Baccano! Episode 15

"The Delinquents That Arrive at the High-Class Neighborhood Are the Same as Always" is the fifteenth episode and second OVA of the 2007 Baccano! anime.

Funimation Blurb
Here’s what’s what: She wasn’t always scarred. He didn’t bring the money. He brought the bounty on his head. They brought the money and they brought her. She acts very casual for an admitted terrorist. His story is unbelievable. He proves it. She recalls the monster with fondness. He isn’t sure about her. She changes from black to white. That’s not what he meant by alone. The accessories make the dress. She isn’t sure about him. He proposed more than marriage. He’s allowed to contradict himself. He throws a wrench in her plans for a walk through the park. She’s the wrong girl. He’s a hero. He didn’t always have a tattoo on his face. He loves her. He never told her he loved her. Now he has their attention. He’ll fight for her. Here's all you need to know: She recalls the monster with fondness. He didn't bring the money. His story is unbelievable. She's the wrong girl. He didn't always have a tattoo on his face. She wasn't always scarred.
 * First Version
 * Later Version

Recap Scenes
Nice Holystone and Nick watching Chané Laforet and Ladd Russo duel on top of the Flying Pussyfoot (E10); Claire Stanfield pressing Czeslaw Meyer’s hand to the tracks while Rachel looks on (E11); Huey Laforet hugging a young Chané (E14); Graham Specter holding up the Russos' wanted poster of Jacuzzi Splot (E14); Jacuzzi's Gang spotting Chané floating in the river (E01).

Synopsis
In 1926, a young, unscarred Nice Holystone is busy working on one of her explosive experiments the backyard of a building. A chemical reaction to gunpowder goes awry, and she screams in agony as the resulting explosion horrifically burns her face and arms.

Five years later, a still recovering Jacuzzi Splot glances up from his newspaper in 1931 to talk with Nice, who sits in contemplation by his hospital bed. They are soon joined by Nick and Jack, who burst into the room and clamber onto Jacuzzi's bed so as to share the good news: they've found buyers in a miner friend and a Hollywood movie technician for the explosives they stole from the Flying Pussyfoot. The money is nothing to sneeze at - five thousand dollars apiece, and two hundred apiece for the empty hand grenades.

Jacuzzi is pleased with their report, but pauses when Nick, now grave, informs him that the retrieval team fished a woman out of the river. Then, at Nice's question, Nick clarifies: "The woman in the black dress." Jacuzzi asks if the woman is a friend of theirs, but Nick is reluctant to call her one. He adds that they brought the woman back with them, since they could not risk handing her over to the police. Mulling this over, Jacuzzi suggests that Nick introduce her to him.

Nick stands and calls out for the woman to enter. Jacuzzi introduces himself as soon as Chané Laforet steps inside the room, and asks for her name. She stares at him, silent.

Title card.

Some time later, Chané is reading a newspaper article about her imprisoned father Huey Laforet when Jacuzzi hobbles into the otherwise empty room. The hospital will not yet approve his release, and he jokes about Chané being his nurse before hastily assuring her that she can continue reading her newspaper. He remarks that he has little interest in newspapers as it is, and then just as hastily qualifies that he is not making fun of her for reading one. So saying, he makes himself comfortable in his bed. Jacuzzi glances over at the newspaper, which Chané has folded, and remembers seeing a headline announcing the transportation of the terrorist Huey from Canada to America. He asks Chané if she is related to him, since they share the last name Laforet. Chané straightens, her eyes widening, and Jacuzzi immediately stutters out apologies and assurances that she does not have to answer if she does not want to.

While he stammers, Chané grabs a notepad and pen and writes down that Huey is her father, and that she was one of the terrorists who attacked the train. Jacuzzi smiles a little and admits that he had already guessed as much from the way Nice and Nick had been behaving. Chané asks why he and his gang had not turned her over to the police, and Jacuzzi confesses that while he cannot excuse the Black Suits for their actions, his gang stole some cargo from the train and as such need to avoid the police. He adds that Chané seems like a good person, and at her surprise immediately backtracks and says that though he may not know whether she is good or not, all that matters is that they are friends.

