Episode 10: “Your Smile on the Street Corner of Lies…”
SUMMARY: Through her cell phone, Kirihara reports to Kobayashi that they blocked all the possible exits at the airport but they’re still unable to find BK-201. Kobayashi says he already escaped via boat. Apparently, Kobayashi has access to a doll network system (like the one that the Astronomy Bureau has). Shizume notes that despite Kobyashi’s access to it, BK-201 still manages to elude the system. Picking up from the last episode, Suou’s mom (Asako) pulled her car over in shock upon hearing that the child with her is Suou. Asako insists that it’s impossible because Suou died in an explosion 8 years ago. A shocked Suou gets out of the car and runs away, with July following suit, although Mao is left behind in the car.
Suou thinks she needs to go to the aquarium where she has a fond memory of her family being happy. July notices an observation ghost following them through the power lines, and asks it to keep it a secret. Apparently, it’s the Goldilocks twins’ observation ghost. Back in the doll network system, they realize that there are several holes in the network. Meanwhile, Kirihara takes a break from driving around and stops by a vending machine. She notices someone sleeping on the side and sees that it’s July and Suou. She takes them both inside her car. She talks with July casually, which kinda surprises Suou. When Kirihara asks why BK-201 isn’t with them, Suou whines about his confusing behavior. Suou clarifies that she isn’t Shion and admits that it appears that she isn’t Suou either, surprising Kirihara. She treats them with some steamed meat buns and says that the area around the aquarium has been off limits for the past 13 years, saying that Suou may have remembered it wrong. Kirihara shows her the red crane(?) origami that she obtained from the hotel (see episode 5). Suou says that her mother was the one who taught her how to do origami when she was a child.
Over at Asako’s place, Mao remembers that he’s crossed paths with Asako previously. We see a flashback of Mao (in his human form!) from when he was a tourist in Japan. He met Asako by chance then when she was still pregnant. A few years after, when Mao was now part of the Syndicate, he met Asako again while he was spying on Dr. Pavlichenko’s ME research. It was then that the explosion happened, which ruined Mao’s human body so he stayed within a black cat. Kirihara comes over to Asako’s place and asks about Dr. Pavlichenko. It turns out that Doc was part of the Syndicate too. Meanwhile, Hei is interrogating a drugged Youko, asking her about Izanami/Yin’s whereabouts. A worried (and still drugged) Youko insists that Izanami and Izanagi should never meet as it will bring about a huge disaster. Youko says that the old woman(?) has the memory of the future and that she recorded different futures, and that a terrible memory is written in the Mitaka Documents and Izanami/Yin will kill contractors. She keeps saying that she must protect Hazuki. Youko mentions the 18th Research building and that she has to stop “her” and protect Hazuki. Hei tells her that he’ll make sure he stops “her,” which calms Youko down. Hei then leaves the room where Youko is held. Outside the building, Madame Oreille appears and informs Hei that Suou has been taken by Section 3.
Meanwhile, Asako relates to Kirihara that 8 years ago, Doc was doing his ME research when an explosion occurred, killing Suou. She then later found Doc trying to use the ME on Suou. She took Suou’s body away and said she had her cremated, while Shion chose to stay behind with his father. This is why she’s sure that the current Suou is just a copy/clone and that it must be because of Shion’s contract. Suou, who’s listening nearby, runs after hearing all this. Kirihara catches up with her. Suou says that she isn’t as shocked as she is supposed to be, thinks maybe it’s probably because she’s a contractor and a clone. Kirihara thinks it has nothing to do with that, and tells Suou that she can cry if she wants to, asking Suou to come with her and she could guarantee her safety. Just then, Hei appears and attacks Kirihara. She manages to fight him a bit, but Hei is much stronger. He asks why she’s in Section 3, while Kirihara asks where Youko is. Hei almost kills Kirihara, but Suou stops him, saying that though Kirihara captured her and July, she has been kind to them. Kirihara is left behind, unable to ask Hei her questions. We then see a badly mutilated and dead Youko. Hazuki is furious to find Youko in such a state. Hazuki vows to kill BK-201, thinking that it was him who killed Youko.
Suou tells Hei about her being a clone. Hei simply says that Suou is herself, whether she’s a clone or not. She admits that she is confused about her feelings for Hei, and that she probably got jealous over Yin that time when Hei stopped her from shooting (see episode 6). Mao notes that Suou cries a lot for a contractor and Hei admits that even they don’t know much about contractors, adding that he somehow sees himself in Suou, confused about his own identity (or something like that). After the ED, we see an orange moon up in the fake Tokyo sky, Oreille is at a rooftop with the Goldilocks twins, and Yin makes a brief appearance and looks like she’s about to do something worrisome.
