English Dub Review: Case File nº221: Kabukicho “Looking Back on Saudade”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The rowhouse celebrates Moriarty’s sudden return from prison (apparently due to Moran pulling strings), though Sherlock obviously can only focus on the weirdness surrounding the news that the inmates who have escaped have started killing themselves after committing crimes. He eventually warms up to being part of the fun, with part of it taking place at a batting cage which seems to be covered in odd childish graffiti that the owner, Sasuke, is desperate to erase. It gets blamed on the irregulars since they’re kids, but Sherlock and Moriarty know something’s up and try to investigate, with Moriarty putting up a reward to hook everyone else.

The drawings turn out to be a secret code, with one saying “kill tonight” and another being “meet at the elephant”. But it seems the latter was a trick to get them away so the true culprit, prison escapee Saizo Kumogakure, can confront Sasuke, his old partner in crime, about reuniting. When Sasuke tells him they’re both too old for thieving like they used to, Saizo tries to kill him, but Sherlock, Moriarty, and Watson arrive to stop him. In a last ditch effort, Saizo takes one of the kids hostage, but Moriarty tries to get him to stop, oddly triggering something in him when he calls out Saizo’s name. Saizo screams the same numbers that the guy from the pyramid scheme did, then kills himself just like that guy. But nobody notices because Moriarty saves the kid, become a local legend. But Sherlock begins putting things together.

OUR TAKE

Seems we’re starting to piece together some major pieces to the current mystery here, which is good since we’re starting on the final third of the season. One by one, the prison escapees seem to be killing themselves AFTER committing crimes and, if they’re happening in similar ways to Saizo and the glasses guy, they’re probably saying the same order of numbers before doing so. Finding out what those numbers mean is going to be a big part of this no doubt, though first we’ll probably need to see how the last few of these escapees go down, which will likely be the focus of at least the next few episodes, probably with Albert Trevor being the last to fall.

However, what I think is also worth observing is how Moriarty is involved in this, as it’s clear he’s a bit of a wild card in all of this. His escape turns out to be his father getting him out to get points for the upcoming election, though there’s definitely a link between him and the escaped prisoners. He knew exactly what to say to Saizo in order to get him to kill himself, not to mention he’s been eyeing Sherlock this entire episode, oddly getting more involved in this case and now taking hold of the spotlight to become a local sensation. This will no doubt benefit Moran, but also gives Moriarty some power to as we’ll soon see. He might soon find himself in a position to make waves himself, whether it’s against Albert Trevor or Moran, both people he has plenty of reason to want to kill. And as we know by now, killing is hardly something he’s against if the chips are down.

The series is taking a pretty interesting turn with this new arc, so I quite look forward to seeing where it heads in the remaining seven episodes. I have a feeling we’ll be going towards some major reveals pretty soon which will hopefully not need an asterisk in front of them like the end of the Jack the Ripper mystery did, but we won’t know for sure for quite some time. All in all, this turn is definitely making me glad I’ve stuck with the series this long, so hopefully that faith will be rewarded by the conclusion. But before we get back into something series, next week looks to be a bit of fluff, notably the kind that I will be eager to get through quickly.