Chané writes one last response onto the notepad, lays it on Jacuzzi's bed, and walks away. Jacuzzi picks it up; she has written that she 'does not understand [his gang] at all." He wonders if she means Nice and Donny.

Rachel and Czeslaw Meyer approach the back of the Alveare, their conversation on immortals and relevant events having concluded. At Rachel's overwhelmed, near disbelieving expression, Czes demonstrates his immortality by slicing a long, shallow cut down the skin of his right forearm. The cut heals near instantly, causing Rachel to gasp. He asks her if she finally believes him, and she nods. Czes tells her to continue treating him like a child despite his seniority, for which she thanks him - albeit addressing him as "sir," which she swiftly corrects. The two share a smile, only to be interrupted when Claire Stanfield opens the back door of the Alveare from its interior. Claire blinks in momentary surprise to see them, but smiles readily and pleasantly at their coincidental encounter with one another. As he joins them, he says that he had stopped by to pay his friend Firo Prochainezo, only to learn that Firo had headed off somewhere with a couple of acquaintances. Not wanting to be a fifth wheel, Claire had opted to head home.

Claire asks what Rachel and Czes are doing and if they are now friends. Rachel and Czes share a mutually nonplussed glance, neither recognizing him.

Elsewhere, Chané stands alone in a corridor and thinks back to Claire's talk with her on the roof of the Flying Pussyfoot. She shakes her head at the memory, her face tense. Meanwhile, Nick, Nice, Donny, Jon Panel, and Fang Lin-Shan hold court in a room in the Genoard mansion on what to do about her; Nick is of the opinion that involving themselves with Chané will only bring the gang unwanted trouble and police attention. Fang agrees, pointing out that she was one of the hijacking terrorists. Jon is far more concerned about making trouble for the Genoard Family than anything else, but Nice shuts him and the others down by affirming that Jacuzzi has already made up his mind on the situation. That, and while she may not know much about Chané, she knows that the woman is just like the gang - when she is down and out she has nobody to depend on.

Nice breaks off in startled haste as Chané herself enters the room, and, standing, announces that a package has arrived for her. A blushing Donny ends up holding the package for Chané so she can untie and open it, revealing a long white dress. All the men in the room flee into the corridor at Nice's pointed signal so that Chané can try the dress on. She is quick to notice that the dress has several leather straps attached to it - perfect for holding knives. Nick, Jon, Fang, and Donny (still blushing) wait cross-legged on the floor while she changes, and are briefly greeted by Chaini when she rounds the corner. Chané studies herself in the mirror once the dress is on, and Nice asks her who sent the dress. Chané thinks to herself that it must have been from Claire. She recalls walking with her father in 1922, and muses that this is the first time someone besides her father has given her such a gift. Her father used to make her dresses for her that made her happy, but she does not know how to feel about receiving a dress from "someone like [Claire]." As memories of Claire effortlessly handling all of Ladd Russo's attacks flit through her mind, she calls Claire an enigma, someone she understands less and less. Claire had said that he would marry her, and he had said so with such sincerity that only compounds her confusion.

She asks herself if she should accept his proposal, wondering why she is so frightened - and what Claire was thinking, proposing marriage to "someone like her," or giving her a dress. Nice gently calls her name, startling her out of her thoughts, and Chané can only shake her head in helpless confusion when Nice asks if everything is all right. Nice suggests that Chané step outside for some fresh air, which Chané does. Nice sees Chané off at the building's entrance as well as Nick, Chaini, and Chaini's follower, who set off to follow Chané at a distance of some yards. At the end of the street, Shaft lifts his head from where he has folded his arms over the steering wheel of his automobile and alerts Graham Specter to the activity outside the building. Graham, who has been lying down in the automobile's backseat, sits up with mild interest and replies that he hopes this will not turn out to be a boring story. As Chané emerges into view from where she is walking down the sidewalk, Graham grouses over the dullness of tedium with increasing fervor which culminates with him grabbing Shaft's head and shaking him from behind in his outrage. Shaft passively accepts his lot in life with deadened eyes and a resigned expression.

