I was thinking more along the lines of a sadist, but sure

Another great episode, it seems like I was right about my initial impression that Misa would represent the crux of this series. Although she did well in providing a twist to the plot, as a major character, she just doesn’t fit in with the likes of Light and L. Though we’re not completely finished with her, seems like we’re mostly back to Light vs L centric plot, which I’m thankful for…This doesn’t, however, weaken my love for Hirano Aya ^^

Episode Rating: 10/10 (It’s more like a 9.9…but 0.5 is a convenient divisor.)

With Misa in jail and Rem threatening death onto Light if he doesn’t rescue her, he cooks up a supposedly brilliant plan. He gives up ownership of Rem’s death note and buries Ryuk’s in the forest, telling him that should he say he discards it, in any context, that’s the sign that he gives up ownership of Ryuk’s death note as well.

He then turns himself in, saying that it’s likely that he is Kira, but is not aware of it on a conscious level. L knows this is bs but has no choice but to take him in on his word. Light’s father also decides to put himself in confinement since he’s not sure what his emotions will lead him to do. Meanwhile, having given up her death note, Misa has lost all memories tied to it, and is acting normally…well, as normally as someone bring tortured in a straight jacket could act.

Dedicated father

So this puts both Kiras in confinement, and to L’s surprise…the killings come to a dead halt. On the surface this acts as certain proof that Light is Kira, however, it’s known that the time of deaths can be controlled so L thought the killings would continue.

After a week of confinement, Light gives up ownership of the death note and his memory is wiped. Being aware of his situation and being in a normal state of mind, he begins to panic and begs L to let him out. After another week of confinement, all the announced criminals that hadn’t died in the past two weeks suddenly die.

Mastermind serial killer

With both Misa and Light convincingly denying their roles as the Kiras and there being evidence to support their claims, L has no idea what to think anymore. This is all, of course, according to Light’s plan, which is becoming more and more brilliant as events continue to unfold.

Even though this must have been 100x better in the manga, this is truly Death Note at its finest.

Thoughts

This was the best episode to date, in my opinion, it didn’t have a lot in terms of action or even much of Light and L’s internal reasoning, but it got me thinking. Most of the episodes so far have laid out the occurrences in a straightforward manner so the viewer just sits back and enjoys the ride.

However, this time around, Light’s plan isn’t meticulously explained and detailed, leaving the viewer in the dark, or in my case, leaving me to theorize. It’s quite obvious that Light isn’t planning on giving up on his plan to create a crime free Utopia, so he wouldn’t give up both death notes without a means of getting them back eventually.

The only logical explanation is that he’s purposefully turned himself in, firstly, to implicate himself as Kira. As the evidence builds up he gives up ownership of the death note, in essence making him “innocent”, it isn’t acting so it seems genuine, even to L. With Misa doing the same thing, this leaves L at a loss as to what to believe, this becomes further worsened when the killings suddenly start up again, with both suspects jailed. This leaves L with literally no line of reasoning by which to convict them.

I’d assume that Light has formulated some insanely intricate puzzle that will eventually lead him back to Ryuk’s death note. Where either he’ll remember all past occurrences by coming in contact with it, or he’s left a detailed report and instructions as to how to continue, I’m betting on the former.

And so the only mystery left is how the criminals that were announced over the two weeks were killed with Light and Misa in jail. The preview showed someone writing in what seemed to be a death note and smiling, so I’ll assume Light sent Rem off with her (?) death note, to make sure the killings continued. Hopefully this has a logical explanation, convenient plot advancements would ruin the very core of Death Note.

In terms of character, Light got some redemption this week, seeing as he’s going out of his way to help Misa (though his primary objective is still in a self interested purpose). He seems to have also gotten a 1up in intelligence, this plan of his is very thorough and thus far seamlessly executed. And L…well, he’s still heartless, but seeing him that confused was hilarious.

Does. Not. Compute.

On that note, both Light and L had sides of them portrayed in this episode that we had previously never seen. Both showing significant signs of weakness and confusion, however in Light’s case it was in his plans whereas that’s not the case with L.

Well, next week looks like it’ll be interesting, very cliffhanger like ending with Light saying something about his father dying with the only proof…or something along those lines. Hopefully this momentum continues to the grand finale (which due to spoilers I already know, bah T_T).

~ Shirukii ~