Death Note ep.18

February 14, 2007 | 20 Comments

Wow, the writers sure condensed a lot of materials into one episode. I guess some of the things that they exclude are not that important in the larger scheme of things. If anything, they feel extraneous and unnecessary. This suggests there is a likelihood that the writers will cut down more stories in order to fit the entire series into 37 episodes. Anyway, this episode itself is okay but it's nothing outstanding. Upon seeing this, I can understand why some people are disappointed with this Yotsuba arc but at the same time, I think the arc has a potential to explore stories that were previously impossible to tell. This is especially true in Light's case because his former and current personality are very removed from one another.

The episode begins with Aizawa driving down to the new hotel where L and everyone else has reside. He, however, has difficulty passing through the metal detector installed in the lift and has to take off his pants because of this. Once he arrives at the lobby, Aizawa tells Souichirou and Matsuda that he has to commute between this place and his house since his kid is still small and family members are not allowed into the hotel. The topic then change into L's whereabouts so Matsuda points out that he's on a 'date' with Light and Misa. Since Misa's room has surveillance camera on it, they decide to see how the three get along. The answer is not very well. Misa complains that the situation doesn't feel like a date. L can't care less and wonders if Misa will eat her cake. In response Misa warns L to watch his sweet consumption because it'll make him fat. In retaliation L tells Misa that if she uses her brain, she won't get fat even if she eats sweet. Ouch.

Misa promises to give L her cake if he'd leave her and Light alone. L, however, tells her that even if he does that, he can still watch the two of them through the camera. Light who notices that L looks a bit unmotivated asks the guy why this is the case. L confirms that he's depressed because all of these times he thought Light was Kira. He claims that he's in shock if his theory turns out to be wrong. While he still suspects Light, he thinks Kira is capable of controlling people's action. If Kira controlled Light and Misa, then it makes sense. However, he wonders why the two of them are still alive. On the other hand, if they were killed, Light and Misa would have just been victims and L would have to start investigating from the beginning. If Kira controlled Light because Light was capable of stealing information from the police, and if Kira did it so that L would suspect Light, L thinks he would be even more bitter than he is now.

Upon hearing this, Light realises that based on that theory, he and Misa, although controlled, have been Kira. L confirms this and tells Light that the way he sees it when Light was detained, criminals stopped dying. Until that point, Light being Kira makes sense but after 2 weeks criminals started dying again. From there on, assumption is a possibility. L believes that Kira's power passes on from person to person. He refers to the fact that the 2nd Kira video mentioned something about 'sharing the power'. Light thinks it's an interesting theory but if that's the case then there's no way of catching Kira since it means Kira can control someone to kill criminals then if that person is caught the power transfers to someone else and their memory disappear. L agrees that there won't be any closure just by catching these people who are controlled by Kira. Light thinks this hasn't been decided since they don't know enough about Kira.

Light thinks L needs to bring out some motivation but L thinks it's not a good idea to try to hard. He thinks by doing this, they put their life at a greater risk. This answer seems to piss Light off and in response, he punches L. Light is angry that L loses his motivation just because his theory about Light being Kira is wrong. Light reminds L that L was the one who involved many police, FBIs, announcers, and other innocent people. L was also the one who detained Light and Misa. In retaliation, L kicks Light and asks the guy if it's wrong that he's down because Yagami Light as Kira and Amane Misa as the 2nd Kira didn't solve the case. Light confirms this, telling L that by saying it that way, it sounds like L is not satisfied unless Light is Kira. After thinking about it, L admits that he now realises that this might be true: he wants Light to be Kira. This earns L another punch from Light and the two end up in a nasty brawl.

Matsuda tries to stop them by calling the room and informing L that Misa is listed as number 1 in readers' popularity poll. He thinks she has the chance to be the heroine of an upcoming film. L promptly hangs up the phone and informs Light that the call was Matsuda being an idiot. Light responds by saying that Matsuda is quite natural at that. Poor Matsuda is annoyed because he can hear every word from the surveillance camera. 2 months later, Light finds out a pattern emerging from the list of people who suffered from heart attack in Japan. They realise that the death has caused the share of a company called Yotsuba to rise steadily while the competing companies' are down. Light hopes that this information will motivate L a little bit. The two of them realise that Kira has been killing criminals to cover up the murder of those related to the companies. At Yotsuba, the 8 executives have meeting about the deaths that they've engineered.