Graham breaks off his administrations when Chané and her entourage pass by the hood of their automobile, exclaiming over Chané's good looks. Shaft guesses that Chané must be Eve Genoard, judging from Graham's pleased reaction, and Graham casually replies that if they are wrong about Chané then they are wrong, simply as that. He declares that there is "nothing tedious in the whole world - at least not during these exciting times," and Shaft points out that this is the complete opposite of what Graham had been saying just moments earlier. Graham observes that Shaft has become fairly fearless ever since he fainted back in the warehouse. When Shaft spies the quartet heading into Central Park, Graham prepares to spin a sad tale for them.

Nick, Chaini, Chaini's follower, and Chané stop as an automobile drives past them and come to a pointed halt a few feet in front of Chané. Graham and Shaft step out of the car, and Graham announces to Chané that it is time for a story for misery and despair to begin - but that she should not worry, since it will be a happy story for him. Several minutes later, Nice and Nick rush into Jacuzzi's room and urgently inform him of Chané's kidnapping by a man with a gigantic monkey wrench. Nick recounts how Graham had slammed his wrench into his stomach with such strength that it had sent Nick crumpling to the ground in pain, and had dropped a note before fleeing with Chané in his automobile. He passes the note to Jacuzzi, who reads it out loud with increasing horror at the note's contents: the note, addressed to Jacuzzi and the gang by name, says that Eve Genoard has been taken hostage. It demands that Jacuzzi bring all the money he has and come alone to the abandoned warehouse in the port's thirteenth block if he wishes to save her.

More than alarmed by the ransom note and the kidnappers' mistake in hostages, Jacuzzi eases himself out of bed and makes his way over to the dresser without the use of his crutch. Nick argues that Jacuzzi is going to an awful amount of trouble over a stranger, but Jacuzzi counters that she is one of their friends. At Nick's protest that not everyone feels the same way, Jacuzzi's tone becomes much more firm as he says that while he may not know much about Chané, he does know that she washed up out of the river just like Nick did, and that solidarity cannot be ignored. Not only does Chané have no-one else to help her, Jacuzzi is convinced that there is no way she can be a bad person. Furthermore, he plans to go alone just as the note requested. Nick and Nice both voice their intensive disapproval over this idea, with Nick emphasizing that the wrench-wielder is no ordinary punk. Jacuzzi insists that he is undeterred, but slides down to the ground with his back against the wall a moment later. With his legs violently shaking, he says that he cannot let his fear stop him no matter what.

A fire barrel has been set ablaze in the abandoned warehouse, where Graham and his gang have reconvened with Chané sitting in their center. Shaft comments that Chané appears to be struck dumb by fright, and Graham muses that this may be a good thing for her. A large quantity of energy is expended when one verbalizes one's emotions, even more so for things like fear and pain. He concludes that being unable to speak when one is in extreme stress is an act of self-defense, and, finding his conclusion clever, demands that his gang applaud his cleverness. They do so.

Chané stands, having had enough of sitting around. Graham aims his wrench at her threateningly and she takes out one of her own knives in response, causing Graham's followers to gasp. Graham smiles, intrigued that Chané is not the ordinary woman he had thought she was. He notes that the knife is a little too large for just self-defense purposes, but is happy that he is surprised. Chané pays no heed to his ramblings and slashes at him, but he easily blocks her knife with his wrench. They struggle in a match of strength against each other, and, having been surprised again, Graham surmises that Chané is likely not Eve Genoard after all. She does not move like a mere amateur either, and though Graham is intrigued he asks that she not interrupt him while he is speaking. Graham laughs when all he receives in response is a glare, calling Chané "amazing." Growing increasingly excited, he exclaims that it would not surprise him at this point if Chané turned out to be a Martian. He hopes that she will sprout eight arms, because it will be more fun to break her if she is not human. So saying, he uses the wrench to shove her back and throws it up into the air. Chané uses the opportunity to lunge at him, but he catches the wrench just in time to fling her to the ground with it. She leaps to her feet almost immediately with a backward flip.

