Death Note ep.22

March 15, 2007 | 12 Comments

What's with all of the food scenes in this episode? Is this what L does when he's stressed out? Pigging out like there's no tomorrow? Judging from the amount of foods that he consumes, he either has a really fast metabolism or he's actually an alien. Anyway, this is definitely a precursor to the ending of the series' first half. If my estimation is correct, next week should wrap up the Yotsuba arc. However, this means that the dreaded plotline will come soon. As usual, due to my short attention span, I haven't actually read beyond the shocking revelation. So while I know what would happen in general, I miss out the in-between stories between the end of this arc and the series finale.

Continuing from last week's episode, Misa reveals that Higuchi is Kira and promised her to stop the execution of criminals. Upon hearing this L realises that if this is true then they can be sure that Higuchi has Kira's power. However, he didn't expect Misa to go this far for Light. In addition to this, if the executions of criminals were to stop, it'd be harder to see the crucial killing method. Because of this, L decides to come up with a plan. Light, who is concerned about this asks Misa how she came up with the confession so Misa tells him that the guy has a crush on her and want to marry her. In addition to this, Higuchi seems to think that she's the 2nd Kira. In response, Light scolds Misa because he already asked her to tell Higuchi that it was a mistake that she got restrained. Misa stutters upon hearing this and tells Light that with this they know Higuchi is Kira. Upon hearing their argument, L sarcastically asks Matsuda if this is what he called a feat.

Light thinks that at this rate, they won't be able to find out how the murder was done. L agrees with this assessment and prefers that they find out how Higuchi kills before capturing the guy. In order to do this, L contacts Weddy and asks her to concentrate her investigation on Higuchi. Weedy informs L that Higuchi's house uses unusual security. Apparently he's building a room which is shielded from electromagnetic waves. In fact, it took her two days for her to get in there. Upon hearing this, L asks Weddy to install bugs and cameras on his cars instead of the house. Misa freaks out upon hearing this because she would have been in deep trouble if L had installed the camera before she met Higuchi earlier. Meanwhile, L apologises to Light for going back to this point but he wants to know if Light remembers how to kill. Not surprisingly Light is pissed off and tells L that he's not Kira. L, however, coldly asks Light to just answer the question.

In response Light tells L that he doesn't remember. Misa claims similar thing while stating that she's not Kira. L, however, asks Light to seriously analyse and think what he's about to say because depending on Light's answer, they can probably capture Kira. He then presents a hypothetical questions whereby Light was Kira and Kira's power moved to another person and now doesn't remember that Light was Kira. L wants Light to base his analysis based on this and asks Light if the power transfer happened because Yagami Light wanted it to happen or if there is someone behind Light who granted him the power and transferred the power from Light to another person. After thinking about it for a while, Light tells L in that case, Yagami Light was the one who willed the action. L agrees and points out that if a person behind the scene doesn't want them to find out about this power, then he/she wouldn't wait until last second to transfer the power to someone else.

If there is a being that can see everything from heavens, then they would never be able to capture said being and L would have been dead or toyed around forever. With this L is satisfied and thinks they'll be able to create a situation where Higuchi can't pass on his powers to someone else and make him show them how he kills his targets. L's plan is to use Sakura TV to bait Higuchi but Matsuda wonders if Higuchi will believe it. Besides, since it's Sakura TV, Higuchi might not watch the show. Light thinks that they can just ask Namikawa to call Higuchi and tell the guy that there's something bad on TV. Once Higuchi sees that the person on TV is someone that knows the Secret, Higuchi will believe it. Matsuda thinks they're going to use Aiber but much to his surprise, everyone suggests Matsuda. Since Higuchi thinks that Matsuda was listening to the meeting and is supposedly dead, Higuchi would believe that Matsuda is trying to reveal everything.

