Darker than Black ep.05

May 4, 2007 | 12 Comments

It looks like James Bond is going to get some supernatural colleagues in the future if this episode is an indication of where MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, is heading in terms of recruitment. At the moment these agents seem to be okay although just like other Contractors, they seem to have no sense of mercy and are bordering on cruel. I think this is the interesting thing about the series. Having said that, I'm getting a little bit tired with how every single foreigner in this series seem to be either evil or have suspect personality. I guess Hei and his friends are supposed to be representative of the good guys. The problem is, I'm still not sure if I'm actually supposed to root for him or against him. After all, I know little about the organisation that he works for and what he does to all of the contractors that he finds in his missions.

A man in white suit is being questioned by Kingpin-like mob boss and his henchmen if he's come on his own. The man assures the Kingpin that he's kept his promise to do just that. When the Kingpin tells "Mr.Smith" that he wants to go straight to doing the transaction, however, Mr.Smith tells him that before that he'd like the Kingpin and his henchmen to stop smoking in front of him. He claims that tobacco smokes contains more toxic substances than the normal fumes in the air. One of the henchman laughs at Mr.Smith's request and suggests to the guy that he holds his breath if he can't stand it. Unhappy with the response, Mr.Smith decides to walk out of the deal so the Kingpin boss orders his henchman to extinguish their cigarretes. Mr.Smith returns to the table and opens his briefcase, which contains a lot of British Pounds. He assures them that he'll pay double the amount if the item that they have on offer is the real thing.

When the Kingpin asks Mr.Smith what he intends to do after he obtains the thing, Mr.Smith jokingly tells them that he intends on eliminating those from rival company. Eventually, however, he admits that he intends on reselling the item. This causes the Kingpin to wonder about the true value of the item and refuses the deal. When Mr.Smith is about to take his briefcase, again, however, the henchman puts his hand on it and orders Mr.Smith to leave. He then lights up a cigarette again and blows the smoke into Mr.Smith's face. In retaliation, Mr.Smith grabs the henchman's arm and uses his Contractor's power to solidify the body part. The Kingpin eventually realises that "Mr.Smith" is a Contractor and decides to flee in fear. Unfortunately he ends up facing against a woman and a child. The woman turns out to be a Contractor as well and immediately uses her power to create gusts of wind that form clouds on top of the Kingpin's head.

The clouds then produce rains which drench the Kingpin. This seemingly non-threatening moment, however, turns fatal when the Kingpin finds his feet frozen in ice. He tries to use a gun against the woman but his hand solidifies as well. When Mr.Smith comes nearby, the Kingpin tells the guy the location of the item. As soon as the Kingpin said this, Mr.Smith and the woman/child leave the area. Unfortunately for the Kingpoin, he quickly finds out that his entire body is solidifying. As the Kingpin falls to his death, Mr.Smith grabs a box of cigarettes and start to smoke one. He, however, quickly coughs and puffs out the smoke, looking disgusted at what he's just done. The woman, however, calmly take a can of beer and enjoys a good sip of it. The three then head to a hotel where Havoc, a girl with red hair is sleeping. Mr.Smith then introduces the woman, the boy, and himself as April, July, and November 11. They are MI6.

Later on, the police makes a note how Havoc is known as the history's worst Contractor due to his reputation for killing thousands during the 3rd South American Heaven War. Her ability is to generate vacuum space at will but this ability was lost when the Hell's Gate in South America disappeared 5 years ago. A representative from Pandora Institute called Eric Nijishima asks Havoc some questions about his condition but Havoc is generally non-plussed about them. Eventually it's decided that Havoc will be transferred to Pandora. As this happens, Misaki watches over from the viewing area. She's startled when November 11 tells her that Havoc is just a mere shadow of a Contractor that she used to be. Since Misaki demands to know his identity, November 11 introduces himself as Jack Simon, the British Foreign Affairs Minister. "Jack" decides to call Misaki on a first-name basis, earning the ire of the detective, who wants to be called "Kirihara".

Later on inside one of the detectives' car, "Jack" admits that this is not his first time in Tokyo. He jokes around about being involved in an assasination plot once, shocking the detectives inside the car. Eventually, however, he explains that the reason MI6 hands over Havoc to Pandora is because in England, research on people with power rarely gets its citizen's approval. Later on, Misaki finds out that Havoc has actually not been taken by the Helicopter. In fact, she's been hidden inside a suitcase placed within the trunk of her car. "Jack" claims that it's to avoid risk and to acquire information. After placing Havoc inside the car, they head to Pandora again. The driver, however, is shocked when he sees flashes of Hei jumping in front of the car. November decides to come out of the car and is face to face with Hei, who's referred to by Havoc as the Black God of Death. April gets in on the action as well by summoning a gust of winds.

