Miken: There’s a cicada outside my room…It’s so annoying. I think I might kill someone soon. >:C

Angel: You have so much anger, dear child. Oh well, I wanted to kill someone today too. Drama. :<

Who dun it?

When the others decide to finally check up on Jessica and Kanon, they’re shocked to find the first pentacle of the moon on her door. Within, they find Jessica’s body in her room — and reveal that only the servants’ master keys and Jessica’s personal key could open her door. In the Meta-World and questions the number of keys, which were not revealed last time. Beatrice then declares in red that: The only master keys, or keys which can open any door, are the ones the servants hold, one per person. That means five in total! Back in the normal world, Rosa continues to analyze the situation — and with Jessica’s key within the room, the only other keys would be with the servants. Genji and Shannon have strong alibis, but Gohda (who followed Kanon and Jessica to the room) and Chiyo (who woke up late) are put into suspicion, but refute this claim. Thus, we come to Kanon, who is currently missing to them, and he his placed under the strongest suspicion. In the Meta-World, Battler doesn’t believe that Kanon had a part in the crime. Once again back to reality, Rosa states that there’s a good chance Kinzo’s gold is related to the murders, and that Kanon is after it. So, without any way to be sure, Rosa then says that they must assume that Kanon was the one who killed Jessica for now.

Miken: Well, that reaction was a little underwhelming compared to finding the bodies in the chapel…then again, that was 6 — and the parents of all the older kids — and this time they only see Jessica. Just like Natsuhi before her, Rosa starts pointing fingers. Naturally, her gaze falls upon the servants since: a) she has the kids around her at all times and b) some of them were unaccounted for during the time frame of the murder. I do sort of like her more now that she’s more deductive and less of a batshit (abusive) mother.

Angel: Their reaction may have been underwhelming because they are still recovering from that morning’s massacre in the chapel, hmm? Their minds are probably numb by now. Eh, nothing much is going on here, or even for the first half of the episode, besides Beatrice being stellar. Wow, I am so bias and I love it. :3

Servants Under Scrutiny

However, Battler says that it’s “no good at all” and declares that it’s too early to assume that Kanon is the culprit and that he might be able to prove his innocence. He asks Gohda to explain his time with Kanon and Jessica before the murder. Gohda explains that Kanon gave Jessica his own master key. So, when Doctor Nanjo checks Jessica’s pocket, they also find Kanon’s key, giving Battler his proof. Without his key, Kanon would be unable to lock the door. Rosa, however, still asks where Kanon has gone and states that he is still under suspicion. Still, with Kanon cleared of actually locking the door, suspicion and the target of her gun goes back to Chiyo and Gohda. However, Battler jumps in and defends them as people too kind to accept gold for murder — and George agrees. Battler then declares that he won’t accept any explanations not backed by proof — and being suspicious does not make anyone guilty, Rather, it makes one innocent.

Miken: Well, there goes the gun pointing…at least Rosa’s a bit more level-headed looking when she points it than Natsuhi. Still, I expect the gun to go off at least once in this arc. I was kind of glad to see Kanon cleared of being the most suspicious by being unable to lock the door, but the servants — including Kanon — are all still under suspicion.

Angel: Rosa looks badass~ It must be her clear cut bangs that make her different than Natsuhi (who was just.. insane). I do not see why anyone would believe that Kanon would kill Jessica, although their relationship is quite subtle, at least here in the anime. I love how the two old servants are under suspicion again.. It seems that their characters have no other use, haha.

Piecing Things Together

Back in the Meta-World, Beatrice applauds Battler’s argument, but points out that he still has to figure out the problem of the one who locked the door. A redux of what she states below — #5 and refusals are requests by Battler, who still wants to turn the chessboard around.

Red
1 – [The] room has no type of hidden door.
2 – The door is the only way in or out.
3 – The only way to lock the door is with Jessica’s key or the keys held by each servant. One per servant.
4 – The window is also locked from the inside.
5 – Kanon was killed in this room.
6 – When the door is locked, it’s impossible to enter or exit through it by any means.
7 – It is also impossible to lock the door from the outside without using a key.

