Its safe to say that this series has been building up to this moment for a long time and it’s finally here. The escape has begun and for once Isabella has been put on the defensive. As far as this episode is concerned I feel it was pulled off excellently. Though I do feel that some choices were made that way solely for the sake of drama. The big thing here being that Ray revealed that he never intended to leave the house alive and fully intended to use his suicide by fire to distract Isabella long enough for the other kids to escape. His fatalistic notion seemly born more out of a sense of revenge rather than desire to end his own life though he does mention it as a sort of atonement for all the kids he sacrificed to get to this point. But alas this is not to be as it appears that Norman could really see through Ray’s intent to sacrifice himself and already gave Emma a note to ensure that this didn’t happen. But here’s where my particular gripe with this scene comes into play. For you see while this makes for a good twist, it also puts Emma’s actions into question as she reacted to Ray putting his plan forward as though she was hearing it or the first time. At no point during that conversation did Emma seem like she was ready to jump in as stop him. I must ask, if Emma intended to fake Rays suicide and had kids on standby ready to do so then why did she wait to the point where Ray drops a goddamn match?
In fiction I understand that some leeway must be made in order to accommodate the audience like villains vocalising their plans so that the audience can know of them. Here however it just seems ridiculously out of character that Emma would just stand back, let Ray douse himself in lighter fluid, light a match and drop a lit match before she interjected. Ray gave her plenty of time to do so so you cannot blame this on the usual concept of “Anime time” wherein the scene shown is not relative to the time it actually took place in. Ray laid out his intentions perfectly for a few minutes and not once,not once, did Emma speak up and let him know that she was ready for this. The only reason that could be given for Emma waiting that long is just to give the fake out to the audience and the dramatic flair of Emma catching the match at the last second. I feel that it would be better if Ray moved fast and did all this in a few seconds as we didn’t need him to spell out what he was planning as Norman does so within his letter. At least this scene would make more sense within the context of the story. Indeed this seems to be an ongoing flaw with this series as a whole, that being concessions made to include the audience by having character do illogical things within the context of the world they are in.
I also feel that this series has now demonstrated its unwillingness to kill off it’s main trio. Norman is still unconfirmed to be alive or dead but personally I believe him to be alive especially considering this latest fake out with Ray. These three have officially obtained plot armour so any dangerous situations they encounter won’t have me wondering for a second if they will make it out alive. The other kids of course are up for debate but as far as these three are concerned, I see them as unkillable until proven wrong. For a series that treats life and death as it’s main hook i can say that would be a big detriment to my enjoyment. Other than that I quite liked the music that played when Isabella had been outwitted, quite funky considering the soundtrack has been rather conservative so far. I didn’t really like Isabella going Krone for a bit just to let the audience know what she was thinking as it did seem very out of character for someone so reserved. Having Ray just be pure dumbfounded after the reveal of the true plan was rather comical and it is rather interesting looking back on previous episodes and even seeing signs that other kids were aware of their circumstances. Finally it appears the Chekhov gun to end all Chekhov’s guns has arrived as Phil’s master plan comes into full effect and the masterstoke of three dimensional chess planning of this little smiling demon child.
Funnily enough, I actually thought that Phil might be some kind of 3D chess-playing triple agent, given the way the show kept focusing on him in past episodes. He kept popping up when characters would least expect it, moving far more stealthily than Isabella ever could. And a second spy even younger and more innocent than Ray is just the sort of “anime logic” twist one might expect. Guess he just has quiet footsteps (and really loves his mama).