Oiiii I know what Midnight means here. This show is so dense, and the episodes so interconnected, its difficult to talk about an episode without summarizing the events. Its tricky to break out from that, in that this show is based around plot points, twists and turns, etc. However, this episode was highly enjoyable, and deserves being covered, so here we go.
First, we get the reveal of who Hollywood is, the horrible serial killer who wears elaborate costumes and kills in the manner of a slasher villain.
The answer may surpis most except those who either read spoilers on the light novel or paid veeery close attention to the opening credits. Ruri Hijiribe, the famous idol, is in fact our monster. We get a summary of her story. She was born to a blueblood family, made to be proper, hide away anything herself. However, she found inspiration seeing monsters in the movies, free to do anything they wanted, to be who they wanted. I find this so interesting because of how it relates to the escapism we find with the monstrous people we idolize. People love leather face, Jason, or Freddy, but it sometimes can be hard why. And this interpretation is truly curious and makes me think. This is one of Narita-sans’ shining points; making such diverse, complex, and interesting characters.
I do find it odd though. Mostly for mysteries like this, they hold off on the reveal to a bit later. From The Rail Tracer in Baccano, to the Slasher last season, there’s generally more built up suspense. However, here they just show who it is. I’m not sure if this was in the light novel or no, but its a strange decision to give this reveal so soon.
Anyways, turns out she was (surprise surprise) one of two Shizuo beat the shit out off, only to be found by his brother. He takes her to the one man who can do undercover doctor work and keep a secret…but would never shut up about it to the people he could tell (by the by, we can tell this was before the bubble incident.)
Also, apparently Yuuhei owns a cat. Honestly, with his stoicness, pretty boy looks, money, and a cat, he seems somewhat like a laundry list of appealing character traits, which in some ways is the point. At the very least, it shows he’s not as heartless as he seems.
After Shinra skips out, Yuuhei points out Ruri’s probably the serial killer Hollywood. So she prepares to kill him to keep him from talking.
Yuuhei points out it wouldn’t work, and if she just wants to kill him, he can’t help that, but he wouldn’t die without regrets. Ruri laughs at the idea, since he seems so robotic, how could he have regrets? His response is thus.
There’s so much more to Yuuhei than there seems. He’s actually quite fascinating, being Shizuo’s younger brother, and being so much more subdued to the point of being emotionless to contrast with his brother. And here we see him as he truly is, and he gives a really interesting look in his psyche. He can’t feel great emotions, so he became an actor to experience them through the characters he plays, and thus simulates what it is to be human. He is, as Ruri puts it, a monster trying to be human, while she is a human trying to be a monster. And, in typical Narita-style strangeness, they are a couple.
They make their getaway as apparently the paparazzi are already there, and he helps escort her home. He even asks for Celty to drop her off at her house. While before she felt alone, and misunderstood as a monster, she now sees there’s plenty more like her.
The main issue with this reveal and part on Ruri is that there are some clear missing pieces. Why did she attack some of these people? By what criteria did she do so? While she seemed compelled by a desire to be free, were the people she chose blameless, or part of something greater? I feel there’s far too much left unanswered then this conclusion would give off.
In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not going in the order the episode is, because screw that hopping around bullcrap. I’m going by character parts, from the most major to the lesser aspects of the episode. So, next is Shinra.
Shinra leaves Yuuhei to go to Russia sushi, where he helps tend to the guy who fought Ruri and also got his ass handed to him by Shizuo. He charges a huge fee..which is paid by the Orihara sisters (we’ll get to them) with the money they found…which was Celty’s in the first place. Oh Narita, you love to have these coincidence cycle like a big..cycling thing.
We then get a bit more info as Shinra calls his dad. Apparently, the goon was sent to take Ruri by Nebula, who wanted to run experiments on her because she’s superhuman and they want in on that shit. However, since she lost to Shizuo, they lost interest in her. Apparently fighting Shizuo is part of them determining the viability of their specimens.
After that, he’s ambushed by the paparazzi who are at Yuuhei’s door, and then, heads home to Celty, and we already saw that all play out. Shinra didn’t get much development other than to be one of the many cogs in the great plot machine.
Onto the twins!
We see them pos-finding an unconscious guy and bringing him to Russia sushi. They’re thanked for helping out, but they’re more curious about the money they found and the person known as Celty who it belongs to. So, naturally, they talk to the one person who knows if not everything, everyone, big brother izaya.
Funnily enough, their interaction is the most normal any of them have been. A big brother annoyed and dismissing his younger sisters, who are exasperated at him not saying what he knows and getting mad when he hangs up on him.
Mostly their antics his episode is wanting to learn about the masked rider at first, but then later on, finding out about Yuuhei and Ruri, with typical teenage girl in love with idol results.
Ps. we also see how…van guy reacts to it as well. If you played close attention last season, you’d know he was an insane fan of Ruri…and if you didn’t..here’s a guy crying because someone he never met got with someone else he never met.
But hey, the twins can bounce back right? There are so many fish in the sea, so many possibilitie-
Yeah, in case it wasn’t clear and for those who didn’t see the ova, they’re kind of incestuous. Though…if they’re twins and they literally consider themselves two halves of a whole person..is it incest or masturbation technically? I don’t know but it is a thing, another quirky thing added in. Love in Narita’s works is wieeeerd.
They run into some goons who harass them till Dota-chin and his crew come and help them out. If there’s one thing that Narita has a deep love of, its goons picking a fight against someone hopelessly out of their league and getting their asses handed to them.
Case and point, when Aoba-san meets Mikado and Anri, after some awkward dialogue about how Mikado and Anri aren’t an item, they’re targeted by thugs too.
Apparently they are yellow scarves who recognize him from the finale of season 1, and they have a bone to pick with him. This leads to n interesting way to begin the ned episode.
Did I enjoy epode 3? Yes, even though not much happened other than the Ruri and Yuuhei stuff. Durarara!!, like Baccano!! is almost always more fun to rewatch than watch, but it was still fun. I love the strange mentality Ruri has and the twisted sense her and Yuuhei make. I am still curious on the new guy and what’s going on with him, but that will have to wait till next time. Later!
There was fair evidence to conclude that Ruri isn’t targeting people randomly. There was some stuff amidst the bit where she was talking to herself while flying through the air in the beginning that indicated she’s going after specific people. There’s the fact that she is sickened and even horrified every time she murders someone: she doesn’t want to do it, but clearly feels like she needs to do so anyway. There’s the flashback to her coming home to find her house destroyed and her family killed. There’s the fact that Shingen and some other folks want to kidnap and dissect her because she apparently isn’t entirely human (Shinra’s comment that she heals almost as fast as Celty should be a clue on that: Celty heals within seconds of being injured). There’s the fact that she didn’t want to kill Yuhei because he wasn’t one of her targets.
Disconnected pieces right now, but I think there are enough of them to see that they fit a larger puzzle. Whatever’s going on here, it’s bigger than simply “crazy girl killing people just because.”