English Dub Review: Case File nº221: Kabukicho “The Thread Where We Talk About Yeast”

This thread is the YEAST of Watson’s problems.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

About a month since the last episode’s events, all the detectives have bitterly gone their separate ways and Sherlock is in a daze. Watson has taken to telling his story with them on forums about bread, though with names changed to hide the innocent. It seems Watson is convinced that he’s to blame for both Sherlock’s condition and Moriarty’s death (despite no body being found). He grew up on a tea farm and lived a happy life…until he saw his father cheating. His mother caught him too and they divorced, with his dad blaming him for everything right before he left. Then he ended up eating some of a girl’s lunch to help her get out of class (since apparently his teacher wouldn’t let students leave without them finishing lunch), but that got him punished and the teacher blamed him for “ruining” the class (okay that’s a bit over the top). Then he became a doctor, and a damn good one, so much so that he caught the eye of all the female nurses and patients. The nurses ended up fighting each other and the head doctor blamed Watson (that makes no sense, but whatever). And now there’s Moriarty.

Irene returns from American to help Sherlock out at Mrs. Hudson’s request, so she suggests they go investigate one of Hudson’s girls being kidnapped by one of the escaped prisoners. Just like the rest of them, he killed himself after his name was called and uttered the numbers 8020463840, leading Sherlock to believe that there’s a connection to Moriarty. But he can’t seem to get his mind straight and just ends up parading around town naked. So Irene drags Watson back in but he can’t work up the courage to help, despite Irene’s pleas that he’s the only one who can do anything, but he comes around and realizes he needs Sherlock just as much. Eventually, Sherlock and Irene find the suspect and Watson finds Sherlock…but sees him standing over the corpse of the suspect with a bloody knife.

OUR TAKE
Hey, quick question, WHAT THE FUCK?! Not about the ending, that I have my own questions about, but more Watson’s backstory. If it was supposed to make me feel bad for him, then yeah, I guess, but those scenarios just felt too unbelievable. His dad blaming him for finding him feels plenty overblown but I could at least buy that having his father blame him for ruining the family could really mess up a kid regardless of whether or not it was true, since hearing that from your dad right after finding out he cheated on your mom can be a really traumatic experience. But then the thing with the classroom was just…what? And the thing with the nurses was…why?? Leaving aside that we should have really been learning more about Watson’s backstory at least a dozen episodes ago, but this feels like way too much catch up to establish a complex right after it became relevant. The bakery forum gimmick was…interesting, but I don’t think it really added anything other than the typical kookiness this series has come to be known for.

As for Sherlock, I really don’t know what to make of him right now. Yeah, he’s mentally broken over Moriarty and is looking for any possible indication that he might be alive, made easier to believe thanks to there being no body found. But there are things here and there, as well as Sherlock’s general trickery, that makes me think this is likely an act of some sort, leading to some big reveal in either the next or the last episode. In which case…where’s the actual tension? I don’t see this series ending with Sherlock becoming a murderer (or at least I didn’t even before I had already seen the last two episodes), so this has to be a fake out. But then, for what? To what end? What does this do for any of the characters involved? Well, with only two episodes to go, I supposed we’ll be getting the answer to that sooner rather than later, but I can’t deny that this one was just a mess. Yeah, it serves the purpose of getting Watson off his ass and wanting to help Sherlock again, but in such a needlessly bizarre manner that just makes things distracting when they want to be intriguing or heartwarming. But hey, just a little longer and finally we can put the Winter 2020 season of anime behind us. Not that there’s much to look forward to on that front.