Angels of Death ep 12 – The One Where Zack Learns to Read

• Genre : Josei, Horror, Mystery, Psychological Thriller
• Studio: J.C.Staff

Well well well…. Isn’t this fun. Angels of Death just managed to disprove most of my assumptions yet leave my base theory intact. I gotta say, we’re on something of a roll here. The last few episodes have been pleasantly ambiguous. Now that’s an expression I don’t use much…or ever. Still, I may have no idea what’s going on, but in the interesting, tell me more way, rather than in the, there are too many plot holes for an actual story to exist way.

In a slight role reversal, we spend most of the episode following Zack around the new floor after Rachel collapses. The first thing we are shown are two bodies macabrely stitched up with red string. We have been shown that Rachel is something of a seamstress throughout the series. First with that dead bird in episode one, then later with Zack. So she’s use to stitching living things and not just fabric. She also always uses that same red thread. The scene was obviously there to demonstratively dump an entire bucket of doubt onto Ray’s head, but what exactly is she being accused of.

The first assumption would be that she’s also a killer, but I’m not necessarily sure that that’s the case. There are other, more interesting possibilities.

The scene is obviously traumatic for Rachel, who conveniently faints just in time to have Danny appear out of nowhere and isolate her from Zack, leaving dashing mass murder mummy boy to try to find his way back to her for a change. Zack’s journey was fairly fun to watch, it really did look like a series of in game puzzles to solve. By himself, Zack is more interesting than Rachel, but he’s still a bit too straightforward to be an effective one man show. He gets much better with someone to bounce off of.

Thankfully the false prophet is also mysteriously there and ready with some super confusing exposition dump. Also Episode 12 clip show! This is my lucky day! (I watched this right after Harukana that also featured a clip show)

Grey is spouting some hard to follow lunacy about Gods and Angels and “the rules of this place”. It sounds like a pretty standard crazy bad guy speech but I did manage to get a few things from it. Mostly that unlike most of the characters so far, Grey himself seems much more preoccupied with Zack than with Rachel. She is not the special one, or at least not the only special one, as we have been lead to believe. It seems Zack also stands apart, maybe moreso than Rachel.

While Zack is trying to get away from the chatter and continuing to explore the floor. Rachel and Danny are locked in a room together where they can observe the action via surveillance cameras. I never noticed it quite this much before but Danny has a really nice voice. Really Nice! And one of the best and most unique creepy laughs I’ve heard in a long time. I looked up the actor (Takahiro Sakurai) and on my list of favourites he goes. Just look at that amazing body of work. Cough Miyuki Cough…

Anywho, back to the show.

There is something that Rachel is desperate to keep from Zack. Some dark secret about her past. Something that everyone else (i.e. Danny, Grey from previous conversation I’m going to bet Eddie and Cathy too) seems to know. Again shattering my earlier assumptions, Rachel does in fact remember at least some part of her past. Maybe she got some memories back as she was travelling with Zack or maybe she always remembered something. But this, combined with the fact that she has her own floor, is making her seem more and more like just another resident of this tower, rather than a special outsider.

She also referred to Zack as “pure”, the exact term used by Grey as well. This again seems to point to Zack being “the special” rather than Ray. Although there’s always the possibility that it’s them as a couple that’s the disruptive factor. Grey did say something that could be interpreted that way.

In the last act of the episode. An old newscast informs Zack, and us, that Rachel Gardner’s parents had been found brutally murdered. Overkilled in fact. And their bodies had been stitched together. At the time, a young Rachel (looking exactly as she does now), had also been found in the room, completely despondent but otherwise unharmed. It seems the parents had been dead for a week. There’s also a family portrait with Rachel’s name on it. Remember that, it’ll come in useful later.

Zack need to find a name plate to open a door, a mechanic we had already seen used on Cathy’s floor, and find a nice ornate one with Rachel’s name on it. I have to admit, I had forgotten that Zack can’t read, even though the show did specifically give us this information before. And in a very natural way at that. Good job show, that was very well done foreshadowing. Sorry to have wasted it.

Side note – when did we all agree that music boxes were undeniably creepy?

With the name plate in hand, I figured Zack was all set but since he can’t read, he has no clue if this is what he was looking for. But remember the family portrait! It had both a picture of Rachel and her name written under it. So Zack could compare the two to figure out the name plate was also Rachel’s. He didn’t seem particularly phased by it, mind you. Gotta love that Zack, just steady as he goes.

Yes Angels of Death is piling up yet more questions with precious few answers but there a definite structure here. Something to work with. I still want to know where it goes. I would also venture that these last 2 episodes have been the strongest so far. Hopefully the trend keeps up!

So for various reasons, I couldn’t turn off the subtitles this week, but I think it works out!

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