Graham again remarks on the fun he is having, and that it is an honest pleasure to fight her. He thinks that they could write an incredible story together if they became friends, but that he will have to hurt her if she refuses his offer of friendship.

Out of nowhere, Jacuzzi calls out in a tremulous voice for the two of them to cease fighting. Making his way over to them by using his crutch as support, he says that he has brought the money Graham asked for and asks that he let "the girl" go. Chané stares at him in shock, but he does not look at her as he clarifies that the money he does have does not amount to much, but he wants Graham to take it in exchange for Chané regardless. Graham had not expected Jacuzzi to act as quickly as he had, but is willing to do as Jacuzzi asks for the sake of a story that will make him "feel good." He cannot help but add that he does not actually see what the big deal about money is; climbing up onto an oil drum, Graham says that he far prefers a story in which someone is disillusioned with money and brought to ruin by it.

Graham hops off the drum and circles around Jacuzzi like a predatory shark, astutely accusing Jacuzzi of having come empty-handed despite his claims of having brought the ransom money. Jacuzzi acknowledges that Graham is correct, but says that he has brought something "just as good" as money - himself. He confesses to having a bounty on his head from Chicago's Russo Family, and suggests that Graham turn him into the Russos and collect the monetary reward.

In 1926, Nice huddles under her blanket in her darkened bedroom. Her right eye and ear are bandaged, as are her neck and hands, with burn scars clearly visible on her exposed skin. She shuffles over to her bureau mirror with the blanket still wrapped around her, and cries upon looking at her reflection until a rapping at her curtained window distracts her. Jacuzzi calls out her name from the other side, but it takes her a good minute before she finally, reluctantly, opens the curtains. Jacuzzi smiles at her from where he is perched on the roof, sporting a brand new tattoo of a sword on the left side of his face. So astonished that she forgets her worries, Nice opens her window and asks what on earth Jacuzzi has done to himself. Jacuzzi brightly declares that his new tattoo makes his face stand out as much as Nice's will, so they will be just fine as long as they are together. Nice falls to her knees, her left eye filling with tears, and Jacuzzi apologies when he hears her breath hitching. His own eyes well up with tears at the thought that he has upset her, and he shakily explains that all he wanted to do was ease Nice's fears of loneliness. He begins crying in earnest, but Nice shakes her head - she is crying with joy, not sadness. The two of them weep together, mutually overcome.

Chané stares at Jacuzzi and thinks back to when she had first tried on the white dress. Nice had talked to her of Jacuzzi while the two of them had been alone, describing Jacuzzi as someone who is more concerned about the welfare of others than his own, and goes off and acts accordingly. He tends to frequently find himself on the losing end of fights as a result - but, in the end, he always has friends by his side.

She is brought out of the memory when Graham exclaims he is impressed with how interesting Jacuzzi is, how Jacuzzi is simultaneously happy and sad. He whacks the oil drum with his wrench in his passion, opining that the line between happiness and sadness is said to be a very thin one, but Jacuzzi has managed to balance his heart on that razor-thin edge. However, Graham is without a doubt enjoying his fight with Chané, which presents him with a quandary: either he can release Chané out of respect for Jacuzzi having touched his heart, or he can ignore Jacuzzi and continue fighting her. Torn, Graham asks Chané which option she prefers. She raises her knife in a clear show of support for the latter option. Graham accepts her choice, and the two assume fighting stances. Jacuzzi frantically shouts for them to stop, that there is no need for anyone one to die, when a huge explosion off at the other end of the warehouse fills the area with smoke and heat. The smoke clears to reveal a large hole in the wall next to the open door of the warehouse, through which several members of Jacuzzi's gang stand tall and proud. Donny enters through the open door and asks Nice why she used an explosion when the door was already open, and Nick says that the answer is obvious: Nice just enjoys setting off explosions for the sake of setting off explosions.

Jacuzzi is delighted to see his friends, but Graham reminds the gang in irritation that the letter had specifically asked for Jacuzzi to come alone. Nice retorts that she decided to come to the warehouse 'alone,' and one after the other various gang members echo her claim. All of them have individually come 'alone' to the warehouse. Jacuzzi listens to his friends' shows of support with a smile, which he loses at the sound of the penultimate speaker's voice. Graham supposes that he cannot argue with the gang's logic, and concedes that Jacuzzi's friends are intelligent.

