When the Devil Beckons to Lupin note , also released in English as "When the Devil Calls to Lupin". Original air date of June 11, 1979.
It is a dark and stormy night; after a fruitless evening spent playing cards, Lupin and Jigen prepare to go to sleep when someone knocks at the door. Jigen finds a mysterious stranger in a cloak and top hat, who handles him a bundle for Lupin, stating that it’s a present from a fan, and leaves. Despite Jigen’s suspicion, the package contains nothing but a pretty doll, which Lupin immediately appreciates (he claims that as a kid he loved playing with dolls) and takes to bed with him, much to Jigen’s frustration. That night, the dolls beckons Lupin and leads him through the night to a deserted circus tent, where he’s greeted by the man from before, a creepy pointy-eared man who calls himself Mephistopheles, like the Devil from Faust, and claims to own Lupin’s soul now. Lupin laughs at him but is soon horrified to find out that the self-proclaimed Devil is holding his heart in his hand, crushing it to make Lupin agonize, and soon finds himself surrounded by hellish puppets until he’s turned into a marionette himself!
Jigen then wakes Lupin from what was apparently only a vivid nightmare, and nothing more. However, a quick look at the television informs them that someone stole a precious gemstone known as the Tear of the Phoenix from a local museum, and apparently all the hints point at Lupin, who doesn’t remember doing that. Fujiko and Goemon soon arrive and reveal that the Tear of the Phoenix was a priceless diamond with a double known as the Tear of the Dragon, which is still kept in another museum. Those two gemstones were once propriety of the Jacob family, a family of wealthy Jewish jewelers who lived in Berlin. Unfortunately, the Nazi party coveted those two diamonds and wasted no time in killing the old couple and apparently their child, in order to get the stones. Fujiko speculates that the next time, Lupin may be forced to steal the second Tear, while Goemon explains that someone is controlling Lupin using the Doll Hypnosis to make him do his bidding. That night, the doll speaks again to Lupin, who rises from his bed and leaves the house through the window as his companions watch everything, with Goemon planning to look for the puppeteer. The museum where the Tear of the Dragon is kept is under strict surveillance by Zenigata, who thinks about which way Lupin will come in… only to be surprised when the thief, forgetting every sense of stealth, just rushes in and makes off with the Tear.
In the woods, he’s approached by Mephistopheles, but soon Jigen, Goemon and Fujiko arrive and surrounds the duo; with Fujiko revealing Mephistopheles’ true identity: Peter Jacob, the son of the old couple and rightful heir of the Tears. Surprised, Peter drops his mask and tries to force them to give him the tears, rambling about his desire to get his revenge on the inhuman Gestapo who took his family away, but his doll is quickly destroyed by Goemon and he’s forced to run away, leaving the Tear of the Dragon behind and swearing revenge. A few days later, Lupin’s group receive an invitation to a special show in Berlin, signed by Mephistopheles. There, in a stadium, they’re surprised to see that the tribunes are full of old men, and even more when they find out that all of them were former Nazi. Mephistopheles arrives and announces the beginning of the hellish show, as his clowns inflate a gigantic, demon-shaped balloon that soon towers over the building, with tanks of explosive gas: Peter’s plan is to blow up that enormous sack of gas with dynamite sticks killing everyone in the process. Thinking that the casualties will be enormous even among the innocents, Lupin and his friends move to evacuate everyone from the stage while the thief confronts Peter himself, who still demands the Tear of the Dragon.
In the following shooting, Lupin disarms Peter but one of the bullets hit the ropes keeping the balloon anchored to the soil, and one of the spikes ends up impaling Peter in the belly. As Lupin gazes in horror, the demon balloon’s spikes lose their grip and the whole thing takes flight, with Peter still clutching the rope. As they look with sadness, two things fall from the balloon: Mephistopheles’ mask and the Tear of the Phoenix. Sometime later, Lupin and Jigen are flying to America to bring the diamonds on Jacob’s family grave as a memento when, much to their surprise, they spot the devil balloon, with Peter’s corpse still hanging, fly by their plane, as Lupin wonders if he too is trying to reach America.
- Alas, Poor Villain: While it's true that Jacob/Mephistopheles' thirst for revenge almost ended up making him a different kind of monstrous than the people who killed his family, he didn't deserve such a painful demise.
- All Germans Are Nazis: In the end, the entire audience in the stadium is made of former Gestapo members. Even remembering the "Just Following Orders" thing, that's quite a lot...
- Artistic License: In the end, Mephistopheles' devil balloon is somehow capable of floating higher than a plane, and seemingly keep up with its speed (that, or it's a very slow plane).
- Asshole Victim: Zigzagged, while murdering former Gestapo members may sounds (and in some cases is) karmic justice, Jacob's plan will ultimately cause much wanton destruction, and in the end Lupin and his friends save the old nazi from death.
- Creepy Doll: Mephistopheles uses one to hypnotize Lupin into doing his bidding.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Jacob getting one of the nails that hold the explosive balloon into his belly and, to presumably avoid getting eviscerated, being forced to hold on onto it and thus be dragged into the sky when the balloon takes off. Thus he either died of bleeding, of high altitude sickness and cold temperature from reaching the stratosphere, or a mix of all of them. Either way, it's not pretty to imagine.
- Darker and Edgier: This is easily one of the creepiest episodes of Part 2, if not of the entire series, due to its combination of disturbing Evil Puppeteer visuals, the villain's Freudian Excuse regarding being a survivor of The Holocaust and his aforementioned gruesome demise.
- Beat Still, My Heart: Mephistopheles shows a beating heart and claims it's Lupin's. The latter doesn't believe him, until he realizes he can't feel his chest beating and Mephistopheles squeezes the heart, inflicting pain onto Lupin.
- Freudian Excuse: Jacob is a villain, for sure, but he has a pretty damn good reason why.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Mephistopheles/Jacob is impaled on the nails holding his own gas-filled balloon he intended to use on his targets.
- Man Bites Man: Played for laughs. When Mephistopheles helps hypnotized Lupin escape from Zenigata's group using the thief's life-sized marionette replica, the Inspector angrily sinks his teeth into its face.
- Manchild: Lupin, when he claims that he always liked playing with dolls and takes the doll he received from the "mysterious fan" to bed with him.
- Motive Rant: Jacob has a minor one when he's confronted by the group and tries to explain his hatred for Nazi. Sadly, it's handled a bit... poorly, and can come off as
Narm. - Nightmare Sequence: Mephistopheles controls Lupin in his sleep through these. In them, the Creepy Doll walks on her own and other creepy marionettes show up, Mephistopheles holds Lupin's beating heart on his hand and squeezes it to inflict pain and prove that his life is in his grasp, and does a rather unsettling Evil Puppeteer stunt on him with a life-sized Lupin marionette.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Nazi took Jacob's parents and gemstones when he was just a baby. His master plan involves recovering the stones and blow up an entire stadium full of elderly and former (though possibly, reformed) Gestapo members.
- So Much for Stealth: Much to Zenigata's surprise, Lupin completely forfeits stealth for his second heist and just run straight at the gem, succeeding in the process.
- That Man Is Dead: Peter Jacob seems to have fully re-imagined himself in his Mephistopheles persona. Is telling that, upon dying, he casts off his own Mephistopheles' mask.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In the stadium, Mephistopheles is seen aided by some grotesque, demon-themed clowns who're nowhere to be seen when Lupin takes action.
