O_O Matsuda!?

Finally we get to see some more of L’s plans being played out instead of watching the investigation team sit there and talk for 20 minutes (which, while informative, can get sort of boring). Needless to say, I really liked this episode. In addition to seeing L do something other than eat cake; Matsuda, who has been pretty much useless thus far, finally gets some action. Misa love is still on the decline though =\

Episode Rating: 9/10

The episode starts off with Misa shooting a scene for a dorama while Matsuda pretends to be her manager as part of her cover. Misa throws a fit because she doesn’t want to do any kiss scenes now that she’s going out with Light. Matsuda begins to think about his place in the investigation team, how the others are making noticeable contributions while he has little to offer.

Meanwhile, back at headquarters, Watari informs L that someone has contacted Eral Coil demanding to find out L’s true identity. Eral Coil, Danuve and L are recognized as the top detectives on a worldwide scale, however, what no one else knows is that they are merely L’s aliases, he is in fact all three. In addition to providing a sense of competition, this also serves as a safety net, should someone wish to bring down L and contacts one of the other detectives, he’ll know immediately, while still maintaining his facade.

As we cut back to Matsuda, he’s finally had enough, he’s determined to prove that he is an equal member of the investigation team and goes to check out the Yotsuba Group’s head office.

Some quick intel gathering leads Matsuda to the 19th floor of the building, the location of the secret meeting the company holds once a week to decide who to kill. He struggles to hear what they’re talking about, but manages to make out the words “kill” and “Kira”, which is enough to convince him that he’s got the right guys.

However, bad luck strikes as the door swings open and Matsuda spills into the room. Two of the men take him to a room to interrogate him while the other members decide if/how they should kill him. Matsuda passes himself off as Misa’s manager who came to the building to promote her, but the counsel obviously suspects him as a spy.

Alerted by Matsuda’s belt distress signal, L gets to work. He calls Matsuda and subtly assesses his situation and starts working on a plan to get him out. At the same time Misa finishes her work on set and is used as a pawn in the operation to save Matsuda. She goes to visit the Yotsuba group, confirming Matsuda’s alibi, at the same time she brings in her friends to party with the counsel.

But L knows that this alone won’t be able to clear Matsuda, so L tells him that he has to “Die before being killed”. Basically, he has to fake his death. Matsuda heads back to the room and under the guise of being drunk, starts to play around on the balcony. He then purposefully falls off, only to be caught by Light’s father, who then throws a weight off the building as Aiba sprawls on the ground, dressed as Matsuda. All this combined convinces the counsel that Matsuda has died, eliminating their need to kill him.

Despite his rushed actions, Matsuda’s investigation was not in vain, thanks to him, L now has suspects and sends Wedy to bug the building and meeting room. Now all that remains is for L to find out who is Kira so he can bring down the entire group.

Thoughts

Although we no longer have a pure comedic relief character anymore, giving Matsuda some screentime was a good call. Despite being seemingly useless and kind of clumsy, Matsuda’s ability to think on his feet and hold his own under pressure is not below any of the other team members. He quickly thought of the best excuse to buy some time and correctly deciphered L’s messages over the phone, all without appearing too suspicious.

As for L, his senses haven’t dulled even in this period of relative inactivity, he’s still as sharp as ever, to be able to put such a plan in action so fast. I also thought his facade of being the sole person behind the top three detective personalities to be ingenious. It offers perfect coverage of his identity, spreads his potential clients and makes sure that any attacks against him can be quickly identified and taken care of.

Light continues to be a pretty tame presence in this arc, although he supposedly has abilities that can rival L, he’s not as resourceful. He also remains preoccupied with the possibility that he may have been Kira at one time, while this is an important lead to consider (and the truth), it’s holding him back. I want Kira-Light back T_T

And finally, Misa. She’s never been my favourite character, but without her Kira powers, she’s even less likable. The first scene shows that she’s your typical picky and arrogant actress who expects everything to be done according to her will. Also, she retains her infatuation with Light for no apparent reason. I thought that when she lost her memories and the knowledge that Light was Kira, she’d have no reason to continue fawning over him. On that note, why is Light still putting up with her? He only went out with her to use her shinigami eyes, now that he’s lost his memories, shouldn’t he also have lost his incentive to stay with her? The whole relationship is iffy to me, it worked under the premise of Light using Misa and Misa being indebted to Kira, but now it’s a rather useless pairing.

The counsel as a whole is another interesting entity. Brought together by greed, they’re now locked into their positions. With one of them as Kira, no one can leave the group, as shown by Hatori’s attempt, which got him killed. They’re not the brightest bunch though, they haven’t identified their pattern of killing people over the weekend as dangerous, they didn’t consider that if Matsuda was actually a spy that killing him would implicate them…they’re pretty much just blindly killing people, watching their profits skyrocket and hoping no one notices.

Well…I have no idea how this turned into a character evaluation section, but whatever XD Interesting episode, all things considered, hopefully we get out of this arc fast. I want to see the rebirth of Light as Kira and how he reacts, assuming that actually does happen…and if it doesn’t, then all hope is lost D= And in a feeble attempt to avoid being further spoiled, please mark spoilers if you answer this question =P

~ Shirukii ~