After the absolutely gut wrenching episode last week, I was almost too nervous to tune in for this episode. But boy, oh boy, am I glad I did. Set in the evening before Ray’s birthday and his ultimate departure date, this week was a rollercoaster of emotions. There was shock, horror, vindication – it had it all. But most of all, it gave me some hope.
Emma and Ray continue their talk from the end of the last episode. Emma reveals that while Isabella has been keeping a close eye on the two of them, it has made her negligent of the other children. As such, over the last month, Don and Gilda have taken the lead in finishing preparations for the escape. At midnight, Ray starts a fire in the house, intending to burn up along with it. Emma manages to save him, and together get all the children to the wall. All the children save for one.
Burn baby burn: I have to say I screamed when Ray started pouring the gasoline all over himself. In his mind, he saw it as the only want to ensure that everyone could escape. The farm would burn to the ground and Isabella would be too focused on trying to get to him to notice the other children. But, what really broke my heart about this scene was that (as Norman explains) Ray never considered that he could live. For the last six years he’s been planning non-stop to ensure his best friends get to survive in his stead.
Play it by ear: Another testament to Emma’s smarts and quick thinking! With the warning from Norman, Emma knew exactly how to stop Ray from burning himself alive. Although, it was a little surprising how she cut off his tracker ear and her own to trick Isabella. There was zero hesitation, which I guess goes to show exactly how far they will go to escape.
Norman lives on!: I’m still not ready to believe Norman is dead, but I’m glad to see him still playing a role. From perhaps the hour he saw the cliff to going back to Isabella and the house, he concocted an elaborate escape plan. My sweet genius boy *sobs*
Sneak 100: I was probably screaming for twenty minutes straight during this episode, but fell deathly silent in the final scene. All the excitement and cheer for the group left, and my stomach dropped when I saw Phil with Isabella.
Knowing Looks: Not so much trivia, but I recommend you to go back to recent episodes, especially episode nine, to see how the children react around Norman’s departure and Isabella in general. Now that you know the children were told the orphanage-farm’s secret, there’s a lot of nervous looks and fake smiles.
Just when I thought The Promised Neverland couldn’t shock me anymore, they threw me a curve ball. While I did say that Emma looked like she would burn the whole place down, I never actually expected it to happen! Perhaps my biggest surprise this episode was that Norman and Emma had told the other children the truth about their lives so early on. I can’t believe they all managed to keep it under wraps for so long, especially the younger children. Overall, everything seems to be heading towards a positive resolution, or is that just wishful thinking? A final episode point, like I mentioned in my review last week, the series continues to do a great job of capturing the characters’ psychological states on their faces. Ray’s face when he was saying he’ll deprive the demons of their meal by killing himself was particularly haunting.
Now, tin foil hat time again! So based on Isabella’s reactions this episode, I doubt she’s actually hoping the children will escape, like I discussed last week. But time for a new theory involving Phil. As I mentioned above, the final shots of the episode shows Ray realizing they’ve missed someone and then Phil tugging on Isabella’s skirt. He’s either purposely stayed behind or been missed. While I’m not sure which it is, I find it highly unlikely that he’s working for Isabella. If he were an informant like Ray, there would be no real gain from it. Just like Ray, he would only be guaranteed to live until he was twelve. It seems odd to not take the chance to run with the other children. With that in mind, I believe Phil is the leader of a resistance group – I’m only joking! But seriously, I don’t think he will do anything to prevent everyone from escaping.
They are so close to freedom. I can almost taste the demon-infested air! But that’s a problem for another season (fingers crossed). For now, we just have one twenty-minute episode left to see the children escape Isabella’s clutches forever. Fingers and toes crossed – let’s hope they can do it! While we wait for the final episode, make sure to check out the MANGA.TOKYO team’s other episodic reviews for Winter 2019! You can find the full list over here.
The summer anime season is over. We had a few refreshing titles that kept us company through the hot months, but fall is bringing so many new titles and a few sequels we’ve been waiting for a long time.
