FULL EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD
What's gonna work? Teamwork!
I get the feeling that's what this episode was going for, as Sinon saves Kirito's life, and then Kazuto saves Shino's life. Because that's how things work, I guess.
Coming off of last week's episode, this one was filled with pretty much just as much excitement, as we get to see the big battle between Kirito and Death Gun, as well as find out who it was that was going to kill Shino as the other Death Gun. It's a pretty clever twist, too. The pieces have been there all along, but it's a character you never really thought could be the one to do it. That said, also, they do make him pretty over the top, almost as if he goes from normal to crazy in the flip of a switch. His motivation is also a little outlandish, but we'll cover that as we move along on the SAOII hype train.
I'm just glad that the SAO-feel of the fighting doesn't at all leave during Kirito's duel with Death Gun. Yeah he uses his gun, but when you kick in a variation of "Swordland" and constantly have the image of Kirito from Aincrad over his GGO avatar, you get that real feeling of "oh yeah, it's Aincrad time."
The episode starts with Kirito fighting a rather hopeless battle as Death Gun puts him completely on the defensive, able to block all of Kirito's attacks as well as move too quickly for Kirito to be able to counter. He also scores several hits on Kirito, lowering his health significantly. Meanwhile, Sinon wonders what she can possibly do, and figures that there is only one thing: shoot Death Gun.
720 no scope. Here we go.
Back in the real world, Asuna and Yui hold Kirito's hand (well, they put the tablet with Yui's program underneath his hand) to try and remind him that they're there. It's cheesy, yeah, but I really don't expect much else at this point. Plus, it's brief and easy to get over.
As the fight progresses in GGO, Kirito tries hard to remember anything about that battle, and rather conveniently just then remembers that Death Gun in SAO also had red eyes, and through a pre-raid meeting, remembers that his name is Xaxa. Also, fun fact: Xaxa was there the day of the whole Grisalda/ Grimlocke thing, one of the members Kirito forced away. The grudge continues.
Death Gun, in shock, finds himself in real trouble as Sinon's bullet line appears on his chest. Go Sinon! Kirito makes his move, using his heightened reflexes to pull out his gun before Death Gun can disappear and disable his arm, then slices him right in half because he's Kirito and he tends to do that to a lot of people. Thus, Death Gun is finally defeated, and now, all that remains is Kirito and Sinon.
The fight is slightly underwhelming given how easily Kirito beats Death Gun, but given the rest of the episode, it does kind of need to be short. Plus, like I said, Kirito does have a tendency to slice and dice people. The revelation Kirito gets could have come at any time in the season, but I'm glad that they do acknowledge what I brought up a few reviews ago: they would have had a meeting to discuss the major players in Laughing Coffin, and if Death Gun were a leader, they would have to know his name at some point. It was just so convenient for it to happen here, and was basically the ace in the hole for defeating Death Gun.
Kirito and Sinon both exchange their personal information--after Kirito asks for Sinon's so he can head over there with the police immediately following this--then Sinon blows the two of them up so they can both be technically the winners of BoB3. In the rest of GGO, people are celebrating for some reason. Um, why? I doubt anyone would be that happy that Sinon and Kirito won, because I doubt anyone put bets on there being two winners, as well as those two winners being Sinon and Kirito. Heck, I doubt anyone bet on Kirito in the first place! Why are you celebrating, you just lost real world money?!
Before Kirito logs out, he notices that there was indeed another player who was killed--with the creative name of Garrett--meaning that Death Gun had a second accomplice.
Shino wakes up and is alone in her apartment. For as quick a scene as it is, it's a pretty suspenseful moment as she looks around her apartment. You're left waiting for someone to pop out, for someone to attack her with the syringe. It's made even more tense when the doorbell rings. Oooooh who could it be?
Why none other than Shinkawa, who logged right out to congratulate her following her victory. He does commend her for what she's done, and she reluctantly accepts. He then asks if he can start dating her now, since she told him to wait for her just before the tournament started. You can start to tell now that something isn't totally right with him, and that creeping suspicion of who Death Gun's partner really is starts to bring itself to light.
When he makes a physical advance on Shino, she kicks him away, then, he draws out a syringe, putting it right on Shino's side, though not injecting her. That's right, Shinkawa was the second Death Gun. He was even the one who was controlling Sterben up until BoB3.
Whoooaaaaa. For me, that actually came out of left-field, I can say I didn't see it coming. I started to realize it only when Shinkawa showed up at Shino's house, as he would have had just enough time to get out when Death Gun was killed. But, the pieces were all there for him to be the second Death Gun: he lives close to Shino, probably knows how to get in he's been there so many times, and his parents do work at a hospital. We also find out that his brother is the other Death Gun, as he was trapped in SAO as Xaxa. Again: why wasn't he arrested?
But, this also does sort of put to rest the idea of his brother being in jail affecting anything. Shinkawa could probably convince other people to join his little crusade and all he would have to do is steal the syringes from the hospital with the drugs in them and bam. He's pretty much Death Gun. Thus, they wouldn't really need Xaxa, just his name.
Shinkawa's motivation for doing all of this, though, is pretty weak. He only started to kill people with his brother because he wanted to be the best in GGO, because he was tricked out of a few wins and that's what held him from getting all the way to the top. So, he created Death Gun to make people fear him and kill other players that were in his way, such as Zexceed and maybe even Dark Wind had Sinon not stopped him in game.
Here's where things get a bit...looney. He begs Shino to join him in leaving behind the real world and spending out their lives in the virtual world, where they can restart and forget all of this happened. Shino is, obviously, too overwhelmed by fear and confusion to do anything, given how if she makes one false move she's dead in minutes. Thus, she momentarily blacks out.
In a strange limbo-y place, Shino is curled up, wondering how she can be strong in this moment of great terror, when Sinon arrives and asks her to put up one final fight not for herself, but for Kirito.
Thus, Shino is able to wrestle Shinkawa out of the way and scramble to the door, nearly getting free but his dragged back by Shinkawa, who hysterically calls out her name. You know, the way he's drawn, he looks like the Titan that killed Eren's mom from Attack on Titan (haven't referenced that show in forever, sheesh, feels good to do so again!). Kinda funny.
Before he get his way with Shino again, none other than FREAKING KAZUTO KIRIGAYA busts through the door, knees Shinkawa away, and starts to wrestle him down, yelling for Shino to run away, ending the episode.
Yoooooo Kazuto in the house.
Anyway this episode is a lot of fun. The final battle with Death Gun had a small dip but was otherwise great and pretty much better than we could have hoped, given how it's a sword-fight and all. The stuff with Shinkawa feels forced but the twist with him was clever. Had they toned down the lunacy, it would have made for probably a more unsettling and startling moment rather than have him be some kid whose mad that he can't win a videogame.
Next time, though, will Kazuto and Shino be able to defeat the final boss? Will this arc ever really end?! And where are the police?! Who knows! See you then.
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