new system of equality?
Class warfare and its aftermath is a theme of unOrdinary that has been explored at a surface level, and if history tells us anything, it'll get more complicated from here. Robespierre's Reign of Terror ended when the fearful National Convention voted to arrest him and his allies amidst accusations of conspiracy, and he was executed by guillotine the following day. There's a degree of irony in that Robespierre rose against authoritarian power and yet used that same power to root out monarchists. For John, the decision lies in his hands of whether he wants to follow down that path.