Needless to say, my views of Caster just got worse as a result of this episode.
Given that Irisvel never experience much of the outside world, the way she drives the car on a winding road came at no surprise. It makes me wonder how she can control the car while driving fast considering how steep the incline is along with the turns. Thankfully, there are no cops on the road or otherwise, she will receive a lot of tickets and points on her driving license.
Aside from that, the episode was somewhat disappointing since some of the focus was on Caster. His obsession over resurrecting Joan of Arc makes him a very creepy character. He even goes so far to kidnapping and murdering a bunch of children in hopes that it might happen. This makes sense since he’s based on Gilles de Rais, a leader of the French army that fought along with Joan of Arc. What made me crazy is that he was in complete denial after Saber denies this claim and nearly defeats him. Of course, this is not made any better when Assassin notifies Kirei and others that Caster is in violation of the rules. It’s just a matter of time until he gets crushed under his wicked plans.
Adding insult to injury to El-Melloi’s failure in wasting one of his command seals and Lancer unwilling to let go the idea to fight Saber, something catastrophic happens. Kiritsugu basically has everyone evacuate the hotel except El-Melloi and his wife and then blows it up with explosives, most likely C-4. Although I doubt that they would have died this easily, that scene was spectacular. Who wouldn’t want to see a hotel get blown up just like that?
Compared to the other episodes, this episode wasn’t quite up to par. Although the developments remains interesting, the lack of Weaver/Rider and too much of Caster kind of ruined it. Also, the last part of the episode was just tedious. It seemed like the characters lacked any charisma. Even so, it wasn’t horrible per se, but just underwhelming. Sure you got the big explosion and Irisvel’s crazy driving skills that got people up from their seats, but it wasn’t enough to wash the disappointment away. I just hope the next episode will bring something rewarding after this build up.
Yeah, this was a build-up episode. But hey, we got to see a huge building explode. (lolface)
I do appreciate some of the side conversations in this series (e.g. the one with Archer and Kirei), since they give some interesting things to think about. Kirei’s goal is supposed to be to help Archer’s master win, but I wonder if this conversation is making Kirei think if he should have his own reason for obtaining the Grail. Since the Grail chose him for the war, it means deep down he does have a desire for it, right? It’ll be interesting to see what he decides.
I failed to mention that, but it’s quite amazing that when Archer talked to Kirei, he doesn’t come out with his usual arrogance we have seen in the previous episodes. He seems to be calm. Even so, I still think Kirei is still up to no good since it’s obvious that he wants the grail, but won’t admit it.