Summary
- The opening scene of Episode 9 provides a familiar yet effective setup of werewolves facing prejudice and mob mentality.
- The town doctor's inconsistencies and suspicious behavior raise doubts about his involvement in the disappearances and deaths of young girls.
- The show encourages viewers to pay close attention to details and question the contradictions they see, creating a rewarding and engaging mystery experience.
Warning: This may contain spoilers for Undead Murder Farce, Episode 9, "Werewolves", now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The way a mystery begins can be very telling of how it might progress, because the audience may be privileged with information or context that the detective does not have. Whether it is misdirection or an answer hiding in plain sight, it influences how the viewer will take in all the clues, and it's how Undead Murder Farce's latest case gets off to an engrossing start.
Last week, after Moriarty decided to crash the party, he revealed that his plan was to use the Penultimate Night to find the last remaining werewolves and use them to create a powerful soldier. Thanks to Shinuchi's clever sleight of hand, they managed to retrieve the diamond and seek out the "Forest of Fangs" themselves, hoping to catch Moriarty and stop him for good.
The Fears of Men
Episode 9's opening scene begins eight years prior to the main story, where a werewolf and her daughter, presumably a young werewolf in human form, take shelter from an angry mob. It's a familiar sight seen in countless stories about creatures of the night who attempt to live among men, only to be found out and made into targets of prejudice and mob mentality.
In this way, it's a rather unoriginal setup, but that isn't to say it is not effective, especially considering what the rest of the episode does with it. Back in the present, a werewolf has allegedly been kidnapping and killing young women, the most recent of which is Louise, a girl bound to a wheelchair. Four girls, all between ages 11 and 15, and the bite marks on the first three all matched, meaning a single perpetrator, yet something doesn't seem right.
The town doctor, Heinemann, went to the trouble of mentioning that all the disappearances occurred on rainy nights. However, it didn't rain when Louise appeared, and he seemed pretty flustered when that inconsistency was brought up. When Rindo asks if they were sure the bodies belonged to the missing girls, he says they definitely were, but if he's the only doctor in this small town, he could have lied.
Heinemann and Louise's father, Gustav, were both front and center during the lynching of the werewolf in the opening scene, so it's easy to be suspicious of their innocence. While it could be the story's intention to take advantage of an audience's potential bias, Gustav isn't doing himself any favors. He even interjects and answers for his wife when Rindo asks for her whereabouts before the kidnapping. In general, the wife's gaze shifts constantly, as if nervous.
But the single greatest clues are the ones that are handed straight to the viewer, and not just in the opening scene, but a small moment later on, when Rindo introduces herself to the villagers. No matter how many times it happens, Rindo revealing her form to new people never gets old. Not only is it shocking, but she can observe everyone's faces and reactions and sus out important details about them at a glance.
Funnily, her affliction comes with a built-in boost to her perceptive talents through the sheer force of shock value. In response to Rindo's words, Gustav remembers something, like a bad memory flashing intrusively, and the audience sees it too. A girl with ears growing out of her head. Perhaps Gustav saw his own daughter turn into a werewolf.
Crafting A Satisfying Mystery
Not everyone watches mysteries the same way, so perhaps this next appraisal might not be relatable, but it feels as if this show is progressively encouraging the viewer to look more carefully. Back during the first mystery, it felt like one had to race to catch up to Rindo's intellect, but now, it feels like the viewer and Rindo are operating on a similar playing field.
One might argue that this particular mystery might just be easier to solve. After all, the use of dramatic irony does give the audience an advantage, but it's not as if the answers have been simply handed to the audience. Even if Louise is a werewolf, it doesn't answer why girls are disappearing, whether they actually died, and where they went if they didn't. But that clue - hand-wrapped for the viewer - encourages them to question the contradictions they see.
For nine episodes, this show's attention to detail has been praiseworthy, down to the slightest twitches or sideways glances, and this mystery is no different. It's a rewarding feeling when one can pick up on something that doesn't feel right and have those suspicions validated. Furthermore, once a viewer starts to think like a detective, there's a unique kind of investment built, where they need to keep watching to see if they are right.
After Moriarty's plot was revealed, there was a moment where it seemed as though the story would prioritize stopping him over any new mysteries like these. Thankfully, this was not the case because Undead Murder Farce is at its best when it marries classic mystery setups with the supernatural. The only disappointment is knowing that it will end soon.