Gosick - Episode 14

The opening to Gosick's second half certainly put us back on track as far as the show's murder-mystery focus is concerned, with a story involving alchemy, death and kidnapping... indeed, just who is it than was all set to snatch Victorique at the end of the previous instalment?

In fact, we can actually write that kidnapping off as something of a false alarm, as it's actually the result of Cecile seeing Victorique out and about and deciding that it's time she introduce herself to her classmates... something that Victorique is none too happy about, incidentally.  So, after some awkward introductions, Victorique is seated in front of a jealous Avril next to Kujo - a position which leads to Avril winding up her new classmate to the point where she practically has a table thrown at her.

With this raucous seemingly putting an end to the class for the two girls and Kujo, thoughts turn once again to the mysterious death in the clock tower last episode, as we discover that this isn't the first such death by any stretch of the imagination.  After a falling out between Victorique and Kujo on account of the former's refusal to apologise to Avril, these three characters set out down their own investigative tracks to try and get to the bottom of things - a trail which brings Victorique into contact with Brian Roscoe for the first time as he continues to hang around the area.  While Victorique is convinced that alchemist Leviathan is a fraud, there are still plenty of unanswered questions as this instalment ends.

As per my comments last week, it's nice to see Gosick taking a little more time with its mysterious elements, letting them bubble under the surface to give them more potency while adding some more fuel to the fires of the unknown.  While this episode doesn't exactly douse these mysteries in proverbial gasoline, it does keep things ticking over while having some fun with the new-found love rivalry between Avril and Victorique while also finding time to progress things somewhat.  If nothing else, the increased prominence of Mr. Roscoe lends some credence to the fact that things are getting more interesting within the confines of the series, but we shall have to wait and see how the remainder of this story arc pans out to really get a handle on it.  So far, so interesting however for Gosick's second half.