~end of episode
IMPRESSION: So we finally learn that Shion’s contract is to create clones (or something to that effect). That explains why the dead body of Dr. Pavlichenko that the Russians examined (see episode 7) had only a day’s worth of memory. I wonder who else Shion cloned? And what are the other capabilities of the ME machine thingy? I think it’s capable of erasing memories, so maybe it’s capable of creating memories too? That would explain clone Doc’s one day’s worth of memory and clone Suou’s happy family memory at the aquarium.
That one frame of a scene with Hei and Kirihara would’ve been a great fangirl moment for me… if only he wasn’t attempting to kill her. ^^;; Gah, I knew it was going to be an awkward situation when Kirihara finally meets Hei again because of them being on opposite sides, but what happened was way more awkward than I expected. Hei, you idiot, why the heck are you trying to kill Kirihara?! She’s not your enemy! Well, at least not really. They just happen to be on opposing sides, but she doesn’t really want to kill him. Unfortunately, it seems that Hei doesn’t really mind killing her T_T (*sigh* it really looks like my Hei x Kirihara ship is going to sink… but I will never abandon ship! >.<) Anyway, thank goodness Suou was there to stop Hei from giving the final blow to Kirihara. And yeah, due to the unfortunate circumstance of their meeting, Kirihara wasn’t able to have a talk with Hei and wasn’t able to tell him about Amber’s warning. I think Hei and Kirihara are bound to meet each other again, and hopefully, under better circumstances. I have a feeling they’d somehow be on the same side when the time comes for the prophecy to rear its ugly head and cause whatever disaster everyone’s been saying might come.
I also wonder who the heck killed Youko… I really don’t think it was Hei. Even though she was drugged, she was still alive and dressed (and not bloody) when Hei left that room. The only person I could think of who could have killed Youko is Oreille, since she was in the vicinity when Hei left the building. Is Oreille really capable of doing such a horrendous thing to someone? I kinda have a hard time believing that it could be Oreille. Although I can’t think of anyone else who could have killed Youko… Shizume? Shion? Yin? We didn’t see any of them in the area at that time though. Hmm. Oh, and speaking of Oreille, I still don’t get her, whether she’s good or evil. I have a suspicion of who she might be, but I think it’s only plausible IF some sort of time paradox thing happened this season, and if so, Amber is my best guess. I don’t know how or why, but it’s not completely impossible since time jumping was her contract. Maybe Shion cloned Amber, too? Hmm. But like I said, my guess is only probably plausible if there’s a time paradox thing (or something similar to that) going on. Anyway, I’m sure we’ll know more about it soon.
With regard to Hazuki, I wonder why Youko wanted to protect Hazuki so badly. Because of their relationship? Could be, but I don’t think that’s the only reason. They did introduce a bit of Hazuki’s backstory last episode, so there may be more about it than meets the eye. With only 2 episodes left, I’m kinda running out of ideas and speculations about Hazuki’s significance in the main plot. Who knows? Maybe there’s a twist near the end, where Shion isn’t the Izanagi but Hazuki! *gasp* But, that’s just a wild guess, OK?
On a lighter note, it was so darn cute to see July being carried around by Hei and Kirihara having a casual conversation with July. I actually liked that July was able to meet Kirihara again, even just for a while. Oh, and we finally saw Mao’s human form! It wasn’t how I pictured it to be, but it wasn’t that far from what I thought either. I wonder what happened to Yin… Why did she gain such increadible powers? Maybe it’s because of being inside Hell’s Gate during episode 24 and episode 25 of season 1? I’ve mentioned this before, but we didn’t really see Yin leave the Gate with Hei in the season 1 finale, did we? So maybe that has something to do with it? Well, either way, something big happened in between season 1 and season 2. Maybe we’ll get some answers on the new DVD OVAs that are set to be released in 2010.
Anyway, moving on, Hei hasn’t regained his power yet either. Somehow, I don’t think that he’ll regain his power anymore. Unless something weird happens again with another device, or something to do with the meteor core fragment. I still think the fragment is inside Suou’s necklace. Maybe that’s why her star is red? It’s a special star because she’s a clone who’s become a contractor? Or that could have nothing to do with it at all. Heh.
Hei said it before, and he said it again… He’ll kill “her.” Who is “her” exactly, I still haven’t figured it out. Yin? Hazuki? Oreille? Some other entity? Oh, and I have a feeling several of the characters will die in the remaining 2 episodes to come, but I’m hoping it won’t be Mao, July, Kirihara or Hei. Especially not Hei. That would just be so wrong if that were to happen.
