Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu ep.8

May 21, 2006 | 40 Comments

I didn't know until I use google that the 22nd of May is actually the birth date of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. I wonder if this is the reason that the screening of this episode was postponed until this week. It certainly makes a rather nice trivia if you think about it. Anyway, there are some interesting character development and interactions within the episode. I think Haruhi's character benefits the most from this episode because this one reveals that there's more to her personality than the obnoxious loud persona she seems to use on a daily basis. In a twisted kind of way, showing last week's episode first also makes a bit sense due to the revelation at the end of that particular episode. As a side note, if you haven't heard it before, I really recommend the Euro Mix version of Hare Hare Yukai. I've also updated the images with the high-res version if you're interested in them.

Hare Hare Yukai (Euro Mix)
Episode order comparison (revised)

Continuing from the previous episode, everyone is still reeling from the shock of finding Keiichi's dead body inside the room. Haruhi ends up being the first person who takes the initiative to move forward so she can check Keiichi's pulse. Before she manages to do this, however, Arakawa the butler asks her not to touch the body. Judging from the condition, Arakawa declares that Keiichi has passed away. Mikuru immediately falls unconscious upon hearing this. Itsuki then notices how the knife penetrates the notebook on Keiichi's shirt pocket, suggesting that whoever killed him must possesses quite a strength. The fact that Keiichi's brother, Yutaka is nowhere to be seen simply points to the possibility that the murderer was Yutaka. Itsuki also points out that this seems to be a closed circle murder case. It appears that all of the entry points to the room are tightly secured so he wonders how the murderer managed to get in and out of the room.

Later on, Kyon decides to hide the information that Keiichi is dead from his sister. Haruhi, who is disturbed by the entire thing tells Kyon that she wants to talk to him outside the room. Before they leave the room, however, Haruhi asks Yuki to lock the door and ensure that no one can gets in. Outside the room, Haruhi expresses her disbelief that a real murder actually takes place inside the mansion. Kyon is annoyed to hear this and points out to Haruhi that she did hope that an incident will happen. Haruhi replies back by saying that was because she didn't think anything will happen. Kyon then silently wonders if this murder is inadvertently caused by Haruhi. When Kyon points out that maybe Yutaka is the murderer, Haruhi suddenly remembers that yesterday Mikuru saw Keiichi and Yutaka having a heated argument. In addition to this, when Haruhi went to toilet the night before, she saw Yutaka in the middle of preparing his passport and travel cheque.

Because neither Haruhi and Kyon can come up with any more theory at this point in time, Haruhi drags Kyon to take a look at Keiichi's room one more time. The two, however, find Arakawa standing outside the room, guarding its entrance. Apparently he's just contacted the police and they've instructed him not to allow anyone to get inside the room. Arakawa believes that the police will come tomorrow afternoon not long after the weather improves. Because of this, Kyon decides to ask Arakawa if Keiichi and Yutaka often fight with each other. Much to his and Haruhi's surprise, however, Arakawa has no idea because he and Mori have only been working at the mansion for 1 week. He then goes on explaining how he and Mori are part-timers, temporary butler and maid hired on temporary basis. In fact, their contract is rather brief and limited to the 2 weeks period this summer. He also confirms Haruhi's guess that he has never been employed by Keiichi beforehand.

As for the brothers, all that Arakawa knows is that Yutaka is an employee at Keiichi's company. Kyon, however, feels that something is not right and his mind immediately travels back to the first time when Itsuki introduces them to both Arakawa and Mori. After interviewing Arakawa, Haruhi and Kyon decide to go down to the first floor. They immediately see Itsuki, who tells them that Yutaka is nowhere to be found. Haruhi tells Itsuki that she and Kyon were planning on goint out of the house to see if the boat is still around. Mori, however, suddenly appears and tells Haruhi that the boat is probably not there anymore because last night around 1AM, she saw Yutaka heading for the entrance in a hurry. Despite this information, Haruhi still insists on dragging Kyon out of the house to check on the boat. The two then walk close to the cliff, causing Kyon to be a bit worried. He thinks that one slip will be enough to cause him to fall to the bottom of the cliff.

