- Genre : Josei, Horror, Mystery, Psychological Thriller
- Studio: J.C.Staff
I have a very heavy responsibility this week. It seems everyone finally gave up on this show at episode 4 so I am now watching it for all you guys. You are welcome! I wonder if anyone will still read these posts? I guess I’ll find you soon!

For those of you who actually are interested in what happens but not interested enough to actually watch the show, I will try to give you a decent episode overview.
You may recall that last week ended with Rachel and Zack trying to figure out how to make it out of a locked room slowly filling with poison. Part of the set up included a single gas mask that they are suppose to be sharing but I noticed that Zack just never put it on. For minutes no one at all was wearing it which seems wasteful. Of course I also noticed that Zack was completely unaffected by the gas while Rachel lay gasping and panting…because figments of people’s imaginations don’t have lungs maybe…

I must say the deus ex machina room escape with the makeshift battery bomb was a bit of a let down. Why bother putting a riddle to solve just to cop out like that?
To no one’s great shock Ray and Zack may it out of the room continue their search of the exist. At this point we took a few minutes to get some backstory from Zack in the form of a convenient nightmare. Zack and Ray decide to rest of a few minutes to give Ray a chance to work the poison out of her system. I doing so they both dose off and we see little Zack in the world’s worst orphanage being made to bury the bodies of fellow orphans.

The short falshback is hardly revolutionary. We already knew Zack had a sob story – Freudian excuse in his past. In fact, by this show’s standards, the whole thing was rather tame. Of course the whole idea of the situation is horrific but we saw no physical abuse or even particularly harsh words being aimed at Zack. For me, the most interesting revelation by far was that little Zack was already completely bandaged up. I’m not entire sure why but that seemed suspicious to me.
After this quick nap, our heroes resume their journey refreshed and ready for anything, except Zack is all pissy and in a bad mood now. They go through their usual little skit of Zack threatening to kill Ray for no real reason, Ray being into the idea and Zack getting creeped out by that. This week, it wasn’t played for laughs. I believe it was meant to show that Zack is startling to unravel, or rather that he’s unraveling even more. It was fairly effective but this repetition could annoy some viewers.

At this point, they stumble into yet another puzzle room with yet another completely over complicated mechanic. An elaborate dollhouse complete with replicas is at one end of the room and Zack has to move the wind up dolls around. One the other end, a series of coordinate type clues are given for Rachel to decipher using a book. Each clue yields three words which helped Rachel figure out what Zack had to do next.
The set up itself is not bad if unexplainably complex but the actual twist is that the dollhouse is a replica of Zack’s childhood orphanage home and the figures are of the caretakers and his younger self. In order to leave the room, Zack is forced to essentially recreate his nightmare with childish play pretend. Considering the man has the emotional and intellectual stability of a jenga tower on a trampoline, it’s amazing the got out at all.

I can’t quite explain why I liked this so much. The scene itself was what you would expect, but the concept and abject cruelty of the set up caught me by surprise. Let’s just say Zack’s mood did not improve!
Of course we are not told how Cathy knew of this particular chapter of Zack’s past in such detail and how the dolls moved without being wound up. I would like them to establish the rules just a bit more clearly. As it stands, I can’t tell if I’m supposed to be shocked or surprised by these things or whether they are par for the course.
I also noticed here that “dolls” seem to come up a lot this episode. Aside from the actual dollhouse, Zack had been referring to Rachel as a doll several times during the episode. There were also those execution witness mannequins last episode so they might simply be associated with Cathy or they could be meant to thematically show the helplessness of Rachel and Zack’s situation. They are being toyed with, made to go through motions by some other power. I might be reaching here.

