English Dub Review: Angels of Death “Zack is the only one who can kill me”

Outside of your control.

Overview:

Zack and Rachel advance to confront Cathy.

Our Take:

This episode marks the finale of Cathy’s floor, and it really works. So far, this is the strongest of the floors so far, not just because of Cathy’s manipulations, but because of how Zack and Rachel evolve.

Zack becomes increasingly more unstable as the episode progresses, but not to the point of losing who he is. He is unhinged and a murderer, but he has a strict code that he adheres to. The last episode, we realized that one of the things he desperately hates is manipulation, and being dehumanized outside of his own terms. It’s only natural that he’d despise someone like Cathy, whose prime tactic is extreme manipulation. This defiance extends beyond normal terms, as in his desperation, he decides to stab and nearly eviscerate himself.

However, it turns out this is enough to catch Cathy off guard. Truly, she operates off her own terms and her own preexisting script, and anyone deviating from that isn’t just bothersome, it’s extremely unwelcome. She becomes so furious that she compromises her own safety by stepping outside of her safe zone, bringing herself into the position of being a player instead of merely an overseer. By putting herself in harm’s way, she takes away the only things keeping her safe, and that ends up being her downfall. She is unable to guess that Rachel is also armed, and she doesn’t count on Zack’s tenacity. Cathy goes down and dies defiant, still trying to control things that have become beyond her.

Rachel becomes a lot more than she appears: she isn’t just a helpless girl that happens to be stuck there as a sacrifice, she was brought there for a reason. It’s clear she’s experienced something traumatic, although we don’t know what the details of that is. We don’t know why she was brought to the facility, why she wants to die, and most importantly, why she has a gun on her person at all times. Even though she’s the main character, we know little to nothing about her. In the end, we realize that Zack the killer isn’t the real mystery– it’s Rachel.

They manage to come to an understanding an advance to the next floor, but this isn’t like Zack miraculously surviving electrocution. He’s stabbed his guts out and is now bleeding to death, all while the next floor awaits them. A cliffhanger, for sure.