Kyon believes that if he falls together with Haruhi, he'll have more chance of surviving. Because of this, he decides to take Haruhi's hand and hold it tightly. At the same time, Haruhi points out the fact that the boat has gone missing from the harbour. Kyon, however, is more fixated on the fact that the gray sky and black sea simply reminds him of the Sealed dimension. Kyon's reflection, however, is interrupted by Haruhi, who suddenly claims that she just saw someone in the distance. Because of this, she decides to drag Kyon to come with her by walking through a tiny area around the cliff. Haruhi, however, inadvertently steps on a crumbling part of the cliff and is immediately falls backwards into the cliff below. Kyon tries to shield Haruhi with his body as the their body hits the ground. As a result, Kyon ends up losing his consciousness temporarily. Haruhi starts to become worried about this but after a few seconds, Kyon regains his consciousness as well.

The two of them, however, can't return to where they came from. Because of this, they decide to take a refuge from the rain inside a nearby cave. Inside the cave, Kyon asks Haruhi if she was sure that the shadow she saw was actually alive. Haruhi thinks that it was real but she can't be sure. She then changes the conversation and asks Kyon if he thinks Yutaka was the one who killed Keiichi. She points out the fact that Mori told them that Yutaka left the area around 1 in the morning. However, when she touched Keiichi's hand, she felt that his body was still warm. This means that when they found Keiichi, he hadn't been dead for a long time. Upon hearing this, Kyon wonders if what Haruhi meant is that Yutaka was hanging around the island before stabbing Keiichi and ran away with the boat. Haruhi disagrees and thinks that Keiichi couldn't possibly got killed 1 hour before they found his body because back then they were awake and walking around the mansion.

Haruhi believes that if Keiichi was killed around that time, they would have hear a sound or a scream. Kyon, however, points out that it's impossible for Keiichi to stay alive long after he got stabbed. Upon hearing this, Haruhi has another theory and tells Kyon that it's possible that Yutaka really did kill Keiichi but it was not premeditated. She believes that Yutaka got into an argument with Keiichi, grabbed the fruit knife, and ended up using it. However, Haruhi thinks that the knife didn't penetrate the heart due to the notebook on Keiichi's pocket. Keiichi, however, fainted due to shock and Yutaka, thinking that he has killed his brother, decided to run away. At the same time, Keiichi stayed unconscious until morning before waking up in a daze. When he remembered what his brother did to him, however, he became panic and tried to lock the door. Haruhi belives that Keiichi probably fell and ended up impaling himself with the knife.

Kyon, however, disagrees with this theory because when they found Keiichi, his body was facing up and not down. Haruhi admits that Kyon is right and she suddenly realises what this means but decides to keep her theory to herself. Before the two can continue their conversation, they can hear Itsuki looking for them. Kyon and Haruhi eventually manage to return safely to the mansion. After cleaning up himself, however, Kyon sees his sister sneaking around the kitchen trying to get some foods. The two are then joined by Mori who tells them that she's just about to bring the foods to their room. Kyon's sister then realise that someone has apparently eat earlier than the rest of them, pointing at a plate with carrots leftover as well as fork and knife on it. Mori claims that the plate belong to Arakawa who got hungry since he hadn't got anything to eat since morning. Kyon and his sister then return to their room only to find Haruhi in the middle of a stand-off with Yuki.

