Blood+ – 13

Summary:
Saya, who is still incapacitated by the song, is carried by Hagi into a large room inside the mansion. After she sees a dismembered hand land by her, Saya’s eyes become focused on a painting of some ruins and she enters an imaginary world of blue skies. She sees a blue rose and her family, but then the world turns red and she remembers the events of that night in Vietnam and Hagi trying to stop her. These memories initiate her killing mode, so when Kai stumbles into the room, he finds that she’s been indiscriminately attacking friend and foe. Karl is very happy that Saya has been awakened and the two start to charge at each other, but Kai’s shout stops them and reverts Saya back to her normal state. An upset Karl lunges at Kai, but is stopped by a telepathic message from Solomon. After Karl escapes, Kurara – the victim of Saya’s blade – tells Saya that she’s the only one who can protect the future, a statement which reminds Saya of what her father told her before he died. After everyone leaves, Kurara blows herself and several of the Chiropterans up with a hand grenade.
Saya asks Kai to go get Riku while she heads outside. At that time, Riku is comforting a scared Mui, who is developing cracks in her skin. Kai finds them, but after seeing Mui, he pushes her away. Riku protects her and claims there’s nothing wrong with her. Outside, Karl, Solomon, and Van are confronted by Saya, Hagi, and David. Karl transforms into his full vampire form while Solomon and Van escape on the waiting helicopters. While Saya is fighting Karl (with little success), David jumps onto one of the escaping helicopters. However, a soldier on the other helicopter (the one Van and Solomon are on), fires a rocket that destroys the one David is on, though David himself survives. When Kai emerges from the house with Riku, Mui, and some children, he sees Saya falling to the ground after Karl has crushed the bones in her hands. Kai diverts Karl’s attention by throwing rocks, but by then Mui and the other children seem to have transformed into Chiropterans and hold the two boys down, ready to eat them. They pause when Saya gets up and swears that she’ll stop them (Karl and company) and what they’re doing to children. She manages to cut one of Karl’s legs, but a smart Karl escapes by cutting off his own leg so that the crystallization effect doesn’t kill him. In the aftermath, Mui and the other children are put in cages, and the group is hopeful that they can return them to their previous form. Meeting inside the mansion, Kai tells David that he wants to protect Saya from now on. He, along with Riku, later vows to help Saya and tells her not to shoulder the burden alone because they are in this together as a family.

This is another episode where Blood+ really lives up to its name with dismembered hands and legs, several dead bodies, and gallons of blood. As was expected, none of the new Red Shield people make it through the arc, though at least Kurara got to go out with bang. I thought Karl was done for, but I guess he made his escape to fight another day. I really didn’t expect him to cut off his leg, but that is smart thinking. I had also thought that Mui would have to be killed in front of Riku, but that didn’t happen either.
The music and the painting seemed to make Saya go crazy again, but she takes that trip through her mind first. They showed that Hagi was indeed present during the incident in Vietnam, though I guess he was unable to stop her. And when Hagi tries to knock her out here, she ends up sucking his blood (mid-battle refreshment lol). But when the song stops, she seems to be able to go red-eyed w/o losing control over herself, which deepens the mystery of Diva even more. As for next episode, it seems that Saya is returning to Okinawa. I’m definitely looking forward to the new OP and ED next week.