While Graham mulls over what to do, Jacuzzi thanks his friends for coming and then asks if there is someone new among them, given that he heard an unfamiliar voice amongst the crowd. His friends look at each other, realizing that they too had heard a strange voice, and Chané points her knife in the direction of the newcomer. The newcomer proves to be none other than Claire, who emerges from the crowd and compliments Jacuzzi for the rather impressive feat of identifying one unfamiliar voice out of the pack.

Graham immediately sidles over to Claire and asks him who he is. Claire replies that he used to be known as Claire Stanfield, and that he used to be a transcontinental conductor, but for now he is currently existing as the Rail Tracer. Jacuzzi yelps and trips backward onto the ground, causing Nice to rush to his side in alarm. Claire briefly glances their way before apologizing to Graham for his abrupt interruption, explaining that he has business with the lady Graham has been occupied with. Graham pouts, but follows Claire over to Chané. Claire, unruffled despite Chané keeping her knife inches away from his chest, asks if she is planning to kill him. He says that he completely understands if she is – as he talks, he repeatedly keeps at bay a nosy Graham – but that he wants to declare his love for her before that happens, since he feels like he failed to properly express his feelings back on the Flying Pussyfoot. He announces that, perplexing though it may be, he seems to have fallen in love with her - and then he amends that there is actually nothing perplexing about it at all.

Without further ado, he asks her to marry him. While Graham grips his head, quaking, Claire assures Chané that it is perfectly fine if she is not yet sure of what to do. He will not destroy her world merely by entering it, but make it grow that much larger. Furthermore, he will protect her world should it ever be threatened. Claire supposes that ordinarily she would never believe someone who talks the way he does, but reminds her that he is by no means ordinary.

Chané glances over to Jacuzzi's gang, Jacuzzi smiling at her from where Nice is supporting his weight. She wonders why the gang is going to such lengths and risks for a stranger who is not family. She wonders why Claire says that he loves her, since no-one – not her comrades, or even her father – has ever told her they love her. With that final realization, she bows her head and lowers her knife from where she has kept it poised over Claire's chest.

Graham slams his wrench down onto the oil drum, denting it deeply as he launches into an "incomprehensible story." He asks them what it means for the actions of men to be "beyond comprehension," opining that if something cannot be comprehended then there is no point in trying to comprehend it in the first place. Therefore, even though he does not know what exactly is going on, he would certainly like to return to fighting.

Claire says that he is fine with the fight continuing, but is slightly preoccupied with Chané's lack of answer to his proposal. Driving his fist into his palm, he declares that if Graham intends to fight Chané and her friends than he will have to fight him as well. His generous offer to let Graham run away if he wants is met with outrage from Graham, who says that he knows only one other person who matches Claire for arrogance: his "Boss Ladd." He cannot forgive Claire for challenging Ladd's perfection. Claire asks if Graham means Ladd Russo of the Russo Family when he refers to Boss Ladd, his familiarity with Ladd surprising Graham. Claire identifies Ladd as the person who had fallen from "the train" the other day, and Graham, upset, asks him how he can possible know something that could not be known to outsiders. Without hesitation, Claire replies that he was the one who dropped him in the first place. Graham's followers fall over themselves in their shock, and Graham's own astonishment morphs into anger. He hurls his wrench at Claire with incredible strength and speed, and Claire grins in the second before the wrench can make contact with his face.

Preview
Graham brings up the supposition that "human lives are limited," and then provides a counter-argument: when humans strive for limitless possibilities, they can magnify their own lives by ten, one hundred, or even one thousand times over. He exclaims that he deserves to be in the center of all that, as per the rules.

1926
The flashback scene featuring a young Jacuzzi and Nice in full is actually remembered by Jacuzzi while facing off against Goose Perkins on the roof of the Flying Pussyfoot, but in the anime they shorten the flashback he has in Episode 13 and give Nice the full version.

