Thank god for this episode.

A few weeks ago, I probably would have called this series my favorite of the season, but that always seems to switch around. Last summer, it was No. 6, which quickly changed to Mawaru Penguindrum. During the fall, it was still Penguindrum, but Mirai Nikki was up there. Winter rolled around and I started Daily Lives of High School Boys a little too late, but it pretty much trumped Mirai Nikki. I didn’t watch Another at the time, but I wish I did because even that one would have trumped Nichibros.

Anyway, I don’t think I could consider this series to be my absolute favorite of the season. That might have to go to Sakamichi no Apollon.

However, I am only basing this on the fact that Lupin the Third had two episodes that left me either bored or confused (or both).

Thankfully, this episode rolled around and redeemed itself.

Oh look. Another Oscar episode where he is gay and batshit insane. Loving it!

We pretty much get some backstory on Oscar in this episode. We also discover he rather enjoys crossdressing. When Oscar was a young orphan boy, he jumped into a river to escape some bullies, but he was saved by Zenigata. From that day forward, Oscar vowed to protect Zenigata and ride his dick.

With Fujiko stealing stuff all over the place, Zenigata has been put on the case to capture Fujiko, which means he has to forget about Lupin for the time being. Oscar promises to capture Fujiko for him so he does not have to waste time on her.

Meanwhile, in a cabin in the mountains, Goemon has taken in Fujiko and tried to take care of her after her somewhat mental breakdown. Goemon finally learns that Fujiko isn’t as pure and lovely as he initially thought. However, a radio report states that Fujiko plans on stealing Duchess Langley’s tiara. Now that can’t be right, because Fujiko has been holed up in her room wallowing in self misery.

So to find out what the fuck is going on, and to find out more about Fujiko, Goemon sets off on a journey.

The police are hard at work trying to apprehend Fujiko, but even Zenigata suspects something is not right. He is able to notice that there were no signs of her breaking in, but the tiara had been stolen and swapped with a fake. Lupin is also able to notice this farce as well. Calling cards are so not Fujiko’s style. It was pretty obvious it wasn’t her. The both come to the conclusion that this was a setup conducted from within the police department.

And they’re both right. The culprit turns out to be none other than….

Oscar!

So Oscar pretty much straight up murders someone in order to get Zenigata more involved in the case. Afterwards, he is confronted by those damn owls. They have done their research on Oscar, even revealing what they know about Oscar’s violent passionate gay crush on Zenigata.

But the owl people give Oscar an opportunity to help him get what he wants, while stealing the Bride of Fear.

Meanwhile, Goemon stops to get a caricature by a street artist.

Unfortunately, Fujiko discovers that Goemon isn’t around, but also hears a radio report about the fake her going around and stealing tiaras and murdering people. The mention of a tiara triggers another memory of her past where the owl people give her electroshock treatment. Once again, this reminds her that she needs to kill Fujiko Mine. Oh boy.

Jesus, how horrible can these people get?

And the icing on the cake is that the owl people are also surveillancing her at that cabin. Either they’re incredibly crafty, or Goemon has a deal made with them. We shall see.

A bomb threat has been made to the police and Lupin listens in on the conversation. The bomb is set to go off during the festival, but because it is so important to the city, they cannot just cancel it. Zenigata reports to the police that Fujiko is definitely not the one behind this. Oscar tries to persuade him that it’s her, but Zenigata is way too smart for this. While he doesn’t necessarily believe in Fujiko, he believes in what he can see (which is that she’s obviously not the criminal).

It seems that Lupin isn’t the only one listening in on the conversation either.

The plan for Oscar and the owl men is to make the bomb go off in the middle of the bridge, causing a ruckus for the parade. When Oscar goes to the bride, he is is to pretend to protect her, but then steal the dress and act as if Fujiko did it.

Goemon attempts to stop the parade by slashing trees with his sword, but instead the parade route is changed. Meanwhile, Lupin finds the bomb under the bridge and attempts to diffuse it using glue to hold the owl in place.

Oscar meets up with Zenigata, who reminds him of the time when he saved Oscar’s ass. He liked the boy because he held onto his pride. Zenigata states that by saving Oscar, he gave up his path to the top of his career. I’m not entire sure what that had to do with his career, but I think the reason why Oscar finally lost it was because Zenigata said he believed in those who held onto pride, and at this point Oscar had no pride left, resorting to cheap imitation to get want he wanted. This is why he chose to believe in Fujiko rather than Oscar.

And so Oscar goes off running and screaming and meets up with Lupin. Since there is no way to diffuse the bomb in time, Oscar grabs onto it and commits sudoku by jumping into the river.

The episode ends with a really gay dream where Oscar wears a wedding dress and flies in the sky, reaching out for Zenigata, but just before he can get to him, an owl shows up, ready to take its prey.

Welp.

Don’t get me wrong guys. I love Oscar and I think he’s a great character. Hell, I would go as far to say he’s my favorite Yandere (Sorry Yuno!).

But he is some kind of stupid, you know? While I felt sad that he died, I couldn’t help but rub it in the faces of my friends who were all “WAAAAAAAAH OSCAR WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????”

And by that, I mean I showed them a lot of fanart inspired by this episode. Bwahahaha.

However, there is a possibility that he isn’t dead. People have suspected that the owl swooping in at the very last minute may imply that the owl men jumped in the scene to spare his life, rather than let him die with fond memories of Zenigata.

Personally, I hope he stays dead. As much as I love him, I feel like a death like this is fitting for someone of his character. Plus, there are only two more episodes left and they have to get rid of him somehow. He doesn’t show up in the original series.

Regardless of the death of one of my favorite characters, I felt this was a very strong episode and ended up being one of my favorites so far. Hopefully, we can see Fujiko recover from her downfall soon. It’s sad to see someone like her feel this way. I also hope for more involvement from Goemon. Does he have an alliance with the owl men? We shall see!

Episode 11 Eyecatches: