Visual Prison – Episode 4

Listen, every single episode has been an absolute ride, but I think this one takes the cake so far. I mean, really, this was such a rollercoaster, I’m practically stunned by it. The beginning of the episode was so wholesome, and part of me was foolish enough to believe that it would be the way for the whole thing. But then… then Robin and Ange just had to against Guil’s warning and things really started to go south from there (but in terms of intensity, it definitely went from 0 to 100 really quick).

Honestly, if I could summarize this episode from the beginning to the middle it would be as such:

Me, at the beginning: Waa! A welcoming party for Robin!! This is going to be a cute episode!

Me, at the middle: A GUN????????????!

Really, if you haven’t watched the episode yet, I strongly encourage you to watch it before reading about it. Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for that episode. Heck, even my roommate, who was only listening from across the room had to come over to figure out just… what the heck was going on. Thank you for heeding my warning, now to… unpack that whole episode.

As mentioned, the beginning of the episode really led me astray. Robin decides to put on his own welcoming party with the help of Eve, which made me excited. We know next to nothing about Eve, so I’m glad that we were finally getting an episode dedicated to them. And boy did that deliver. But before we get into that, the party went off with relative success! Robin got them a cute Wizard of Oz  themed cake and was officially welcomed into OZ. Plus they also got Guil to sit down with them! So, it was a win-win all around…. Except for when even disappeared without warning. The party was cut short :c and Robin and Ange receive a warning which they promptly ignore.

When they were running around Harajuku, I fully expected them to run into other vampires, perhaps those that were busking on the streets. What I was not expecting was a vampire hunting others for sport. Not even a vampire hunter. Just some vampire who took joy in hunting his own kind. Poor random kid who was the prey this time around but thank goodness we had a vampire who hunted vampire vampire hunters (I’m pretty sure that statement is correct, but boy was it a doozy to write).  And by that, I mean, hooray for Eve!!! I really enjoyed their song and the animation that came with slaying the other vampire. Even though the moment was stressful, I did think it was quite a bit of fun, even if the lyrics that came through were actually rather sad especially after learning about Eve’s story.

I can’t believe I was still blindsided though after that whole fight sequence. I would have just accepted it if Eve had said, “oh, I hunt the bad vampires but because I have killed vampires people tend to be scared of me”. It would make sense for Robin and Ange to acknowledge that and they were still friends. But I’m actually pleasantly surprised that they decided to flesh it out even more. I loved the transition from hunting vampires as a noble act, to the slow realization that Eve was actually the monster for killing them without second thought. Can you imagine: doing something that you felt was right and just, only to find out that you were worse than what you were killing? That must have been brutal. Now, that being said, I’m sure Eve killed plenty of bad vampires too – afterall they mentioned that some would just hunt humans for fun.  Thankfully, Robin and Ange say that they will still love Eve no matter what, and eventually have them join OZ. Woo!! Two members in one episode.

And with that I expected the episode to end, but it was nice to see the sleep over at the end. Especially the fact that Eve… just lives in an empty room. It was a cute way to end the episode and I’m glad that we were able to sandwich all the intensity of this episode between two really wholesome moments.

But boy, this episode was a lot, and now that I’ve had the chance to just… think about it, I had a lot of fun with it. You never know what to expect with this series, but I would definitely say that I’m having a great time right now.