The most notable difference between the anime and novel versions of the scene is Jacuzzi's reason for acquiring his tattoo: in the anime, Jacuzzi acquires it in a show of solidarity, making his face as distinctive as Nice's so that they both stand out; in the novels, Jacuzzi is aware that Nice is afraid she will never be able to recognize anyone again with her now awful eyesight, so he acquires the tattoo to ensure that she will always be able to recognize him.

Rachel and Czes
Czes cuts his arm a little earlier in his conversation with Rachel in the novel. Their conversation is what leads Rachel to finally understand the importance of information, and she thanks Czes for helping her make the decision [to become an information broker.] This is not in the anime. Rachel is also supposed to be wearing a fur-lined coat over a white dress in this scene, not her coveralls.

Hospital/Clinic
Click "Expand" for differences regarding the hospital.

The opening hospital scene is much less chaotic in the anime than it is in the novels. First, the anime leaves out a scene in which the Flying Pussyfoot 's head chef Gregoire tells Jon and Fang that he'll recommend them to the Genoard Family for jobs now that they have been fired from the train, and gives them a huge pot of stew as a farewell gift. Jon and Fang bring the pot over to Jacuzzi's room, where the rest of the gang files in and starts chowing down on the food. (There are also other beds in the room that are occupied - Jack is supposed to be recovering in the bed over, and Donny slumbering in the bed next to his).

It's in this crowded atmosphere that some of Jacuzzi's friends on the retrieval team (not Nick or Jack) share the news about their explosives sales. They also warn him that he cannot go back to Chicago since the Russos have found his hideouts, a line missing from this episode, before informing him about Chané. (A further slight change occurs here - in the anime, the gang decided to bring her with them after fishing her out of the river; in the novel, Chané takes the initiative by asking to join up with them once she learns they're headed to New York, and then has Fred take a look at her injury). When Chané enters the room, Nice and Nick drop their bowls of stew in surprise.

The above scenes take place in the penultimate epilogue of the third light novel, but the light novels do not go into detail about the events that occur afterward until the fourteenth light novel, in which the kidnapping plot takes place and Rachel and Czes meet.

Chané's shoulder is also supposed to be bandaged, since Spike shot it aboard the Flying Pussyfoot.

Several days are supposed to pass between Chané's arrival and the line about her being related to Huey, which really comes from Nice rather than Jacuzzi, after both of them follow Chané to the train station. Both of them had assumed that she was related to Huey given their shared last name, and had followed her on the correct assumption that she would try to pull off a rescue attempt before he could be transported to his new prison. They admit to her that they'd followed her intending to help in her rescue - which she does not, in the end, attempt - much to her confusion. She ends up interrogating him with a series of pre-written notes.

That afternoon she and Jacuzzi converse about her involvement on the train like they do in the anime, and the conversation actually reveals that Jacuzzi has already heard of Graham's gang, but there is no indication of this in the anime. Jacuzzi's worried babbling is truncated in the scene, and Chané's internal monologue even more so - she compares Jacuzzi to Claire and vows to kill Claire for the sake of her father among other things, a sentiment the anime leaves out along with her thinking that the gang is trying to curry favor with her father through her.

Also left out of the anime is Jacuzzi's conversation with Who in the hospital about Ladd.

Jacuzzi is supposed to have been released from the hospital by the time Chané receives her white dress, and is even present in the Genoard mansion when Chané is considering whether or not to put it on. He and Chané notice that the box's label says it is from the Rail Tracer. Chané is shocked with herself when she realizes that she had not noticed all the other gang members filing into the room, meaning that she had subconsciously lowered her defenses.

Warehouse
Click "Expand" for differences regarding the Warehouse and other related scenes.

Graham does not shake Shaft when he cries out for tedium to die in the novels.

Again, Chané's internal struggles are severely minimized in the anime, and missing entirely from the scene in which she walks down the sidewalk in her white dress. Her thoughts are largely focused on her fear regarding her reactions to Jacuzzi's gang, and she even considers turning herself into the police so that she can be with Huey in Alcatraz.