Apparently Yuki refuses to open the door for anyone because Haruhi has previously instructed her not to allow anyone to get in. It appears Yuki has taken the order literally and doesn't allow anyone to enter the room. Haruhi tries to explain that when she said 'no one' she meant anyone who isn't in SOS-Dan but Yuki counters her by saying that she wasn't informed of this. Kyon decides to take over the negotiation and tells Yuki that he has over-ride Haruhi's order and asks Yuki to open the door. Strangely, Yuki immediately opens the door open hearing Kyon's instruction. Kyon wonders whether the entire thing was supposed to be a joke but he can't tell because Yuki always shows expressionless face. After Haruhi enters the room, Kyon and Itsuki decide to go to their own room to discuss Haruhi's theory. Itsuki believes that Yutaka did stab Keiichi but didn't kill him. However, when Keiichi heard the knocking on the door, he woke up in a daze and tried to lock it.

At that point, Itsuki, Kyon, and Arakawa busted the door and in the process, inadvertently killed Keiichi. Itsuki believes that Haruhi is probably aware of this but decided to keep the information to herself in order to protect her friends. Kyon suddenly tells Itsuki that his story makes sense but unfortunately Itsuki has learned the truth so he must be silenced. As soon as he says this, Kyon walks towards Itsuki and proceeds to strangle the other guy with his hands. A few minutes later, Kyon's sister is seen running towards Arakawa in panic, claiming that Itsuki has been stabbed. Because of this, Arakawa decides to follow the girl. Once no one stands in front of the door, a shadow enters Keiichi's room and tries to stab Keiichi. Keiichi's dead body suddenly rises and begs the person to stop. When he opens his eyes, however, he realises that he's been tricked by Kyon and Haruhi. Itsuki then appears to tell Keiichi that they game is over and they've lost. Everyone then gather in dining room so Haruhi can explain how she (and Kyon) found out the truth.

First of all, if Keiichi was accidentally killed by Kyon and the others, there should have been a dent on the door but there wasn't any. Secondly, when Itsuki met Arakawa and Mori, he told the two that it's been a while since they've met and yet Arakawa claimed that he and Mori have just been hired for 2 weeks. Itsuki also managed to find Keiichi's room right away although this is the first time they've been to the island. The final clue is the plate that contains leftover carrots, a vegetable that Keiichi dislikes. Keiichi is also the only person in the house who uses fork and knife. Because of this, Haruhi think it was him who had the breakfast. After the group leaves the island, Itsuki asks Kyon when he started to become aware of this. Kyon admits that it was right from the start. He didn't believe that Haruhi actually wished for a dead person. When Kyon explains this, however, Itsuki's eyes seem to be transfixed at a mole on Kyon's neck. Itsuki also admits that he has no idea about the dark shadow that Haruhi saw. In other words, they may have left something on the island.

Impression:

There were some changes implemented in this version of the story. Some made the anime better while others don't. In the novel, Itsuki and Kyon are the ones who come up with all of the hypothesis. In this version, however, Haruhi gets most of the credit. I really like this because it shocases Haruhi's intelligence and her ability in problem solving. If the episode had gone the way it was described in the novel, Haruhi would come across as someone is easily tricked by Itsuki. Having said that, I wish the animators had included scenes where Haruhi also shows her compassion. For example, in the novel Haruhi was actually the one who asks Yuki to help her with Mikuru when the later faints. It would have been nice to see this kind of initiative from Haruhi but I guess they had to cut that down in order to show the cave sequence and to give Kyon's sister some kind of a role in the episode.

On the other hand, I feel that the animators should not have included the scene where Haruhi almost checks Keiichi's pulse. I think that scene makes it obvious that Arakawa didn't want Haruhi to find out about Keiichi's condition. I just think it's too big of a clue. On the positive side, I love all of the references from other series such as Sherlock Holmes, Psycho and even Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Just take a look at Kyon's buggy eyes after Itsuki told him that they are the killer. If he's gone further than that, I think Mion from Higurashi will have a competition in freaky face of the week. I also find it interesting that the animators decide to include a scene where Itsuki examines the mole on Kyon's neck. I think the scene is too weird to be a throwaway scene. I hope the writers plan to explain this in one of the future episodes.

Preview

Next week's episode, Someday in the Rain, is actually episode 14. Here's a comparative timeline if you're interested.

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