The winds quickly form clouds which heads towards Hei. As soon as this happens, Hei is drenched by rain. November quickly unleashes his ice power but before it can get into Hei, Hei already uses his weapon to get himself out to safety. November decides to follow Hei into the park and ends up getting into a fight full of electricity sparks. Misaki and the other police detectives who are waiting inside the car are caught off-guard when Huang comes by their car and throws a sleeping gas. In the aftermath, Misaki and the others lost Havoc and has to report back to their supervisor about this. When they get there, Eric Nijishima explains to her that "Jack Simon" is actually November 11, MI6's best agent. Later on Misaki finds out from one of her agents that during the incident, BK-201 made its appeareance again. Misaki decides to confront "Jack"/November and finds him bitching about how being a Contractor is quite troublesome for him.

He explains the part about having to smoke even though one may not smoke or having to drink even though one does not drink. April interjects and tells Misaki that on the contrary, she loves alcohol. Misaki cuts to the chase and asks November 11 if he knew right from the start that this could happened. November claims that if he knew, he would have prepared a perfect set up. Since his counter-measure was insufficient, the answer would be a "No". However, he knows for sure that no diplomatic agency would have accepted the idea of kidnapping Havoc. This means that CIA wasn't their enemy. After July manages to trace Hei's whereabouts, November tells Misaki that this time it's their turn to corner Mr.BK-201. Meanwhile inside a house, Huang has just finished talking on the phone. After he hangs up, he tells Mao that they're going to hand over Havoc to the organisation tomorrow. Mao comments about how Hei doesn't want to bring Havoc near the gate.

Huang tells Mao that in his case, he has no intention on getting too close with 'monster' like her. Mao seems to be wistful upon hearing this. When they check the room where Havoc was placed, however, they only find Yin sitting on her own. Huang demands to know where Havoc has gone. In addition to this, Hei is not here either so Mao asks Yin of his whereabouts as well. Yin, however, is as emotionless as ever despite her colleagues' anger. She simply tells them that the two have gone out. However, she has no idea where they have gone to. As it turns out, Hei has taken Havoc to a house and has her tied up to a chair. Hei interrogates Havoc by calling her "Carmine" and asking her if she's still alive. Havoc responds by telling Hei that it's been a while since she's been called using that name. Hei cuts right to the chase and asks Havoc what actually happened back then. More importantly, he wants to know the whereabouts of his sister, Pai.

Impression:

The 2 new Contractors, April and November 11 and their doll, July are not as impressive as I thought they'd be. Well, I supposed November 11's power is pretty good but April's power seems quite useless unless she works in tandem with November. What's the point of unleashing a large bucket of water on top of your target if the water doesn't do anything? Speaking of water, it seems just like Yin uses water to trace someone's whereabous, July uses glass to find a person's whereabouts. If this is true, I guess it's not that useful since there are places which don't use glass like a park, for example. There is, however, one consistent thing about these Contractors and that is the fact that they are as cruel as other contractors. It's hard to believe that they stuffed a girl inside a suitcase and placed that suitcase inside a car's trunk. Admittedly, the girl is not ordinary and judging from her past, she used to be dangerous.

It's interesting to know that an official government agencies like MI6 and CIA would employ Contractors. I guess when your enemies can fly and able to teleport themselves, it's important that these government agencies have people with similar power to stop these contractors. On the other hand, surely these agencies are aware of the kind of power that the Contractors have. If they want to, they can easily betray the agencies and sell their secret to competing agencies. Moving along, Havoc or Carmine turns out to be a rather interesting character as well. It seems in the past she has killed thousands of people. Hei also believes that Carmine knows the whereabouts of his sister. On that note, "Pai" sounds like a codename instead of a real name. It makes me wonder if Hei's sister is also a Contractor. Anyway, overall this episode is not as exciting as last week's. I hope next week will improve a little bit. One thing that I want to see, however, is more involvement from Yin.

Note: sorry for the lack of rollovers in the pictures. I'm really sleepy now and will do it tomorrow

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