So much! So much happens in this episode! We’ve only got two more episodes after this so let’s just go!
1. At The Party
We return to the Alviare, where the Martillo party is still continuing, with Isaac and Miria joining the festivities after being discovered (which, for a bunch of mobsters, not killing these strangers is odd, but it’s Baccano!; every character on this show is a bit odd), including sharing out their “liquor”. But we do get two small scenes here to start this chaotic episode: one between Firo and Maiza, the other seeing Firo reuniting with Ennis. The former is a nice little scene where Firo inquires about how Maiza’s knife wound healed so quickly. It shows Maiza’s care for Firo, but fear of opening up to this little brother figure after Gretto’s death. The latter we’ll talk about more down the list, but it involves Firo trying to return the button that ripped off Ennis’ suit and them getting a small “remeet cute”.
2. Oh Czes, You Poor, Doomed Boy
We get a little bit of the backstory with Czes: specifically the time between the Advenna Avis and the present when he was under the “care” of Fermet, another immortal. And by “care”, I mean Fermet decided to test the limits of their immortality on Czeslaw, including things like dips in an acid bath and being set on fire. It goes to establish why Czes is not only incredibly jaded, but is so terrified of other immortals that he’s willing to kill all the people on the train to find the immortal and devour them.
And then to make matter worse, who does Czes run into on the train? The Rail Tracer. Who is not happy to say the least with this little not-child trying to hurt the passengers on the train. Feel like I should mention for the more squeamish of readers, fingers get smashed. Throats get smashed.
Remember: Claire’s the most popular character on this show.
3. The Meeting of Immortals
For most of the show, this meeting has been teased: Maiza Avaro and Szilard Quates. The reluctant immortal and the monstrous devourer. There is a load of tension with this scene, considering its taking place right in the middle of the Alviare with a bunch of innocent speakeasy patrons. We learn that since Gretto, Szilard has devoured seventeen more of their fellow immortals and used the knowledge he attained to create the imperfect Elixir that Dallas and his cronies were imbued with a few episodes ago. It’s generally creepy how Szilard describes why he wants the finished Elixir, he simply want the knowledge behind it. Pure obsession and greed.
R. Bruce Elliot does a real good job selling that malevolence in Szilard’s voice, but have to give a nod to Maiza’s voice actor, Sean Hennigan. Throughout most of the show, Maiza had an accent neutral voice, but when he finally meets Szilard, he does subtly slip into the speech pattern he had aboard the Advenna Avis. Not fully, but just enough to notice. It’s a real good touch.
4. “The World is Mine”
Let’s get ready for another signature scene from Baccano!, the three way match on the train roof: it starts as Ladd vs. Chane Round 2. It’s another great display of action as Ladd taunts Chane. Earlier, Ladd had a “chat” with one of the Lemures and learned all about their goals, including Huey, and how the Lemures planned to get rid of Chane once they had Huey. So Ladd taunts Chane about wanting to kill Huey himself and planting the idea that maybe Huey is planning to betray Chane as well. Chane does not take it lightly and gets in a couple good licks, including preventing herself from fall off the train by stabbing into the side of the train and climbing back up. Before she can prepare a counterattack, she is stopped…
By Claire.
Claire tries to get an apology from Chane for nearly lobbing his ear off stabbing the side of the train, however, once he realizes she can’t talk, immediately apologizes. Ladd doesn’t appreciate being ignored and tries to attack Claire, who dodges expertly. Realizing that both Chane and Huey were opposed to the Lemures plan, Claire puts his full focus on Ladd, who chides the blood-soaked assassin for protecting people weaker than him just because he can. Claire doesn’t deny, because he’s not going to be killed anyway. We finally get the above line, “The world is mine”, and it truly describes Claires abilities and philosophy to a tee.
Continued below5. Everything Begins to Blow Up
Hoooo boy, the last ten minutes are a rapid fire of scenes. We first learn what Ennis is. She’s a homunculus, an artificial human created through the use of Szilard’s immortal cells and a whole lot of other science babble (something Firo lampshades, asking if Ennis could use smaller words). Basically, she is practically Szilard’s slave since he can essentially shut down her heart by thought alone, something Firo finds abhorrent. Their scene is interrupted by Dallas and his goons arriving. On top of that, some of the Martillos try to kill Szilard. When that fails, Szilard whips out a tommy gun from under his coat and unloads on them. On top of that, on the Flying Pussyfoot, Jacuzzi and his gang begin their rescue of the train passengers. On top of that, over in Eve’s storyline, after Luck and co. give Gustavo a trouncing, Don Runorata arrives and puts it plainly, he wants to know where Dallas Genoard is. And that’s how the episode ends.
Like I said: rapid-fire. There’s only two episodes of the main story left and this last crunch of plotlines was want to give someone whiplash.