Refusals
1 – Kanon’s corpse is in this room.
2 – The last time the door was locked, it was by one of the servants’ keys.

Battler complains that her whole refusal this is pretty vague — it could be that she truly can’t say those words in red or that she’s trying to throw him off. By the time she gives the 6th and 7th red statements, Battler’s starting to get confused, but he still refuses the existence of magic, but he also refuses to believe that someone in the room is the culprit. Beatrice says that he could blame any of the ones with a master key, but he chooses not to, creating this closed room by himself.

Miken: Well, there’s a whole ton of information dumped on us in the span of 5 minutes. At this point, I’m not trying that hard to piece the bits together, but I do think that Battler has his work cut out for him if he still insists on having this battle of wits, considering how he made the situation worse for himself by refusing to believe any of the family members or servants are culprits.

Angel: Battler has cleared Kanon’s suspicion and does not believe that Gohda/Chiyo would commit murder for gold, but this has made his argument bleak. As he is ruling out humans, who else could be the culprit besides Beatrice? Not smart. -_- Also, could Battler just not admit that gray realms and floating red words is not proof that magic exists? He’s so stubborn, wow. XD

Wolves and Sheep

Back in reality again, Battler resigns, saying that while he could prove that Kanon did not lock the door, he cannot pinpoint Jessica’s killer. Also, since we don’t know how the door is locked, the servants are all still in suspicion — even Shannon and Genji. He also apologizes to Rosa, stating he was not trying to oppose her, but trying to stay alive and avenge his parents. Rosa herself admits to being a little rash too and says to put it behind them… Later, at 1:00, they’re eating canned food — since they can’t be sure if poison got mixed into the ingredients. Maria pulls out a book about the Wolves and Sheep puzzle, where two wolves and two sheep board a boat to get to the opposite shore. However, only two can board at a time…and whenever there are more wolves than sheep present, the sheep is eaten [one of the passengers on the boat stays on to pick up another].

Anyways, the servants are sent off to do the dishes and George wants to help, but is asked to stay by Rosa. Nanjo is also asked to leave the room. With all the non-family members out (the “wolves”), Battler quickly analyzes that his aunt is following the story and ensuring that there are no more servants than there are family members present. She believes that the scale of the murders in the chapel means that the servants are in on it together — though not necessarily all of them. George then thinks that if they include Nanjo in the count of “wolves”, the number is 5 wolves to 4 sheep…not a very good ratio, but they’re all still alive. Rosa points out that one or more of the servants could also be a sheep.

Battler then turns the chessboard around — if one of the servants is the culprit, why did they lock the door? Doing so would have surely put them under suspicion. Rosa agrees, saying that she also considered this — that Beatrice was the sole culprit and had locked the door by other means. However, with no duplicate keys, that is impossible. Then, an argument arises between Rosa and George on whether Shannon is a sheep (and in danger) or a wolf. Battler decides to butt in and asks Rosa to prove if she herself is not a wolf either. She states that she can and then points the gun at Battler. She explains that if she wanted all of the Ushiromiya fortune to herself, she would just have to shoot down the kids and blame Beatrice, but she hasn’t done so.

Meanwhile, Maria is gazing at her book, and we see a picture of a single sheep being sent across the river to 4 wolves…

Miken: Sorry for this gigantic section, I was too lazy/unsure of how to split it up without having our commentary sound broken. I vaguely remember the story of the wolves and sheep before, though I can’t really remember the solution anymore. I hate to admit it, but Rosa’s little explanation of her not being a wolf was pretty cool — It’s forceful, but it’s one way to ensure your trustworthiness and also scare the crap out of people. Maria also toned down her “Uuuu~”ing a lot this episode, which will probably make a lot of people happy.

