English Dub Review: Case File nº221: Kabukicho “That Woman’s Pad”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Irene’s possession of the egg USB as gotten the attention of Jack the Ripper, who is threatening her life and already killed someone she cares about. She ends up staying with Sherlock for protection, must to his embarassment, but Jack finds out where she’s staying anyway, eventually cornering her. She’s mortally wounded and taken to the hospital, but Sherlock tells Watson soon after the attack that she has died.

OUR TAKE
…which I TOTALLY buy, guys. Seriously, she’s DEFINITELY going to be killed OFF screen from a sudden attack like that when she just showed up a few episodes ago. Yep, that’s definitely how that works. But for real, I’m not convinced. They certainly knew how to tug at the heart strings by getting her more time to warm up to Sherlock, but I know well enough to spot when I’m being misdirected. If this were real, we’d be giving her one last poignant scene with Sherlock right before shit hit the fan, followed by the attack happening right before anyone else could get there, ending with her dying right in Sherlock’s arms. My guess is that this “death” is going to be a way of luring Jack the Ripper out before cornering him…but we’re only on the ninth episode of twenty four, so this feels pretty premature to be doing that now.

There’s also the subplot of the episode being Fuyuto attempting to ask Maki, one of Mrs. Hudson’s girls. This had been set up in previous episodes but now I guess we’re paying it off. While this at least fits in with the rest of the episode being sort of about male and female characters warming up to each other, it doesn’t really fit in with the overarching plot going on with Jack the Ripper. Fuyuto’s main schtick is that he’s a poser about being serious but he’s basically a softie at heart, which is endearing to be sure, just not very interesting. Also not a great message in how it starts out with Maki basically using him for money before eventually deciding to date him for real. And honestly, it feels like we’ve spent way too much time on him as it is when there are plenty of others in the detective group who could use the spotlight. Thankfully we have plenty of time but I would have liked it to be sooner than later.

But yeah, at least where the actual plot relevant parts are concerned, things are moving along with some interesting progressions and twists, even if this is very likely heading to a big reveal with Irene being absolutely fine, possibly as a result of a plan by Sherlock or even Moriarty. His appearance was definitely suspicious, but he’s proven to be pretty clever and intelligent in the past, so now would be a good time for him to show that off.