"Lupin Dies Twice" note with the English title of "Lupin the Interred".
An unusual pursuit is taking place in Miami: Lupin and Jigen, on a stolen police car, are been chased by Zenigata and, most surprisingly, Fujiko, who begs Lupin to stop and let Zenigata arrest him, for his own good. Turns out that a mysterious top-class killer, codenamed Puma, is after him. No one has ever seen him and lived, but he has killed countless people in different fashions, yet Lupin seems confident and eventually he and Jigen manage to escape Zenigata. In their current hideout, a house overlooking the sea and a cape with a lighthouse, Lupin and his associates discuss Puma’s methods and how he could aim at his life, with Jigen pointing out that the two possible choices are either a ship in the distance or the lighthouse.
That night, Lupin is seemingly watching from the window when a barrage of bullets from the ship tears him apart… except that it’s a dummy. While Lupin and Jigen fire back, Goemon reaches the ship by sea but only finds an explosive trap that nearly kills him. The following day the trio tries to have lunch, with Lupin forced to stay inside because Puma, still unseen, is sniping at him from a hidden location, ignoring Jigen and Goemon’s challenges. Seemingly fed up, Lupin makes a call for the mortician, commissioning a custom tombstone with the following words engraved on it: “Here lies Lupin the Third, who loved Fujiko Mine”. His friends are surprised and question his intentions, but Lupin states that he’s serious, and means to challenge Puma, but Goemon reveals that the hitman was spying on them with a bug. Soon, Lupin reaches the cliff of the cape, where he can hear Puma, still unseen, taunting him; when the thief asks him to come out and face him, the hitman emerges form the ground behind him and shoots Lupin down, causing him to fall to his death!
At Lupin’s house, his corpse has been placed in the coffin, with Jigen and Goemon unwilling to accept his demise, but when the mortician arrives with the tombstone required by Lupin himself, the two break down into tears and run outside in berserker fury, screaming at Puma to come out and destroying trees and lampposts in rage, unaware that a mysterious man with pointy ears is watching them, grinning. Zenigata and Fujiko too arrive, with the former believing that the corpse is just a wax doll, but upon realizing that his nemesis really is gone for, Zenigata starts crying, while he angrily handcuffs his chief and proceeds to chase after Puma, so that he, along with Goemon and Jigen, is taken into custody. The following day Lupin is buried, while the pointy-eared man from before overlooks the burial and later returns to the hotel room, revealing himself to be Puma, and informing his employer that Lupin is dead, while in jail Zenigata chews out Jigen and Goemon for letting Puma kill their friend. The scene then shifts to Lupin’s tombstone, which reads, “Here Lies Lupin the Third, who loved Fujiko Mine. Just Kidding!”note
Turns out, Lupin came prepared and actually faked his demise with a special drug, with only Fujiko and the mortician aware of the plan to lure out Puma. Soon, a disguised Lupin breaks his friends out of prison and informs them about his plan to take revenge on the killer, mentioning that he realized Puma’s location upon spotting a small ship leaving the exploding one when Goemon boarded it. Later that night, on a yacht not far from the beach, Puma takes his payment from his employer, who asks him if the thief had any last words. Puma says he hadn’t before suddenly shooting him, saying that he can’t let anyone live after seeing his face. As he puts back the pistol, a chime is heard and Lupin appears on the door, shooting the pistol out of Puma’s hand while casually mentioning that the employer was robbed by Lupin in the past and went insane with grudge. The thief then reveals a bundle of lit dynamite he’s holding and quietly bid farewell to Puma as the ship explodes, this time taking the assassin with him, as Lupin escapes to safety.
This Episode contains examples of:
- The Ace: Puma. As mentioned on the police profile, he has no specialty listed, because he's just really good at anything.
- Antagonist in Mourning: Zenigata completely snaps when it looks like Lupin died for real, hysterically sobbing that Lupin was his whole life before laughing maniacally and firing off his gun demanding Puma show himself.
- Crazy-Prepared: Lupin, when it comes to facing down Puma.
- Darker and Edgier: Lupin being mercilessly tracked down by a hitman is the focus of this episode.
- The Dragon: Puma is actually this to a man only known as "Tiger", who had a bone to pick with Lupin.
- It's Personal with the Dragon: Lupin's main target and antagonists through all the episode is Puma, and no-one else.
- Enemy Rising Behind: Puma does this when facing Lupin at the cape, first with only his hand then with the rest of his body, emerging from the dirt like a zombie while gunning him down.
- Fair Cop: Fujiko of all people! She joined the force on the hope that if Lupin were in jail, he'd at least be safe from Puma. And, as Lupin says, the uniform looks good on her... though he'd rather see her in a bikini.
- Faking the Dead: Lupin does this to get Puma to come out.
- Grave Humor: In the dub, the gravestone Lupin commissions has an irreverent rhyme on it: “Here lies poor Lupin, Fujiko-less. At least when she visits, he can look up her dress.”
- Hand Cannon: Puma's signature pistol is a massive, long-barreled beast.
- He Knows Too Much: Puma kills anyone who has seen his face. Including his clients. Apparently it never occurred to him to wear a mask.
- Heroic BSoD: Jigen, Goemon and Zenigata are struck badly with this once they realize that Lupin's dead, complete with Berserker Tears and Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Goemon manages to slice a small bug from Lupin's clothes without cutting said clothes.
- Implacable Man: Puma has a reputation for this, plus the fact that he never leaves witnesses alive. Demonstrated when he continuously showers Lupin's hideout with bullets, spoiling their lunchtime and forcing Lupin to hide inside.
- Pointy Ears: Puma, for some reason, has them, along with seemingly monochromatic eyes.
- Psycho for Hire: Puma is a hitman for hire, no ifs and buts, though his tendency to murder even his employers to hide is identity marks him as a psycho as well.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Lupin's "death": he's shoot multiple times with a large-caliber pistol and falls back from a cliff into the ocean. Thank goodness he came prepared.
- This Cannot Be!: Jigen, Goemon and Zenigata all have trouble accepting that Lupin died. To be fair, they're right...
- True Companions: Lupin's apparent demise in this episode really hammers down how close the gang is (including Zenigata as well).
- Un-person: Due to his modus operandi, next to nothing is known about Puma's identity.
