Let’s talk about murders, or in this case let’s talk about a murderer.
Yes that’s right episode six of Persona 4 Golden is the one we’ve all been waiting for, the long awaited Adachi episode. Boy does it not disappoint either! Not only does this episode cover the basis of his social links it gives us an important insight into the series villain like we’ve never seen before.
Like serious detailed insight into his life and how he saw the world, it’s actually rather stunning and a special treat for Adachi fans such as myself. We see him being assigned to the Inaba police station.
His first encounter with Izanami at the gas station and how he is generally treated by the other members of the force as an outsider from Inaba.
How Dojima was one of the only people who was really and truly kind to him from the very beginning.
It covers his first encounter with the Midnight channel, and how he saw miss Yamano on it and probably honestly believed her to be his soul mate. Since, as we all know the rumor goes. He also touches the screen and discovers his power.
The very next day, he finds out about her affair. How much does that have to hurt? Seeing who you now think is your soul mate, to find out that she’s been sleeping with some guy. That has to leave you with the most hollow feeling in the world. He gets assigned to protect her from the media swarming the Amagi inn.
We see him push her in, then we see him staring into the Dojima residence and we can see with ease that he is jealous. He is desperately jealous of Yu. Yu was supposed to be like him, someone who was put in this hick town. Yu should of been someone Adachi could relate to, however, Yu was happy. Yu fit in here, he even took away the place Adachi could call home which was the Dojima residence. It’s almost scary how much you can see into his mindset for the rest of the events just from this one scene. The animation company made a brilliant move with this.
This emptiness, this hollowness. Shows itself even more as we see him kill Saki. He wonders to himself, why isn’t he good enough. He’s not just talking about with the girls, though that might be part of it. He’s musing why he isn’t good enough to work in the big city, why he’s been thrown out here to the boonies. Why Yu could take away Dojima. Why wasn’t he good enough to find a proper place in life.
He picks up the phone after throwing Saki in and listens to a voice message from Dojima inviting him to dinner. His only response is a small, sad laugh. He knows his life is spiraling out of control. The sadness in that laughter, hearing that Dojima wants to have dinner with him after he’s killed two people now.
Oh god, that just doubles the horrid blow when you see the part of his social link where you see the old ladies son. He comments “So it doesn’t have to be me.” that hollow loneliness comes up again, why isn’t he good enough? Now even for this old lady.
He smiles as if it doesn’t honestly bother him but we all know better. Then Yu starts almost strangling him with kindness. As if he’s pitying him. Or i’d assume you could see it as much.
Adachi doesn’t want any of your pity. Also, with your friends and family that love you. He takes all the food that Yu gave him and throws it out. There is so much darkness and anger you can see. Earlier in the episode, Marie tells Yu to stay away from Adachi and Yu goes to talk to him about it. He mentions that doing what you think is right, might not always be the right thing. That it may lead to something worse in the end.
Then we cut forward to just after the incident with Nanako and Dojima being hospitalized and you can see that some part of Adachi has just snapped. In a strange way, Dojima and Nanako were the only family he had as well. He rationalizes that the whole thing is Yu’s fault. That Dojima and Nanako are suffering from his need to play crime avengers.
The last scene, in a hallway only lit by red lights. He walks up behind Yu and whispers in his ear.
“See, I told you.”
This whole episode on a whole was above and beyond my expectations for it. It was a glorious insight of which the likes we’ve never seen before. The game doesn’t even go into this much detail. In ANY of the endings presented to you. It’s chilling to the very core, to see his downfall in such detail. To see the emptiness growing inside of him slowly. Constantly wondering, why he wasn’t good enough.
~Midnight