What is it going to take to get rid of Doctor Danny? I’ve thought this from episode one, mostly because my largest squick is eye horror and everything from his design to his gimmick has given me the creeps through the entire series. I thought Rachel was a fool to be so trusting of him in the first episode, given a little more context into their prior relationship I find it a little more understandable now.
Still, even after he is shot by Rachel and left for dead. He’s back up again, i’m with Zack on this one. “Maybe he’s the real monster here.”
Anyway, with Danny down and Rachel back to her senses and able to see that Zack is Zack. Zack is not god, but a person she made a promise with. A promise and the trust in that promise is not a connection between someone and god, but a bond between two people. Her desire hasn’t changed, despite knowing the truth now. Despite her different way of thinking.
She knows she can never be forgiven, but she doesn’t want to be anymore. She merely wants to die because she can’t live with the monster she is.
To die though, is to get them out of there. So after a talk with the priest. He tells them the key to getting outside is on his own floor, if they want to get outside, check the stained glass. So they move down to floor B-2 and examine the glass, at the exact same time Zack and Rachel get the idea.
‘Break the glass’
They shatter the stained glass [I sob inside, because stained glass is beautiful and a work of art and shattering it in cases that aren’t life or death is a high crime to me.], well, this is basically a life of death thing. So i’ll let it go. Behind the stained glass is a large staircase, hopefully leading outside.
They begin walking up and as they walk, Rachel remembers walking down a long staircase as she was brought here. So it’s extremely likely they are heading in the right direction.
As they are heading up, two semi-important things happen. First Rachel trips. Zack says she seems more human then she did before, it’s really cute honestly. The second and clearly more important thing is Zack giving his knife to Rachel, not letting her borrow it. Giving it to her. Which shows not only his trust that she will not try to kill him again but letting go of something truly important in his life. I hope it’s with this item that she will finally end Doctor Danny’s life. After this
sirens go off indicating some kind of self-destruct sequence. I mutter softly “What!?” That’s where the episode wraps up.
Now, I didn’t touch too hard on Danny and Gray because I wanted to discuss them here.
First is Danny, who’s body is missing and is seemingly skulking around still. He doesn’t feature at all in the episode, but his presence looms and I appreciate the way he’s seen as a real threat lurking in the shadows. His meer knowledge of the place and the way it’s structured is enough to dissuade Rachel from letting Zack hunt him down to finish him off. Because it’s unlikely that they would be able to find him easily.
Zack is constantly walking ahead of her, making sure to have her step back when the elevator comes up for them thinking that Danny might be inside. Walking out first and checking ahead on floor B-2. The fact that he is still up is a state of real paranoia for them and I like the way that’s shown.
Then there is Gray. He’s very much played the observer role in all of this, even now he doesn’t step in to stop Rachel when she comes to activate the power. He answers her question in return for her answering his own questions. Yet still, he is hiding something.
The way he returns to floor B-2 before Rachel and Zack arrive there, the way he smirks when the emergency protocol system goes off. I can’t help but feel he is still playing towards some kind of important end game, I don’t believe he’s truly merely an observer in all of this. What his game is though, I can’t pretend I know.
I really liked this episode on the whole. I feel like it cemented at last the relationship proper between Zack and Rachel, without any of the delusions she was harboring. I can’t help but agree with him on the idea that she seems more human now as well. Something has changed and yet nothing has changed.
“I am me.”
A complete acceptance of who and what she is. I feel like this is the most i’ve liked and understood her character from the beginning and I enjoy that. With two episodes left, I can only assume next episode will serve as the dramatic escape and then the final episode will wrap everything up. We’ll see how it goes.
Well, according to the novel version, the blood spurting out from Danny when he got stabbed by Zack in episode 1 was mostly fake blood from inside the vest he wore as precaution. So at least it’s a bit understandable how he survived the first time. But yeah, he’s still a monster for able to survive this one attack. And it’s frustrating he could still smile creepily like that.
Too bad they skipped some of the humours, and the way Zack pinned down Ray was different from game and novel, but I still love this! Finally they’re fully reconciled! And now we’re finally going to reach the climax next week! I’m so gonna miss this anime once it’s over (TT_TT)