Gosick - Episode 11

After solving its latest case last episode, this eleventh instalment of Gosickserves primarily as a one-shot episode delving a little more closely into the relationship between Grevil and Victorique, as coloured through the case of Jacqueline, who we were introduced to last time around.

Following an introduction that sees Grevil warned to keep a close eye on his "Grey Wolf" of a sister, the story of Jacqueline (or Jacqueline de Signore to give her full name) is brought into the equation via her travelling to donate some books to the library in which Victorique resides - a journey which includes a good old-fashioned accidental case swap, meaning that those books are somehow switched for a bunch of cosmetics.

Still, Jacqueline's journey and subsequent meeting with Victorique leads to the former recounting a tale, not only of her friendship with Grevil but also how she ended up being framed for a murder she didn't commit in a story that switches from pet chipmunks to death and "ghostly" inscriptions on the dead man's arm.  Of course, this was the kind of case that would be easy for Victorique to de-construct, and so it proves that she was actually the one to solve it, a solution she devised in return for Grevil taking on his current ridiculous hairstyle.  Come the end of the episode, and with Grevil visiting the library to deliver the donated books which ended up in his possession, Victorique is left in tears by Grevil's perceived misunderstanding of her current state - a concern which asks far more questions than it answers, truth be told.

As so often seems to be the case with Gosick, I'm left feeling a little torn by this episode - its focus on Grevil and Victorique's relationship is both necessary and much-welcomed, and I'm more than happy to see the show fill in its backstory as it pertains to Jacqueline, yet at the same time once again we have an episode that seems content to rush through its murder-mystery portion without too much murder and with even less mystery, revealing all before we'd even had time to digest the story and plot ourselves.  Although Victorique's revelations are fascinating and reasonably well-thought out themselves, I'd still like to be given more time to ponder things over myself rather than have the circumstances laid out like someone telling you the synopsis of the TV show they saw last night.  Then again, maybe that's just me projecting my own expectations for how this series would go about doing things upon Gosick unfairly...