English Dub Review: Angels of Death “Try to know everything about Her”

Your worst memories come to life.

Overview:

Zack finds himself trying to solve Rachel’s past.

Our Take:

In a surprising and complete reversal, it’s Zack who comes out as the sympathetic party this time around.

Instead of Rachel navigating the floors and solving the puzzle, this time the choice is in Zack’s hands, which gives a few problems. One, he’s impatient and isn’t a problem solver by nature. Second and most importantly, he’s illiterate. He never learned how to read, and so requires Gray’s help to figure out what to do, because something that’s intuitive to someone else isn’t to him. He’s given an extremely disadvantageous hand, but he’s still trying, and you want to root for him. Zack’s a fun character, even if his core traits are very hit or miss, but it works. Yet despite the many obstacles in his way, Zack is determined to save Rachel, something that Rachel may not want.

Like Cathy’s room where she has the dolls reenacting Zack’s past, the entire floor depicts Rachel’s situation. It’s almost as if she’s a floor master herself, as this doesn’t seem to be something that could just be whipped up on a whim. It’s too elaborate to be one of Gray’s hallucinations, and there aren’t any signs of purple smoke. It has to be real, deadly traps and all, and that Rachel is reacting so terribly to it means that it’s also extremely accurate.

As I’ve said before, we know nothing about what Rachel is like and based on how she’s acting, it can’t be anything good. It’s something she’s desperate to keep hidden, at all costs. We know that her parents died, but did she murder them? Did she witness their deaths? Did she orchestrate them? Regardless of what she’s done, she’s done something-something that she’s sure will taint Zack’s image of her. Considering that Zack is pretty callous when it comes to murder, and only seems shaken by either depersonalization or someone breaking a promise, whatever is locked behind that door must be something really bad.

The episode ends before we can find out the truth, but surely Zack will end up piecing it together next time around. That can only beg the question- will he be rattled? Rachel never showed herself to be a paragon of innocence, but she did show herself to be reliable. Only waiting until next time can tell…