English Dub Review: The Promised Neverland “011145”

Girl, you’re so not together.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Krone continues her pitch to join forces, explaining her motivations to usurp Isabella as the Mom of the house as well as the fact that Krone herself used to be a child of the farm herself. She also mentions that some of the girls have an opportunity to become Moms if they get high test scores and the current Mom’s recommendation, but it also comes with a chip put inside their chests that stops their heart if they try to leave, as well as informs the higher-ups if they’re killed by something else. With all that in mind, she plans to let the kids escape if it makes Isabella look bad enough to be kicked out herself. Both sides of the negotiation have dirt on the other, so there’s less likelihood of snitching, but there’s still not total trust between them just yet.

That night, Norman and Emma go to Krone’s room for further negotiations and questions. They first ask about the device that tracks them but pretends to not know where the tracking devices are. Krone confirms that the devices are in the ear, but also that turning them off signals those tracking them, so they need to be removed. She also gives her own age, 26, and Isabella’s, 31, and that there is minimal security around the plant. She doesn’t know anything about the outside world, but she does know that there are some outside people that are part of this whole scheme. When Norman and Emma don’t ask any further questions, she realizes she already knew about the trackers and that they were testing her.

Ray receives his last gift from Isabella, a Polaroid camera, which he then shows the other older kids when they go over their next plan, namely pretending to be controllable to throw the adults off. He’s also surprised that Krone knows about their plans, but tells Norman and Emma that he’s “handled it”. As they get ready for lunch, she goes snooping in Ray’s room and finds something that turns out to be Isabella’s second weakness, meaning she can go ahead and ship the kids out too. But before she can make use of it, Isabella shows up with a letter from headquarters to inform her that they will be saying goodbye.

OUR TAKE

I’m just going to assume anyone reading this also sees the previews for the next episode that Toonami plays since that pretty much confirms that Krone will be leaving the house next time whereas it was a little ambiguous here. And that really goes to show how much things managed to shift in just the course of one episode. First, a potential but unlikely ally appears, the kids still suspect her (which turns out to be the right call) but still begin thinking of ways to see if she can help, and then she’s taken off the table just as quickly. With all the focus on trying to speculate how she could help or hinder the plan, it at least seemed like she’d be around for another episode or two. I guess I’ll save further discussion of her as a character for next week when she’s sent off, but this was a real roller coaster of a plot.

It’s here that I must admit that I was spoiled a bit in terms of certain twists this season, so I have an idea of what exactly Krone found. But you need to look no further than this episode to figure out that it was likely a trap set up by Ray, who also probably informed Isabella of something incriminating to get Krone kicked out. The reason I think this is because Ray had the least interaction with the other kids this time, mostly spending that time with Isabella, so he most likely has his own plans in motion that Krone could (and probably would) interfere with. It’s times like this that we have to remember that he’s probably not completely on either side, which means he’s only out for himself in this whole plan. What his plans are and how they involve the camera are still unclear, but if things get too tough, I’m guessing he’ll be shaking it like a Polaroid picture out of there.

By the end of the next episode, which will finish up the middle third of the season, it will be back to just Isabella running things again. Almost a return to the status quo, only things have changed and progressed so much that they can’t possibly go back to what they were before. And something tells me that this won’t be the only major departure in the near future to worry about, but we’ll have to see when we get there.