Episode 5 review

Episode 6 is the most I’ve enjoyed the game since Episode 3. There was a lot of well executed drama, a number of character arcs reached their climax, and the commentary on fiction writing that I found extremely interesting last episode continues here.

I was both surprised and delighted to see Ange again, though I’m a little bit confused as to the nature of her current existence. At first I just assumed that she was an Ange from a different fragment, but she seems to have a faint recollection of her death from Episode 4? So maybe she’s been resurrected? Who knows, this game plays with the rules of its world so frequently that I’m just going along with whatever happens at this point, assuming there will be a payoff. She meets up with a new character, Featherine, a witch who asks her to read the events of this Episode to her. It’s through Ange and Featherine that the author continues the commentary of fiction writing, specifically the relationship between the author and the reader. Featherine specifically encourages Ange (and by extension, the reader) to be active when reading the story, and try to theorize the answers to the various mysteries that have been taking place over the course of this Episode as well as the previous ones. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but that’s more or less what I’ve been doing, both with these reviews I’ve been writing for each Episode as well as recording my thoughts in a diary on my personal Discord server as I read. It makes me feel a little proud that I’ve been such a nerd about this, even if my theories and guesses haven’t been completely on base.

Without being the least bit discreet about it, this Episode’s key theme is love. Right off the bat, it hits us with a flashforward of Battler in a state similar to that of Beato from the previous episode about to marry Erika Furudo. Opening the Episode like this was definitely a shock and a great hook, but I think I would’ve rather the Episode didn’t open this way. I think by revealing that Battler loses the Game he sets up for Erika before we even get a chance to see the Game take place, a lot of the tension is taken away from the Game itself, since we now know before we even see it happen that Erika wins. This scene could’ve been cut altogether and this Episode would’ve been better off for it. The scenes that take place within Battler’s mind of trying to get out of the locked room Logic Error could’ve served as foreshadowing that he loses the Game on their own, the flashforward really didn’t feel necessary.

With Battler having obtained the abilities of a witch at the end of the last episode, he attempts to revive Beato but fails, and instead creates a new Beatrice who’s devoted to him but retains none of her original personality. Her journey throughout this episode of trying to reconcile with Battler and live up to the original Beatrice’s legacy and personality was predictable but satisfying nonetheless, and the payoff with her rescue of Battler during this Episode’s Tea Party was phenomenal.

I have some mixed feelings about the three way duel of love between George and Shannon, Jessica and Kanon, and Battler and the reborn Beatrice. On the one hand, they managed to reach the height of their character arcs. George in particular battling Eva-Beatrice as a way of symbolizing him breaking free from the confines of his mother’s ambitions was great. Jessica and Kanon realizing and coming to terms with the lengths that they’d go to for one another was also fantastic. The thing is… they’re still killing members of their own family for the sake of their relationships. I guess it ultimately doesn’t matter since it’s all a part of the Game, but… isn’t that kind of the point?

Their duel was ultimately less about love and more for the promised power to make their love come true, which ties back into another one of Umineko’s core themes: about the corruption and loss of humanity that power brings. On the surface, seeing these characters grow like this might feel rewarding. When you think about it though, even if the family members they killed were sacrifices for the First Twilight and everything is just going to be undone by the next Episode, it’s still really screwed up. It also calls into question the very morality of Battler being the Game Master in the first place. After all, he’s the one orchestrating the deaths of his own family now. It kinda makes me wonder if I’m thinking about this too hard, but given how the author seems to be using the character of Featherine to push their readers into critically thinking about their works, I’m hoping that I’m not a huge killjoy for coming to this conclusion.

Speaking of critically thinking about the story, I have to admit, I don’t think I ever would’ve figured out the solution for the locked room Logic Error puzzle myself. I did actually try to think it through and I came to the conclusion that there must be some unaccounted for person who would come to help Battler. While I did guess that someone would come to help him, I didn’t think it would be Kanon after losing the western-themed shootout to Shannon. The solution felt a little cheap. I don’t know how anyone would figure it out based on the hint from Zepar and Furfur. “Without love, you cannot see it” was the hint they’d given and I guess I sort of understand what they meant by that, but it feels like a huge stretch. Basically it meant that without Kanon and his newfound understanding and appreciation for love, there was no way out for Battler. But I truly can’t imagine anyone would actually predict that Kanon would die and his ghost would swap places with Battler before fading away. Not based on this hint at least.

I feel like I should give my thoughts on Erika since she’s essentially the primary antagonist in this Episode, but truth be told, I don’t have any particularly strong feelings regarding her. I think she serves her role as the antagonist fine but she doesn’t really stand out a whole lot as a character herself. It might be because we’re not really given much insight into why she is the way that she is. She briefly discusses that she was with a man who cheated on her and that caused her to lose all faith in love. This could be interpreted as a tie-in with Zepar and Furfur’s hint to the locked room solution, which would mean that this aspect of her is actually really smart foreshadowing regarding the ending of the Episode. Erika was not able to figure out how Battler escaped the room because she lacked faith in love. I also like the relationship Erika has with Dlanor. Otherwise… I dunno, I struggle to say much else about her. She’s pretty much just a puppet for Bernkastel and she served her role as an antagonist well up until she was defeated.

The ending felt really sweet but also really sudden, and there’s a lot of questions left unanswered still. Something I really want to highlight is that since it was specified that Furniture do not count as one whole person, then this recontextualizes the previous episodes in a really dramatic way. Again, I can’t remember for sure, but I’m almost certain that at some point during the previous Episodes it was stated with the red truth that there have always been 18 people on Rokkenjima. If Kinzo has been dead the entire time and Furniture (Kanon and Shannon) do not count as one whole person, then that means there is definitely one other individual that hasn’t been accounted for in all of the previous Episodes. I really hope that I’m right about this and that I’m not misremembering. If I am right about it, I’m going to assume that the unaccounted for person is actually the baby that Natsuhi was forced to adopt, and they have been the actual real world killer during the rituals this entire time.

I’m super excited to see if I’m right. This Episode’s “????” has shown that Bernkastel is going to be the next Game Master, and will be creating a game for the sake of seeing if Featherine’s theories are true. Even though it feels like the primary narrative has come to an end, there’s still a lot left unanswered in Umineko, and there’s still two more Episodes to go. I’m coming up on the end, and I’m really hoping that these last couple of Episodes deliver some satisfying answers.