One man brings up how one of their intended victims ended up dying from heart attack instead of accident. Another man explains that it's because they specify that he will crash while driving along the coastline. Unfortunately for them, the guy was in Italy with a girl. If they didn't specify the location, he would have died in Italy by accident but because of their request he got heart attack. Upon hearing this the other members realise that if their request is impossible Kira will just kill with heart attack. Despite these failures, the group are not worried about the police because they have it under control. Meanwhile, Souichirou returns to the hotel with Mogi. When Matsuda informs them about Yotsuba's possible involvement, Souichirou informs them about the meeting that he had with the vice-chief. Apparently the police decided that they would back down from Kira's case because Kira offered not to harm any politicians if the police do this.

Souichirou tells them that the only way they can continue investigation with L is to resign as the police. He, however, reminds Matsuda and Aizawa that they have their own responsibilities so he wants them to think about it carefully. Upon hearing this L tells them that he thinks everyone should return to the police since he can handle things on his own. The only one he asks is for Light to stay until he catches Kira. Souichirou, however, refuses to leave and tells L that he has the right to make his own decision. L agrees so he lets them to make their own decision. Aizawa, however, is not sure because he has a family to support. Souichirou thinks that this just means that they have to find a new job. Matsuda doesn't have problem with quitting the force since he already become Misa's manager. Aizawa, unfortunately don't have such option because L doesn't want to share information with anyone who works with the police force.

Despite this Aizawa wants to stay because he'd feel guilty about Ukita's death if he left. All of a sudden Watari tells them that L once made him promise that if anything happens to a member of the investigation, Watari will support that member and his family with a lifetime benefit even if they get fired by the police. Because of this, he wonders why L doesn't tell them about this. L, however, thinks that Watari should not say unnecessary things. Upon hearing this, Aizawa becomes angry and wonders if L was just testing him if he would quit the police force. L confirms this and tells Aizawa that he wants to know which options Aizawa would choose. Aizawa is angry to hear this and decides to return to the force. He agrees that he couldn't make decision right away and besides, he realises that he detest L. In response, L tells Aizawa that he himself has always like Aizawa. This is the last nail for Aizawa so he decides to leave.

A few days later, Light finds more death cases involving Yotsuba. Souichirou then tells them that he notices that these deaths happen on weekends. Whether Kira is a member of Yotsuba or if he manipulates Yotsuba, L thinks they should investigate the company. Mogi then appears with a list of all Yotsuba employees here and overseas. Everyone is impressed about this but Matsuda feels bad since he hasn't contribute to the investigation. Because of this he asks L if he can help out with something. Much to his disappointment, L asks him to make coffee...for his two guests. As it turns out, In order to compensate for the lack of staffs, L decides to use two foreigners called Aiber and Wedy. After L introduces them, the others are shocked to know that these two are a con artist and a burglar. Meanwhile, Aizawa meets his family while sitting in the park. He ends up sobbing after telling them that he's quit the investigation.

Impression:

I couldn't help myself from grinning when I saw Misa's and L's catfight session. It's only natural that Misa will criticise L's tendency to eat high sugar foods while L criticise Misa's lack of intelligence. And the look on L's face when he was stuffing himself with cake because he's depressed was priceless. On a more serious note, I like the idea that Kira's power is something that can corrupt a person and be passed on from person to person. I think the good thing about this series at this point in time is that there are many directions that it can take. While I don't mind the direction that the writer ended up choosing in the end, I still wonder how interesting the series could be if the series had turned out differently. And looking at Light at this point in the story I do wonder about the possibility. This Light is very different from the Light we saw a few episodes ago. He is clearly filled with a sense of justice but one which is not perverted by Death Note.

I also realised that it's not intended to be this way but it's amusing to see the plan of the Yotsuba executives got foiled by the Death Note itself. Because they wrote some specific details about the death that was impossible to execute (ie. dying of cancer within a few days), the note end up just killing their target using heart attack. On the other hand, I am not that enthusiastic by the writer's attempt to develop Matsuda and Aizawa. My guess is that they are being developed so that readers/viewers have someone else to root for apart from L. However, it's hard to care about them since they are often portrayed like they're not important to the story. Personally, I'm far more interested with the two foreign criminals. For some reason they remind of members of Mission: Impossible team (the TV series not the film) and maybe that was the intention. Upon seeing L using them, I realise why L doesn't have problem working with Light even though he is L's main suspect.

Preview

On next week's episode: All about Matsuda?

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