In the twelfth episode of Baccano!, this show is still terrifying even though I know most of these people can’t die and I don’t know how I’d ever summarize it for another person. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Baccano!
SWEET BABIES.
“Firo and the Three Gandor Brothers are Felled by Assassins’ Bullets”
- I honestly kept waiting for there to be some twist, some little JUST KIDDING moment to prove it wrong, but WHAT THE FUCK. THE TITLE ISN’T LYING. Like, I didn’t react much to see Firo’s and the Gandors’ bodies laying there next to Ennis’s body because clearly there had to be some explanation for this, but no. NO. DALLAS AND HIS MEN SHOT FIRO AND THE GANDORS
- BUT HOW IS THIS FUCKING POSSIBLE.
- Goddamn this show, goddamn it.
- rachel. RACHEL. THE TRUE HERO OF THIS SERIES. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS. Because this episode reveals that Rachel got hurt and risked her very life in order to save the the Beriams, Nice, Natalie, Mary, and Nick. None of this was required of her, and all she was supposed to do was collect information. BUT SHE DIDN’T. AND I ADORE HER FOR THIS. It’s also not lost on me that her actions are directly contrasted with that of Ladd’s and Claire’s. She specifically said she didn’t want to see any more bloodshed on the Flying Pussyfoot, while those two murderers specifically try to make the opposite happen. Ugh, Rachel, you’re so great.
- Who the hell is the man behind the desk at the Daily Days?
- This is ruining me, I swear.
- Actually, while I don’t want to do anything to diminish Rachel’s heroics, I think that it’s important to acknowledge Jacuzzi’s transformation as a hero, too, particularly in how that affects his own fears. This episode doesn’t ever invalidate his fears either! In fact, when the bartender asks Jacuzzi if he’s scared about trying to rescue Nice, he says that he’s terrified. He’s still scared of what he’s going to face, but he pushes past it. And I think the idea of a hero who is constantly scared but copes with it is just so refreshing.
- Jacuzzi is a huge cutie, I swear. The guy fights Goose on the top of the train while at a distinct disadvantage because he’s amazing. I actually thought that he would use the fire from Goose’s flamethrower to activate the tiny bomb he got from Nice.
- Also, Nice stored a tiny explosive in her eye.
- That’s a thing that this show did, and I’m so stoked about it. Nice is incredible.
- Seriously, everything that happens on the train in this episode is maximum ridiculousness. Y’all, I finally found out why Czeslaw is the way he is, and I’m FUCKED UP. I’M NOT OKAY. I was confused as to why Czeslaw wanted to find another immortal on the train. Why was he so obsessed with that? What would it do for him? I was always missing a key part of his story, though. I don’t know the timeline for the flashback we got here, but I imagine that didn’t happen that long after Czeslaw first became immortal. Fermet’s dialogue suggested that they’d been newly made as immortals, thus inspiring Fermet to test out the limits of that immortality on Czeslaw’s body. Could you imagine the sort of pain and distrust you’d associate with other immortals after an experience like that? I can’t even fathom it, but it completely explains Czeslaw’s solitary nature and his visceral reaction to the very idea of another immortal. And at the same time, he feels guilt for consuming Fermet in self-defense, and I think that detail messed me up the most. That kid was forced to die countless times for someone’s amusement, and I think he had every right to stop it. And yet, he believes that Claire’s torment of him is his punishment.
- Gods, this show is fucked up.
- Meanwhile, Claire is STILL REALLY SCARY. I think even with a re-watch, there are always going to be parts of this show that just won’t make any traditional sort of sense. Claire’s continued monologue in this episode is one of the more surreal elements of Baccano!, a trip that’s part delusion and part violent egoism. This world is not all in Claire’s head, and the episode isn’t trying to make us believe that. However, for Claire, the world seems to revolve around him. And why wouldn’t it for someone like him? He possesses the power to end human life, does so in great numbers, and does so with impunity.
- I also don’t think I’m ever going to get any sort of “explanation” for Lua, so I’m going to go into the “final” episode with my expectations completely lowered/non-existent. I definitely don’t understand her at all, but you know, I don’t fully understand Ladd or Claire either. The show hasn’t exactly strayed for surrealist themes or motifs, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with letting things just be what they are.
- At the same time, I’m perplexed enough by the relationship of Lua and Ladd that I wouldn’t mind finding out why she’s with him and why she seems so perfectly content with the idea that she’ll stick by him until he’s killed the entire planet, saving her for last. It’s clear that she means something to him because he throws himself off the Flying Pussyfoot in order to save her. (Well, save her so that he can kill her.) I’m also assuming that this explains what happens to Ladd’s arm: he… um… punched a water tower? Okay, maybe I have no idea what’s going on.
- ISAAC AND MIRIA. Oh my god, they try to save Czeslaw, and it’s genuinely touching! But the big surprise comes when CLAIRE saves all three of them after Rachel attempts to do so. It’s a demonstration of his earlier-stated philosophy that some people are worth saving, that it makes him powerful to do so. (Except he does say that the “little kid” isn’t worth saving, which… I don’t get it.)
- I think if you cut Baccano! so that it was just Isaac and Miria’s POV, this would be one of the most absurd journeys in the history of the universe.
- The ending of this episode is too much. I still can’t believe this. How are Firo and the Gandors dead??? Can you resurrect human life after it has already expired??? Something has to happen here, because we know Maiza is alive in 1932, as well as Isaac, Miria, and Ennis. HOW? HOW IS THIS RESOLVED?
- I’m off to find out!
The video for Episode 12 can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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