L's plan is to have Sakura TV to provide the usual microphone and frosted glass that they use for witness. Higuchi would be able to tell from the statement and the silhouette that the person is Misa's ex-manager, 'Matsui'. On top of this, they plan to make it looks like there's a mistake which causes the person behind the frosted glass to be visible for a second. There's just one problem with this, if Higuchi has the ability to kill just by looking at the face like the 2nd Kira, Matsuda will die. Light thinks that the fact Matsuda is still alive now suggests that won't be the case. L then gives Matsuda 2-3 days to decide but Matsuda decides that he doesn't need those and agree to help out. Meanwhile, Namikawa is invited by two of his colleagues, Midou and Shimura, to talk about Kira. Midou believes that it's not Shimura since Shimura came to him crying. Shimura believes it's not Midou or Namikawa either since they only tag along due to fear of Kira.

Upon hearing this, Namikawa asks Shimura who his colleague thinks is Kira. Shimura guesses that it's either Takahashi or Higuchi. Midou, however, disagrees that it's Takahashi since he thinks Takahashi is just Kira's scape goat. He thinks it must be someone who is dumber than Kira. With this, the three conclude that Kira must be Higuchi. Midou points out that Higuchi is the greediest when it comes to career and money. Namikawa adds that Higuchi likes to make fun of people and is lousy at managing them. As for the rest of their colleagues, they apparently invited Ooi but the guy refused to have secret meeting. Kida was forced to provide an account with the funds for hiring Coil so Midou believes he's not Kira either. Their conversation comes to a halt when Namikawa gets a phone call from Light pretending to be L. Namikawa informs his colleague about the call and informs 'L' about it as well. Because of this, Light divulges his plan to capture Kira/Higuchi.

Higuchi is troubled by upon seeing Matsui again because he actually wrote Matsui's name on Death Note that night to be sure. After ending his conversation with Namikawa, Higuchi decides to call Misa to find out Matsui's real name. Unfortunately for him, Misa pretends that she's away. In desperation, Higuchi rings Midou, asking the guy to use his father to ask the Ministry of Public Management to stop the show. Midou, however, claims that this will just raise suspicion and besides if one of them is Kira, this should be taken care of soon. Higuchi realises that the only one who knows that Matsui Tarou is not Matsui's real name is 'Kira' aka him. As a last ditch attempt, he tries to call Mogi but Mogi claims that Misa is on holiday and if Higuchi wants to know Matsui's real name, he can go get the info himself. Because of this Higuchi takes his gun, Death Note, and ride a car to find the information. The episode ends with Weddy following him using her motorbike.

Impression:

Of all the Death Note owners, Higuchi must be the dumbest one thus far. Even Misa manages to trick him easily with her acting. Of course it helps that L and the others came up with a rather excellent plan to fool Higuchi. Seeing Matsuda acting like he's just got caught with his pants down in front of a camera was hilarious. It makes me wonder if there has been a real life incident where a mysterious informant gives his/her testimony but then the separator screen fell down, revealing the person's identity. I think it's hilarious if you're the viewer but it must be horrifying for the informant. Anyway, despite the plan, I thought it was a bit convenient that the other 6 Yotsuba group members are willing to participate in L's plan. I get the feeling that there's a rather forced attempt to whitewash what they've done so far. They seem rather enthusiastic a few episodes ago when they were talking about list of people they want to kill.

The interesting part about this episode is how precise L's theory about what happened to Light was. I think the real answer to his question was both of the options were actually correct. Light did make a conscious decision to lose the note. However, it wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for the interference of a higher being, in this case being Ryuk and Rem. Props to him though for figuring out that if this is a higher being wanting to get amusement, that higher being would have transferred the power from one person to another instead of waiting until the last minute when the first person is almost found by the police. While I kind of like the story about Light's moral choice and his failure at it, I sometimes can't help but wonder how the stories would have turned out if Death Note is more like a 'disease' which can move from one person to another. Once a person is captured, the power then moves to another person like a virus.

Preview

On next week's episode: The Beginning of the End?

© memento 2003