Gosick – 07

Everyone in this series is craaaazy.

A terrible disaster befell me recently. The backlight lamp of my laptop burned out over the weekend. I had noticed it was flickering unusually often, and the day of the tragedy it had a reddish hue to it, but I didn’t realize the lamp’s life was in danger until it was too late. The screen of my laptop is now fried and unusable, so I’m currently borrowing an external monitor from one of my dormmates in order to feed my addiction. Oh, and so I can do work and stuff, too… I guess. R.I.P. laptop screen. So I have to inquire about repair fees. This laptop is old and crummy, so I have a feeling that this episode is going to end in me buying a new one. That is… if I can afford to get one!

To top it all off, I’m a bit sick at the moment, but this won’t stop me from writing, even if it’s super late…

We left off last time with the two kids making their way up to the town of Horovitz, where they, along with a few other random visitors, were greeted with a combination of hostility and hospitality.

Getting a little close there, champ.

They talk a bit about Victorique’s mother, clearly making her out to be as guilty as they possibly could despite providing really no evidence to support it, while the other visitors make themselves at home. The first step to clearing her mother’s name is to find out what happened, so Victorique heads over to her mother’s old house.

The first clue is a photograph of Cordelia holding Victorique as a baby, hidden under the floor at Cordelia’s old house. This is unusual because she was banished long before ever having Victorique, and she has supposedly never been back to the village ever since. It seems unlikely that she would return and leave a picture of herself in her old house, so this means that there was someone coming and going from the village keeping track of Cordelia. The time frame Victorique estimates was 10 years ago, about the same time as the war, which throws in more feelings of conspiracy.

Later, they check out the victim’s grave, where some French was written. It supposedly meant “I’m not guilty” or something along those lines, but it seems a little odd to me that Cordelia would have been able to write in that grave before being cast out. Before the two have time to really think about this, the mist wolves attack.

That’s the nun… yeah.

After a narrow escape, they check out the lodging house again. Some poking around comes up with a name, a very suspicious name, Brian Roscoe. More than likely this guy is the one who left the photograph, but other than that, his involvement is a little hazy.

What is this doing in my anime.

Victorique takes a bath. I don’t need this.

At the festival the next day, one of the visitors gets “accidentally” set on fire during one of the ceremonies. I’m surprised they caught it at all – one of the villagers actually actively tries to save the guy.  The rest, however, don’t really care about the death at all, especially the elder.

Kujo randomly finds himself cutting to the front of a very long line to basically get his fortune told by the elder, and he asks the worst possible question: will he get to stay with Victorique forever? The elder gives an ominous, foreshadowing response, which is good, before adding on some crap about their hearts. For fun, read the first 5 words of this paragraph and stop.

The episode ends with the elder pulling a Dick Cheney on one of the remaining visitors. It seems like they’re being picked off one by one.

MORE PICS

Why yes, I am a nun. Can’t you tell by my hair, or boobs?

Urge to kill… rising.

Let’s go hunt us some city folk.

END THOUGHTS

What I liked was that they seem to be including relevant clues now. The photograph of Cordelia in her home, the presence of electricity due to Brian Roscoe, the words on the grave, the random killing of the visitors… they all have to do with something bigger, but what? And what’s the deal with that nun? It’s these kinds of things that make mysteries actually interesting to read or watch, so I think they’re getting it right this time. I won’t be able to really tell my full feelings on the arc until it’s over, but it seems to be headed in the right direction, material-wise.

That being said, even though from a logical standpoint the episode should have been more enjoyable than the last few, I just wasn’t very captured by the episode as a whole while watching it. Despite starting to include proper mystery elements, the episode in general goes by rather slowly without a whole lot of events, and Kujo and Victorique seem a bit aimless most of the time. Of course, the plot still manages to drive forward.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again regarding the relationship between Kujo and Victorique. I absolutely do not want it to progress, and yet they had to include the fortune telling scene where the elder basically tells Kujo they’ll always be together… in their hearts. This is just nasty. It was completely irrelevant to the plot (as far as I can tell) and only served to satiate any delusional Victorique x Kujo fans out there, if they do indeed exist.

Normally I would go through the current clues and try to figure out what’s going on, but I can’t really think clearly right now nor do I feel the mystery is solvable beforehand, after what happened last arc. Setting the clues aside, though, the maid is definitely a pretty suspicious character because she is freaking crazy. I’m guessing she either witnessed or performed the murder that Cordelia was accused of, and the guilt is getting to her head.

PREVIEW

Maid looks awfully evil there. And crazy, don’t forget crazy. Grevil makes an appearance so I’m guessing next episode will be the end of the arc, which would be a shame because I thought it might go longer since it’s dealing with Victorique’s past.