It’s official. Ray is Isabella’s informant. Is it because he looks like Sasuke that he had to be the traitor? Please don’t let Ray turn out to be a piece of shit like Sasuke, that’s the last thing I want.
This episode flew by really quickly. I didn’t think of Ray’s actions too weird or suspicious when I was first watching the episodes but looking back and skimming through the 4 episodes again, it all just clicked to me and things got so obvious making me slap my forehead like “Oh wow, duh!” Though checking his actions and words, like him being against leaving the orphanage so soon and whatnot, there was still something that bothered me and couldn’t figure out. Why did Ray tell Emma and Norman to go to the gate in the first episode? If he really was the traitor, then it seemed like he made Emma and Norman go to the gate on purpose. And that’s exactly what he did. Ray actually does want to escape, and he wants to escape with Emma and Norman and has sort of been a double spy since they found out. I found it really surprising that Ray knew about the orphanage’s secret ever since he was five years old. Like Emma, I thought how alone he must have felt knowing this huge secret. How was a five year old able to cope with this giant ugly secret and keep the same poker face as more and more of his family gets sent off to die and be eaten, and for six more years? It’s really sad. Ray makes it clear that he’s not their enemy, he does want to escape and he does want to help but even so I feel like he’s not on either side. While he’ll help Emma and Norman and give them all the info he has, and he’ll continue to lie to Isabella, I feel like Ray is sort of doing this for himself. I’m not sure how to feel about Ray anymore, and now because of this I can’t really totally believe everything he’s saying. But maybe now on he’ll be totally sincere. Though he has his own conditions for helping Norman, and that’s tricking Emma and ditching the other kids. They’ll just pretend that they’ll escape with all the kids, but leave them behind at the last second. Ray didn’t say why, but even he knows that they’ll all be a hindrance. He probably knows lots of secrets about the outside world, and if they’re going to escape with anyone else, it’d be with Gilda and Don.
The conversation between the two boys was probably the most exciting part of this episode. It was really thrilling and intense, both boys being extremely smart. I’ve talked about how much I liked Ray, but I got to give props to Norman. He’s extremely intuitive and intelligent, that he was able to set Ray up in his trap perfectly. He suspected Ray from the start, ever since Krone arrived. The poor boy was conflicted that he suspected his own friend, and it probably hurt more that he was right. But now he’s even more conflicted as he accepted Ray’s terms of tricking Emma. We all know he likes Emma a lot and would do anything for her, but that inner conflict showed in his nightmare. As smart and brave Norman can be, even he can feel fear.
And it does make me wonder if they even could escape with all the kids, would all the kids even want to? Most of them are really young and they all love Isabella. Try convincing a little kid that their sweet and lovely Mama is evil and sending them out to die. I really don’t think all of them would believe it.
Emma knows the truth about Ray and notes his lie, at least I think she did. That intense gaze of hers was surprising and made me a little uneasy. She showed a side to her that we’ve never seen before, and Ray rubbing his hand showed how hard she squeezed his hand. Later on, the trio gets together with Gilda and Don and Emma tells them that she and Gilda have been observing Isabella more and discover that she always disappears at 8 at night and guess that she must have some sort of secret room she sneaks into. It explains what Emma was doing near the end of the previous episode with her counting her steps. At this piece of news, Don becomes agitated and wants to use whatever device Isabella has in there to save Conny. And this is the biggest issue in their lying to Don about Conny. He’s becoming reckless and impatient to save her even though she’s already dead, and in the end he goes into Isabella’s room to find the hidden door with Gilda in tow. The cliffhanger in the end is exciting but I feel like it might be one of the kids. I feel like maybe Ray or Norman made them leave on purpose. Knowing how Don is, maybe they knew Don would just march into her room and confirm their suspicions of the hidden room. Or, the person on the other side of the door is either Isabella or Krone, who knows?
This episode was really exciting and enthralling. The episode zoomed by so fast for me. The atmosphere now is really different from before. Whereas before I felt like they were really united, now I feel like there’s a little strain among them now. After their little talk, it looks like Norman came to some sort of conclusion and Ray went through many emotions himself. Does he regret his decision? There’s still so many things unsaid, so there’s surely to be some sort of twist again soon.
My take on the scenes right after the 2 boys had their talk, was that Norman slowly realized how exactly Ray figured out how to disable the trackers. While Ray is looking at the drawings the younger kids made, you can see Norman start to sweat then cover his mouth to hide a gasp. How exactly did Ray see the device, like he claims he did? My guess is he cut it out of one child’s ear (I’m a manga reader, and I don’t remember this coming up in the original work).
When Emma realized why Ray was so confident he could disable them, she came to the same conclusion Norman did, but her reaction was different as seen when she grabs Ray’s hand.
Oh that’s right, that’s why Emma asked if he had sacrificed any of the kids which angered her. Makes sense.
I feel like they didn’t tell Don on purpose because they know what he’s like. If he knows the truth, he’ll probably be even more reckless. Norman, Ray and Emma are the oldest, so they know how he behaves and such–same goes for Gilda. They leave things out because they know about their personalities.
I really like the interaction between the three main characters. No unnecessary drama. They still trust each other to the fullest despite Ray being the spy. I think that their bond is so strong that it can’t be broken by mere actions.