Shaft drives the Ford - which is in reality black, not two-tone like in the anime - suspiciously slowly toward Chané from the opposite end of the street, not toward her from behind. He also does not get out of the car, just Graham, and Chané is immediately reminded of Ladd when she sees the mechanic.

The delinquents following her are not identified, which means that it is a random delinquent, not Nick, whom Graham hits with his wrench. It also means that it's the random delinquents who inform Jacuzzi of the kidnapping, not Nick and Nice (though Nice is present to hear the news). Since he has already been discharged from the hospital at this point, he is not in bed and in a hospital gown when he hears the news - though he is still using crutches - two, instead of just the one that he uses in the anime..

The anime does not show the delinquents conferring over what to do after Jacuzzi goes off on his own to offer himself up to Graham - if it had, it would have shown Elmer C. Albatross integrating himself into the group in order to look at the ransom note, and then giving the delinquents advice on what to do. They think his idea is a great one, and after they all smile he makes a quick exit and wishes them luck with their predicament.

One detail not included in the anime is that Chané is instinctively fighting Graham in the warehouse like she would Ladd Russo to her detriment, a fact that she realizes and rebukes herself for. She also still slightly suspects Jacuzzi to be using her for her father when he arrives, but at the same time is not surprised he came because he had already followed her to the train station.

Shaft's gloating over Jacuzzi when he offers himself up to Graham in the novels is quickly nipped in the bud by a wrench to his gut.

When Graham says Jacuzzi has balanced his heart between happiness and sadness, he asks Chané what she would rather do next in the anime. Not so in the novels - instead, he actually decides that he will let Chané go free thanks to Jacuzzi having moved him so deeply. That, and he doubts Jacuzzi will be able to escape from him on his still healing legs. But Chané indicates that she wants to fight anyway, which Graham is fine with doing.

A larger number friends of Jacuzzi's speak up when they bomb the entrance in the novel than the anime. Graham and Shaft have a little exchange about Graham taking Shaft hostage that also does not make the cut.

Once Jacuzzi mentions hearing an unfamiliar voice in the novel, the delinquents themselves notice the strange redhead leaning against the wall. Chané reacts much more strongly upon seeing him than she does in the anime, charging forward with the intention of driving her knife through his throat. She hesitates seconds before reaching him, struggling with an internal conflict over what to do. She is not merely "unsure," but terrified.

By this time in the novel, Claire has already purchased his new name. So when Graham asks him who he is, he responds that he is "Felix Walken," not the "Rail Tracer," - and so Jacuzzi does not fall over in terror at hearing Claire's name. Graham's followers recognize the name as that of the legendary assassin, and Graham reassures them that there is nothing for them to fear considering that they have Boss Ladd, a legendary killer, on their side. It is in that way that Ladd's name is brought up.

Trivia

 * Dub Commentary: The Funimation DVD release of this episode features commentary from Tyler Walker (ADR Director); Joel McDonald (Jacuzzi); and Chris Patton (Graham). (Transcription)


 * Graham himself notes that Shaft becomes fairly fearless after his near brush with death at Shaft's hands. It has been suggested that Shaft's personality shift could indicate that he drank Sham's water sometime after recovering.
 * The hospital Jacuzzi recovers in is actually Fred's Clinic. Fred, one of the characters who didn't make it into the anime, was a passenger aboard the Flying Pussyfoot and served as an army doctor in World War I. Other patients who received treatment at the clinic during Jacuzzi's stay include: Upham, Jack, Roy Maddock, and Raz Smith.
 * Firo and the "couple [of] acquaintances" (Isaac & Miria) were out at a casino when Claire attempted to pay him a visit.

Unanswered Questions

 * What was Elmer C. Albatross' wish in 1711?
 * Who was the silver-haired girl in the Alveare?
 * What became of the dominos party?
 * What will Czes and Rachel do now that Claire is with them?
 * How did Claire figure out where Chané was staying, and how did he end up mingling with Jacuzzi's gang at the warehouse?
 * What are the details surrounding Ladd's incarceration?
 * What became of the Senator's family after Rachel rescued them aboard the train?
 * Will Czes suffer repercussions from the Runoratas for losing the cargo?