Episode 11 preview… Hei cooks again and it looks like Shizume is in fight mode. I can’t really say much about the preview, nothing much was shown. But I assume that Yin will likely have a much longer screentime and Hazuki will hunt Hei down.
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no! it can’t be! hei will never do such thing! killing yin?! no way!! he promise to protect her and suddenly try to kill her?!.. no!!! whoever it is as long it is not yin!! no!!! no!!!
argh!!! now i’m really am confuse!! he try to save her and now try to kill her?! it can’t be!!! now i’m gonna cry………………………;-(
now i’m really gonna cry……..:-(
ms hazy, are you sure about someone or somebody might die in the next two episodes??????……. please tell me!!!
Interesting read, as always. It also me recap the episode and organize it all in my head. 😛 Darker than Black can have a pretty twisty plot, but that’s one of the reasons why it’s so cool.
The last few episodes of the first season ( say, the last 6 or so ) gave a pretty nice Grand Finale, so I’m hoping for something similar with the second season. Certainly seems to be headed that way.
You have some interesting theories about Hazuki. What I am pretty certain is that *somebody* is manipulating the events of the whole thing. Someone is pulling the strings so that either the disaster happens OR that the disaster is avoided somehow. Either way, they must be pretty ruthless, if they did that to Youko… Biggest bet is O’Reille but I can’t be sure. Could be the Pavlichenkos or Section 3…
And lastly, about Kirihara and your ship :p My impression is that the relationship between them had a MUCH better chance to develop in the first season. Hei had the Li persona and Kirihara wasn’t working for a shady organization with no qualms on using lethal force. I’m pretty sure Kirihara will play an important role in the episodes to come, but I really don’t know if they will end up together.
Hmm… This comment got way too big… Sorry about that. Let us see how the season ends. Keep writting and I’ll keep commenting.
@ erra@tsukino: No, I’m not absolutely sure if someone’s going to die in the upcoming episodes as I haven’t seen those yet. I’m just guessing someone would since it’s usual that characters die in this series. I’m not sure if Hei is talking about killing Yin either… Hei just said he’s going to kill “her” and I’m just guessing about who “her” might be.
PS… Just a reminder, please try to avoid posting too many consecutive comments in one blog post. My blog’s spam filter likes to eat those. Try to put your thoughts in a single comment, if you can. Thanks. 🙂
@ Mr. E: No problem! I always appreciate reading about your insights, too. Two heads are better than one, no? 🙂 I agree about the possible manipulation of events, and I also suspect Oreille or the Pavlichenkos.
I really love DtB a lot and I can’t wait to see how the second season will end. Hopefully, it’ll be as good (if not better) than the first season’s. ^^
About my ship… Haha, I’m not really expecting anything positive about it anymore to prevent myself from being too disappointed. Lol, all the ships I support almost always ends up failing. xDD I agree that Kirihara will play an important part in the last 2 episodes, but I doubt she’ll end up with him considering he tried to kill her *sigh* Right now, I’m just hoping that neither Hei nor Kirihara will be killed off. Thanks, and I’ll also be looking forward to read your comments! ^^
i’m sorry miss hazy… i was just curious about yin… my other sisters and brothers are using my email and just changed my name, too… (it’s kind of hard using one laptop, though…) we’re yin supporter… anyway, i’m truly sorry… just continue your work… we will give no comment anymore… i’ll just have to watch untill the last episode… hope you’ll forgive me… well then… good luck and farewell…
@ erra@tsukino: oh, I don’t mean that you shouldn’t post comments anymore, feel free to do so but try to avoid double posting in one post. It’s always nice to hear from fellow DtB fans. 🙂 … I just meant that multiple consecutive comments in one post sometimes get automatically eaten by the spam filter because it recognizes it as spam, so that was just a reminder.
I did a complete MARATHON of Darker than Black season 1 and 2…I’ve never seen it before so I did..
Season 1 was amazing. I watched the entire season 1 within 4 days. Then swicthed to now episode 10 and a half. The reason why I am excited is because I truly want to see what happens if Kirihara and Hei will still have an affection for each other. Well, I wont give up on it like what the web owner says, I am in agreement that those 2 should get together and look good as a couple.
I’m not exactly sure if he TL was correct when the contractor who adapts the environment as a weapon said that Kirihara is “saving her virginity for BK 201”. How much teasing can Hei-Kirihara fans take LOL
@ reagan: I love season 1 a lot. Yay, another Kirihara x Hei fan! I also think they’re great together and I’m never ever giving up on this shipping, but I won’t get my hopes up *too* much for fear of disappointment should it not happen. xD