Somehow, we manage to get yet one last puzzle room and a direct encounter with Catherine Ward. It’s too bad the she is such a poor character because the narrative structure of the last few episodes was interesting to me. I like solving puzzles. Going form one room to the next and trying to escape with your life reminded me of Cube, a movie I quite liked. If they had simply substituted Cathy for a more interesting antagonist, these last two episodes could have been decent.
In any case, that last puzzle was a straight up poison in the drink riddle. Two syringes, one good one bad, the doors will open when both syringes are injected. Ray and Zack go through a bit of banter and Zack finally injects both into himself. I still don’t know if the man *can* die so I was pretty chill about it. To my surprise, Rachel was not. She even showed some real concern and tried to stop Zack. She was alright with letting him fry last episode. I’m not sure what happened to make her change her mind.

It seemed the poison was the make Zack want to kill type….Another Zack almost killing Ray moment (they should change it up a bit) and we got the closing credits.
Although I can’t say this episode blew me away or anything, I did like elements of it. And I was caught off guard by the end as the episode seem to go by way quicker than expected.
So see you guys maybe next week?
You know, Zack’s pretty expressive for someone whose face is covered in bandages. Are they painted on?
Are you sure Jack isn’t a reincarnation of Shishio Makoto?
Still think he’s imaginary…Besides the second batousai had much better emotional control
That would be right – as as soon as everyone ditches a show, it starts to pick up… :-/
They are rewarding the few loyal viewers. Muwahaha!
This is an odd show for me. It’s sort of a comfortable fixture in the week. I care about none of the characters, so I’m oddly distant. I don’t much care about the puzzles. There’s a low-intensity tension during suspense scenes. Watching the show is a little like the proverbial train wreck, except it’s not bad enough to qualify. I like the shows visuals a lot, though its visual quirks are more unintentionally funny in a genre-meta way than effective. And yet it’s nowhere near droppable and even one of the better shows this season. I can’t quite figure out what’s going on.
Yeah, the doll-house scene was quite effective, and I think part of it was Racheal having no idea what was going on, only realising that he gets agitated. An important scene for their relationship to each other, where their different perspectives and lack of communication really stand out.
If they’d died and we’d be following Cathy from now on, I’d not be content with just dropping the show. I’d load it into a cannon and shoot it far, far away. (She annoys me.)
I have been told I’m wrong on this but I think the pacing is great. We get reveals, twists and exposition frequently enough to keep us engaged (if not actually interested) not so often to get us confused and not so slowly as to linger on anything.
I’m following along with your posts to see if I should go back and binge it once it is done. That said, this episode while it sounds like it has its moments doesn’t seem like it has sorted out some of the things that were making this pretty dull to watch. Hopefully the small improvements continue and the show finds its feet.
It’s more of the same but it is getting better. Closer to the first episode than anything else
I’m still watching. I fell behind an episode and was actually very tempted not to bother picking it up but I’ve never dropped and anime and didn’t want to make this my first. I’m very glad I did re-start, I’ve loved Cathy’s traps and I actually found myself invested in the characters in the last two episodes! I found them much more engaging and Ray finally had a bit of humanity again
Agreed – she returned to doll form it the last minutes ut we saw a limmer and it was envigorating
I dropped coverage on my blog but I’m still watching. I probably should drop it but eh, having a brother who also watches anime helps a ton haha
Anyway, I agree on the dollhouse puzzle. That was my favorite part of the episode. It’s some strange foresight on Cathy’s part but the cruelty of it is clever.
I should get ne of those brothers too!
Guess what? I’m still watching this! So you are not the only one left (Yay !) To be honest, I quite liked this episode. It’s not that this series has now turned into the greatest anime ever created, but at least it tried some fun things, and even tried to create a bit of depth to Zack’s character. As for those bandages? Really no idea…even as kid they were a part of him we saw in the flashback. Perhaps they are magical?
Oh well…I guess it doesn’t matter much. Overall though this episode was a step up from what came before…hopefully it can at least keep going in this way 😊
Yay I feel less lonely! I liked it too as I said I’m not crazy abut Cathy nut overall it was decent