Friday 24 June 2011

Gosick - Episode 23

With Victorique under the control of the Ministry of the Occult and Kujo held hostage to ensure Victorique remains compliant to their wishes, could things get any worse?  Oh yeah, there's the outbreak of a world war on the horizon so yes, I suppose they could.

While it initially looks as though Saubreme has once again positioned itself to avoid any hostilities itself, de Blois and the Ministry of the Occult soon put paid to that by outing the architect of peace, Jupiter Roget, as a Grey Wolf himself to effectively remove him from power and destroy any confidence in him.


With this achieved, the Marquis is perfectly placed to have the King's ear, and soon persuades (or rather, blackmails) him into agreeing that war is the only way forward for the country, signing an agreement allying itself with Germany in the process.  Thus, de Blois continues to grow his power using Victorique's status as a supposed "Monstre Charmant", while Kujo finds himself forced into the army up north which needless to say isn't the most pleasant of sojourns.  With the Marquis promoted to President, he intends to use Victorique's reputation to further strengthen his hand... a decision which could well prove to be a fatal mistake.

After spending much of its episode pushing the pieces of its proverbial (and literal) chess board around into position in a slightly dull fashion that isn't quite as powerful as it perhaps should have been, it all proves to be worthwhile thanks to a quite literally explosive pay-off come the end of the instalment, turning things on their head multiple times in a volley of surprises and plot twists.  No, I'm still not sure why there are two Brian Roscoes (ohh, the doujinshi I can imagine coming from this...), so I'm hoping they at least resolve that in the final episode, but things are certainly set up for a compelling finale even if we did have to sit through some tedious stuff to get to those rip-roaring final few minutes.

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