Here is where things get interesting.  Let’s recap real quickly what we already know:  Akane has run away from her family, Celty is on a job looking for her, Ryuugamine questions his friendship with Masaomi and his leadership in the Dollars, Anri is coming to grips with the fact that she can’t be loose of her Saika form and then there’s the awesome Varona.

This episode just like a lot of the others this season has been jumping around with numerous time-skips to achieve exactly what it’s been wanting to do since the premiere–  a war throughout Ikebukuro.  Something Izaya wants to see happen because he’s bored and Aoba is at the cusp of setting a lot of it up!  It’s episodes like these I really enjoy because while there is a lot of disjointed situational material happening all at once it does converge at some point.

Aoba and his Blue Squares/Dollars’ group are finally giving x2Shou some weight this series hasn’t had very much of.  Whoever wrote this episode did a wonderful job of setting up the notion that Rokujo Chikage would be going to meet up at the warehouse where Ryuugamine and the Blue Squares are along with Celty, Sloan and Varona but in actuality he’s put the idea in his head that Kadota’s group are the ones causing this mess!  It’s because of this that his enounter with Kadota comes off so strongly.  This gives a solid balance between the other muscle-strong character of this series–  Shizuo.  He’s getting caught up in the situation because he’s different and while he is a Dollars member doesn’t exactly follow them which is why his “acting-alone” scenarios gets him caught up in being wanted for kidnapping and murder!

I’m curious though if its intentional on the part of Izaya’s plan to distort Ryuugamine’s ideals as the founder of the Dollars and shift his character as an antagonist!

Did anyone else notice Shizuo’s smile–  overjoyed that Izaya is the one that set him up with Akane wanting to kill him.  Ryuugamine also had a smile representing his possibilities in obtaining more power while staying behind the scenes.  Speaks a lot about the characters in this show and their ulterior motives.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 7/10

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