After basically denying Suou's existence right to her face, our young protagonist understandably flees from her mother, wandering the streets until she's exhausted only to be found and picked up by a passing Kirihara. With the news that Suou's mother is in Japan, Kirihara pays her a visit, and it's here that we learn the truth about who, or perhaps we should say what, Suou actually is and how she came to be this way. This story is also verified to a large degree by Mao, as we get a glimpse of him prior to losing his body, and indeed learn the reason why he lost said body as part of a job for the Syndicate. Indeed, the Syndicate's name looms large during this episode, as it appears to tie together the Pavlichenko family in some intriguing ways.
Elsewhere, Hei manages to torture the probable location of Yin out of his hostage Youko, but eventually makes his first priority finding and rescuing Suou, which he does with his usual violent aplomb despite being faced with Kirihara. With Shion's ability revealed during the course of the episode as well, there's just enough time for one more big surprise to act as the episode's cliffhanger and, most likely, send the whole whole of Tokyo into something of a confused panic.
While I've been enjoying Darker than BLACK: Ryuusei no Gemini from the very start, this is what it's all about - A number of huge and genuinely surprising revelations, offset against yet more developing mysteries and questions. All of this was pulled off with some near-perfect pacing to make for a gripping instalment that really ramps things up for the final couple of episodes (although how it's going to all fit into a pair of instalments is beyond me). If I had to make a complaint about the way the plot has unravelled here, it's that it all feels a bit too convenient, with Mao's knowledge of Suou's mother in particular not quite sitting right with me. Still, I honestly can't let that get in the way of an episode that I enjoyed so much, meaning that I'd still rate it up there with the pinnacle of the best episodes from the original series.
I loved this episode. There's more information about Suou and Mao's past, Shion's ability, and why Hei had the memory of telling Yin to stop. Also, Hei is "slightly" turning back to who he was in the first season. Like you stated above, more mysteries were introduced, yet it made this episode more enjoyable.
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