Shinrei Tantei Yakumo – 12

「失意の果てに ～憎悪～」 (Shitsui no Hate Ni ~ Zouo ~)
“The Limits Of Despair ~ Hatred ~”

After such a depressing end to last week’s episode, I’m glad that the precursor to the finale ended on such a huge cliffhanger. I can’t remember a single arc in this series where I was on the edge of my seat only to get smashed in the face by the ending sequence. To clarify from last week’s episode, the spirit floating around the hospital is Mamia Yoshiko, the same girl who Isshin met after his diagnosis. The first question that popped into my mind is how her spirit is able to fly around even though she’s not actually dead. While there wasn’t an actual answer, I’m just glad that she isn’t some evil spirit wanting to hurt others but a girl who’s just afraid of death. Going from a girl whose astral projections stalks people and asks them if they are going to die soon (and scaring them to death in the process) to a projection who apologizes for being so rude, it really goes to show you how powerful Isshin’s words were too her. The big reveal this week being that Yoshiko is actually the daughter of the doctor from two episodes ago. Somehow, it didn’t startle me to once again see a doctor acting out of character and doing the complete opposite of what they are trained to do. don’t understand what it is with doctors and dying daughters in this series. While I don’t sympathize with this doctor anymore than the first one, I think that the premise is somewhat more believable this time. A big shot doctor’s daughter is dying. After numerous attempts to cure her, nothing will work except for an orgran transplant. Deciding to take matters into his own hands when he stumbles upon the perfect person who matches his dying daughter for an organ transplant, he uses his own two hands to take care of the matter. Take care of the matter meaning going as far as stabbing Isshin.

Besides revealing the arc’s bad guy, it looks like Yakumo’s father will be the “final boss” next episode. While I was only partially right about my theory on he was able to stab Isshin, it looks like Ishii’s guess that he’s a spirit just like Takeda was spot on. I can’t imagine how confused Yakumo was when he was staring at his father to see a red version and a normal version of him. When he went as far as to cover his right eye with his hand, it became clear that the man standing in front of everyone was just a spirit. The first thought that popped into my head was how is it even possible for Yakumo to even exist? From what I managed to piece together, Yakumo’s father must have been alive at some point in time. If he was alive when he captured Yakumo’s mother, it would explain how he was able to get her pregnant with Yakumo. Somehow since then, he must have died. After becoming a spirit, it would also explain how he is able to possess others. Of course he could be something so completely different that the rules of being a spirit doesn’t apply to him – maybe those red eyes mean he’s the incarnation of evil or something.

With the finale next week, I’m hoping for some sort of closure with this whole mess. Judging from the preview, it looks like there are going to be some intense action scenes. Isshin you better open your eyes!

Preview