I would say this is the strongest episode so far of 91 Days as it essentially revolves around what makes Mafia drama at it’s best. Betrayals, scheming and deceit are what fuels organised crime and what a scheme this was. When looking at the three family leaders I suppose it’s no surprise that Orco is the first to be knocked off. After all the Galassias still hold the reign of the Vanettis and the Vanettis can’t go down until Avilio has his revenge. They used the fact that they have something that Orco wants and I particularly liked how they kept presenting him with risky handouts that turned out to not be genuine. This really caused him to relax his guard and when it came time to drink the real drugged drink he downed it without hesitation. Not to mention Avilio revealing himself to Orco in order to gain his trust. Thus the full plan comes into play.
To lure Orco to the distillery, fool him into thinking Avilio betrayed Nero and drug him with a congratulatory drink. How this was presented is really how any anime should handle a good plan. No inner monologues before or after the act to perfectly spell out what Avilio was thinking and only slight clues alluding to what he intended. One small line about gathering Chickens was enough to figure out where they got the blood to fake Neros death and because we didn’t know the full particulars of the plan we were as in the dark as Orco was. It gave a chance for the audience to be fooled along with him while giving a reward to those who paid close enough attention. Now if only Shounen battle anime could take this to heart and realise that maybe we don’t need someone mentally choreographing an enemy’s moves to understand what’s going on. Maybe in a manga that’s necessary but in a show it’s just a pacing killer.
This may be the first time Fango’s craziness has actually benefited the show as he takes notes from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and feeds the remains of the Orco Head to the family members. Now I see why previous episodes put such focus on how the Orco leader had a obsession with perfecting Lasagna. This does show just how putting this guy in the top position is a really bad idea though as Fango is far too impulsive to be trusted. The test he gave Nero before accepting his deal is evidence enough that he’s far too unpredictable to keep a stable partnership. He’s playing along for now because it benefits him but the moment it suits him to have Nero killed or even if for a moment he just feels like killing him, he will not hesitate.
Plus as Avilio pointed out, Fangos enemies are now their enemies. Knowing Fango, he’s bound to have made a lot of enemies. As far as I am concerned I think Fango is a ticking time bomb ready to self destruct so it’s really a matter of whether this is part of Avilios plan or merely a temporary deal to give him time to plan. Maybe he intends to get Nero involved with someone ready to run the family into the ground and abandon him when things get truly dire. A question I ask when I finish the episode is whether the lasagna Avilio and Nero were eating is the same as the one fed to the family members. Knowing Fango, he would be twisted enough to present them with it without them knowing.
