And we're back !
The second day opens with Grampa and all five servants missing, with five rooms in the mansion (+ the chapel) sealed with an ominous kabalistic sign painted in red on the doors. Gee, I wonder what's inside...
The (remaining) adults break into the parlor through the window, and find Shannon's corpse inside. Well, duh. For reference, Kanon was found in the chapel, Grampa burnt up in the boiler room, and Genji, Kumawasa and Gohda in random other rooms. There's nothing as macabre as the Halloween banquet from last episode, and the corpses are clean and perfectly identifiable (except Grampa).
On the other hand, Ronove has outdone himself with the closed room setup. Each room was closed, and contains both each servant's master key, and the key to another closed room. In the end, the six rooms constitute a perfect closed circle.
Battler's spirit looks completely defeated by all this, but then receives an unexpected pep talk from... The Witch Formerly Known As Beatrice. She's still dead, but is still able to give advice to Battler. She points out that all of the magical happenings are only one explanation for the murders. They could be just an elaborated PowerPoint presentation from Beatrice, and just represent the witch's theory. As long as Battler can present a concurrent rational explanation, he can still win the battle.
And just when typing "The Witch Formerly Known As Beatrice" is getting annoying, she adopts the name of Virgilia. Well, that's convenient. And yet another Dante Shout-Out, I assume.
Anyway, Battler's spirit is back in action ! Virgilia plays Ms. Exposition to sum up the facts (sparing us protracted scenes of all the corpses being found), and Battler ends up pushing that one of the six is the murderer, created the 5 other closed rooms, then locked themselves in the sixth room and accidentally killed themselves. Beatrice has blocked most of the other possibilities (faked deaths, outside influence, suicide, etc.), but is unable to refute this one, and concedes this round.
Back to the island, all twelve remaining people have locked themselves in the guest house : the mansion cannot be safe, what with five people getting killed there. And the guest house is smaller and easier to defend, I guess. Speaking of defense, they've found four shotguns, so it's one for each heir (Krauss, Eva, Rudolf & Rosa). The children (and Nanjo) go upstairs in their rooms, while the adults prepare their guns in the guest house's parlor room. And since they've got nothing better to do, they start brainstorming about the epitaph's riddle.
Well, with Kyrie in the room, this could actually go somewhere, for once. Rosa and Eva also contribute their thoughts, though by the end of the scene they're still far from the answer.
Wait, Eva has somehow sneaked out to the guest house's library, in order to check into a hunch. And not just a hunch : the "Young Eva" spirit is egging her on to stretch her brain and solve the riddle.
Cut to a bit later, and... Eva has somehow solved it ? (Of course the narration won't tell us what the answer actually is.) She's in some sort of underground tunnel, and finds at the end of it a hidden underground room. Very ornate, probably the bedroom of Grampa's lover when she was alive. Also, there are tons of gold right in the middle of it. Wow.
Congratulations, Eva : you've won the witch's challenge. Hope you survive the experience...
On her way back in the tunnel, Eva crosses Rosa's path : the younger sibling has also solved the riddle, but a bit too late. After some posturing with their guns, they reach an agreement : as long as Eva gives Rosa the previously-agreed-upon share of the gold (1/8th for each sibling, with the head - Eva - taking 5/8ths), she'll support her sister and keep quiet about finding the gold (which gives Eva more time to smuggle it out without Krauss noticing).
"Young Eva" has stayed in the room with the gold, and she does not seem to like all this talk of "sharing" the gold. And then, the witch Beatrice appears before her, and congratulates her for solving the riddle. So now, "Young Eva" has won the right to be the new Beatrice, Golden Witch of Rokkenjima. Wait, WHAT ?
The Young Eva is led into some big reception room, where she's dressed in proper witch-y attire, and the various assembled demons all congratulate her. Even the spirit of Battler have joined applaud her for becoming the new Beatrice by using her wits. There's a nicely awkward shot of Battler and the former Beatrice applauding side by side. Eh.
[edited to add] Oh, and Lambdadelta is also there. She claims to have been Young Eva's sponsor to become a witch, which is an interesting claim. No sign of Bernkastel, though. Is she sulking ?
Because it would be too confusing otherwise, the new Witch Formerly Known as Beatrice is given a nickname : Beato (which is much less dignified than Virgilia, eh). It's not actually new (it's been used at various times in previous chapters, usually in derision by Battler), but it's now consistently used in the narration to avoid confusion with EVA-Beatrice. (This nickname is used only in the TIPS, where they insist on still calling Beato "Beatrice". Well, Whatever.)
Back in the real world, Eva is apparently a bit sickly, and goes resting in her room with her husband. Meanwhile, Maria has another of her "episodes", and insists on checking upon the flower in the garden. Rosa eventually relents and goes with her.
(Maria really is a Manipulative Bastard. She starts with her usual annoyingly incoherent cries, and then cheerfully announces she'll be quiet for the remainder of the week-end if her mother accompanies her to the garden. Maria knows very well how to pull Rosa's strings...)
In the garden, Rosa and Maria are attacked by the new Beatrice (whom Rosa recognizes as Eva almost instantly. Humm...). Curb-Stomp Battle time ! The new Beatrice completely massacres Rosa and Maria... several times over. And over. And over. With more cruelty than Beato ever showed. The girl is gifted, and obviously drunk with power.
Elsewhere, Beato and Battler are watching this... and Battler is appalled that Beato is enjoying the show. He calls her on it, and refuses to resume his logic battle with her. He doesn't want to see her face anymore, and tells her to get out. (Ronove is still fine for playing the witch's side in interim, since he's got a lot more class and restraint than her.)
Beato appears completely dejected... and it's her turn to get a pep talk from Virgilia. She likens the situation to the fable of the Sun and the North Wind : both want a traveller to take off his coat, but the North Wind's brutal and direct approach is counter-productive. On the other hand, the Sun patiently warming up the traveler is much more successful. Basically, Beato is mistaken on her goals : she needs to make Battler accept her as a witch. There is no need to make him surrender with a direct assault.
Anyway, Beato goes to tell the new Beatrice that maybe she should calm down a bit, and stop torturing her two victims. Battler's rant has obviously got to her, even though she sounds like a complete hypocrite (as the new Beatrice delightfully points out). Beato points out that the new Beatrice still need to obey the ritual in order to properly become the Endless Golden Witch, and shows her how to do it : pushing Rosa on a fence and strangling Maria (come on, we've all wanted to do it by now). These quick (and final) deaths are much more gentle than what the new Beatrice's been doing (or than Beato used to be doing, for that matter).
Beato starts hoping that this will help her get back into Battler's good graces, but no dice for now : he's still not talking to her. (Ronove is still playing for her, but had to concede early for this round : Battler's theory that Eva did it is much too powerful to try countering now.)
Meanwhile, thinks are looking difficult for the new Beatrice, too : she's facing a group of heavily-armed rational people barricaded in the guest house. Apparently, Beatrice's magic isn't much good when there are many people together. Especially with the low-key nature of the murders up to now not doing much to grow supernatural fear (Take That!, Ronove and Beato !). Interestingly, it's explicitly stated that despite her power, the new Beatrice can still be killed by a gunshot.
But don't worry, she's got a plan...
(I think it's a good think that I've watched till the very end of the episode by now : there are LOTS of twists later that depend on carefully-written setup scenes that I would probably have omitted without the hindsight.)
Next Part : Oh noes ! The new Beatrice is even worse than the former one ! Can anybody stop her ?