Angel: Woah, this section is big.. And I did nothing to help. I feel so bad.. And I’m the reason why this post is usually late, but for some reason, Miken thinks I have something important to say, lol. ;; This river crossing story is familiar to me, but it was not about wolves and sheep; it was just about getting across a river with two people at a time. Anyway, I like how Rosa makes her point that they can trust her. Point the gun, no time for deep words. Also, I like how a book is all what little Maria needs in order to shut her up. I cannot believe she is reading such a dark book, anyways. It needs moar unicorns.

Humiliating the Dead

Inside the kitchen, the servants are all cleaning/playing chess/cooking/whatever when they hear something against the door. Genji grabs a knife and Gohda approaches, but when he opens the door…Kanon falls all bloody and bruised onto the floor. Nanjo tries to help and has Kanon sent to the servants’ room while Genji tells Gohda to alert Rosa and the others. However, Kanon tells him to wait, claiming that the culprit is Rosa. With this information presented to them, the other servants are quick to believe that Battler and George and in danger.

Shannon then quickly runs downstairs to a storage room and finds something. Back in the Servants’ room, Kanon now speaks with new energy and even sits up, saying that she’ll kill all of them, just like she did with him. When Nanjo expresses concern — Kanon says that the wound is no problem, going so far as to take the bandages off and stick his fingers into the wound.

Shannon then returns, asking if Kanon is really Kanon, she then brings forth a handkerchief used to clean the cobwebs she found earlier. She says that if nothing happens, then he really is Kanon, but if spiders are his natural enemy, then he is not. This provokes Kanon and he quickly does away with Nanjo and Chiyo in one strike. Genji then saves Shannon from Kanon’s next strike and Gohda tackles him and pins him to a wall. When Kanon struggles, Genji throws the knife and Shannon hands him the handkerchief, which Genji presses against Kanon’s wound, causing him to scream in pain and then turns into a stake.

Miken: Even though I’m sure that they remaining servants know that that Kanon wasn’t the one they knew, it’s still open for debate on whether they’ll be wary of Rosa in the upcoming episode(s). Also…even though I was hoping that it wouldn’t come to this, “Kanon” turning on the others was pretty obvious with Beatrice’s proclamation of humiliating the dead in the last episode. Either way, we have two more down this episode, which means less time for Battler to piece things together, but less suspects as well.

Angel: Wut about cobwebs…? But this part is awesome, but I am not sure what Kanon is anymore.. He may just be Beatrice’s puppet and he does not actually have super amazing powers, aw. On the other hand, why couldn’t Beatrice show Battler some goat butlers to prove magic’s existence? GOAT BUTLERS.. Maybe it could be fake, but wow, I still have strange vibes from this and it’s been a week since. Wut.

Conclusions and Ratings

Nanjo not show, but he’s dead now anyways…

Miken: This week’s episode was a bit wordy…so it wasn’t to my tastes all that much. Still, I liked it nonetheless for the new information and buildup it gave us. Beatrice’s clues are really confusing, but I have a feeling Battler will worm his way out again with Phoenix Wright-worthy logic. I also find it weird that I don’t know who I’m rooting for right now. On one side, Beatrice is kickass and “fierce”, while on the other side, I like Battler’s stubbornness and charisma. I guess that’s for the better~

Angel: I agree that this episode, especially the first half about discovering Jessica’s death and whatnot, was wordy, but somehow, this felt better than usual.. Maybe I like this episode because Chiyo and Gohda were slit open so this episode caught my attention. I do not see how Battler will even win this battle. I think it’s clear than I’m on Beato’s side, hooray. I like Battler too, but I love fantasy over logic.. And I like girls over guys… Blondes over redheads.. And this is why I should not review episodes at night when I have not ate dinner yet.. Toodles. NOODLES.

Miken’s Enjoyment Level: 7.7/10
Miken’s Anticipation Level: 8.5/10

Angel’s Enjoyment Level: 8.2/10
Angel’s Anticipation Level: 7.9/10

Next Time: II-V — accept