Gosick - Episode 21

Although she now has some freedom to roam in her investigation, the pressure is still on for Victorique as the expectations upon her to prove her worth as a Grey Wolf remain very much at the fore, with the Marquis expecting a solution to the Coco Rose murder case in short order.

Thanks to Kujo's help, another piece of the puzzle is now in place, and as episode twenty-one begins that element is explore further as the grave of Nicole Lulu is exhumed to reveal a perfectly preserved but headless corpse... a corpse complete with a locket, within which is a trump card that Victorique hides away for her own ends later on.

After this, it's off to the theatre for a performance of The Blue Rose of Saubreme... although I say theatre it seemed more like a pantomime given the amount of shouting from the audience, I was almost waiting for someone to yell "he's behind you" at some point.  Anyway, I digress - as the performance goes on, so Victorique adds the fruits of her own labours to the story that unfolds before them, explaining that Coco Rose's death in fact occurred over a decade before it was officially registered as having taken place, with a lookalike (Nicole, of course) taking the queen's place for that duration.  However, Victorique claims that she can't identify the murderer of Coco Rose, for reasons we only learn at the end of the episode, while a meeting with a fellow Grey Wolf in the form of Science Academy head Jupiter Roget reveals some further revelations about the life and so-called death of Coco Rose.

Overall, this made for a smart and satisfying end to this story arc, although I'm still not quite sure why the Marquis let Victorique off without actually naming a killer for Coco Rose so easily, while I feel a bit unsure as to just what Jupiter Roget's importance is in the grand scheme of things (although I get the feel that part is just me being a bit dim).  Still, those minor loose ends aside this felt more like a proper piece of murder-mystery storytelling, and it's for that reason that I enjoyed it more than some previous arcs that have been in too much of a hurry to spout the solutions to their mysteries without giving the audience a chance to think of themselves.  Now the big question is exactly how the series plans to end, and with something a little filler-esque seemingly filling next week's instalment it looks as though it'll only have a couple of episodes to really sink its teeth into whatever kind of finale it has in store for us.