JeffJeff's Bizarre Adventure Rat cube (Diamond is Unbreakable 08)

Only music reference this week is the Rat's Stand "Ratt" after the heavy metal band of the same name.

Speaking on the flashback scene: there are writers that meticulously plan ideas or a great at retrofitting random seeming insignificant ideas into future ones. Eiichiro Oda (One Piece's writer), for one. Araki does NOT have this instinct. Maybe even the opposite.

The rat episode is inexplicably the best looking episode of the season for some reason

Because Crazy Diamond can reverse damage, protagonists and innocent bystanders can get seriously messed up without lasting consequences (mostly). It means more opportunity for body horror, like melting into meat cubes. The tension comes from Josuke being unable to fix himself. It also becomes an objective for the antagonists to strategically separate the healer from party, like any good RPG player.

If John really thought Araki was going to return to the flashback in part 8, presumably just because the protagonists share the same name, he has only himself to blame. That guy doesn't even have a pompadour!

As for what the flashback means its just a story about how a rough delinquent does a good deed for a stranger and inspires Josuke's golden heart during the time his stand was manifesting from Dios curse