Author’s Note: I’m a little late to this party, but better late than never! Life exploded a couple of weeks ago and I was left without a way to blog which means that MidnightDevont was covering this title alone. However now that I’m able to write again, she and I will resume alternating weeks.
Meet Eddie Mason, the resident killer of B4 in this twisted labyrinth. He’s a little kid with a protective shell covering his head, with only holes for his eyes and mouth. He wields a shovel as his weapon, which makes sense because he’s the one who has dug all the graves on his floor.
Eddie claims to have fallen for Rachel and he wants to be the one to kill her, not Zack. How Eddie can claim to love Rachel is beyond me, unless there’s something in Rachel’s backstory that can explain this connection but is simply not known to the viewer yet…?
Eddie and Zack start to fight, but Eddie leaves the chamber not long after the fight begins. Rachel, who has wandered off on her own, finds a secret hallway and a flashlight to guide her way. Following the hall to its end, Rachel comes across a flower and a letter. It reads, “There is nothing to worry about. You and I want the same thing.”
The letter was of course written by Eddie. He shares with Rachel his wish to also end his own life. Eddie wants Rachel to say that she wants him to kill her, but the young girl stubbornly refuses. She can’t turn her back on Zack, who has already laid claim to killing her. Eddie gets more and more frustrated as he tries to persuade Rachel to “just say yes”.
Zack finally figures out where Rachel is, and he breaks through the wall between them with his scythe-turned-makeshift-sledgehammer.
Eddie doesn’t understand why Rachel would choose Zack as the one to kill her instead of him. He tells her that he would have killed her in a more beautiful manner than Zack, whom he describes as an empty and messy killer. Eddie goes on to tell Rachel that he has already built her a beautiful grave.
Rachel becomes very, very fixated on the fact that Zack said he “swore to God” that he would be the one to kill her. Maybe she was a preacher’s daughter, or she grew up in a religious family? Regardless Zack tells her he won’t kill her until she makes herself useful to him, so she’d better listen up, do what he says and try to be less useless.
The two continue forwards and they come across a room with a small “waterfall” next to their walkway. In front of them is a flight of stairs which leads up to a scenic garden area, complete with butterflies and flowers.
Standing on the stairs is Eddie and he’s ready for another fight. As the killer of his floor, he says that Rachel doesn’t get to choose who kills her; Eddie gets to make that decision for her. Naturally he decides that Zack won’t be the one to kill her – he will.
Zack and Eddie start fighting again. The lights flip off, and Zack commands Rachel to go find the switch that turns the lights back on. As
Rachel searches for the switch she hears noises and movement, so she hides behind a giant headstone. In front of the stone is a hole in the ground filled with flowers.
Eddie finds Rachel as she emerges from behind the gravestone. He raises his shovel to kill her, but Rachel allows herself to fall into the hole in the ground. It’s actually a coffin… Rachel’s grave. And it really is beautiful. Eddie built it for Rachel as he was planning to be the one to kill her. However Rachel tricks Eddie by blinding him with her flashlight and he falls into the coffin. Eddie asks her why she would betray him like that, and this is when Zack finally catches up to them. Zack kills Eddie with one swing of his scythe, and knocks the giant headstone over to create a substitute coffin lid.
Rachel explains that she figured out that Eddie was the one controlling the lights himself, not using a switch hidden elsewhere on the floor. Rachel presses another button on Eddie’s handheld switch and the water stops flowing to reveal an elevator.
As they ride up to the next floor, Zack confirms for Rachel that yes she was finally a little bit useful, and that he will kill her when they reach the top floor of this dungeon.
At the very end of the episode after the credits, B3 is shown to resemble a jail. A security camera mounted on the ceiling has likely alerted the killer on the floor to their arrival. Who will Zack and Rachel meet next??
Having missed the first two episodes, this episode was my first formal introduction to the series after reading Midnight’s earlier reviews. I’ve never been a huge horror fan, so I know already that the atmosphere and blood will take some getting used to for me. Unlike Midnight I’m not completely sold yet on Zack as a character but I do really like Rachel. I found while watching this episode that I wanted to learn more about her and her backstory, and about some of the connections between her and the other characters. Did Zack know Rachel before she woke up in the dungeon? How did Eddie know about Zack’s past (“He’s always been like that”)? Why did Eddie claim to love Rachel despite her likely never having met him before she showed up on his floor? I have so many questions and I’m definitely curious enough to want to keep watching.
The (currently ongoing) manga adaptation of Satsuriku added some (IIRC) source-creator approved backstory for Danny and Eddie that covered their pasts and motivations for killing.
A very brief part of Danny’s backstory was shown in Ep 1, but none of Eddie’s was shown; unlike the manga which gave the details in full for both. I’m not sure if the anime intends to incorporate this manga content for later episodes (perhaps for the final internet-only episodes?)
I suggest you read the manga because it follows more of the original game, and it also includes the backstory of the characters Danny, Eddie, and Cathy. Zack and Ray’s characters are also explored a bit more in a way. There is also a canon manga prequel that tells before the floor residents come into the building.