Baccano! Episode 12

"Firo and the Three Gandor Brothers Are Felled by Assassins' Bullets" is the twelfth episode of the 2007 Baccano! anime.

Recap Scenes
Firo Prochainezo interrogating Ennis, Szilard Quates breaking Maiza Avaro's arm, Isaac & Miria fretting at the party, Szilard gunning down the Martillos in The Alveare (E11); Claire Stanfield killing Czeslaw Meyer and later tormenting him to Rachel's horror (E11); Ladd Russo confronting Claire and Claire announcing that the world is his in a voiceover (E11).

Synopsis
1932, Chinatown. Rachel, who has been recounting her experience aboard the Flying Pussyfoot to the President of the Daily Days and Nicholas Wayne, prepares to explain how she received her leg injury at the President's request.

In 1931, the sole Lemur guarding Natalie Beriam and Mary Beriam in a first class compartment stands at the sound of something rapping on the window outside. Rachel shatters the window with her boots and slams them into his face as soon as he draws near, rending him down for the count. Once inside, she tells Natalie and Mary to come with her.

The President interrupts Rachel's narrative to comment upon Rachel's action as 'unwarranted' considering her role as an information gatherer. Rachel acknowledges his point, explaining that even though she had originally intended to hide and wait for the chaos to die down, she found that she could not remain passive in the face of the Lemures', White Suits', and Rail Tracer's atrocities.

Back on the Flying Pussyfoot, Rachel assists Mary and Natalie onto the roof of the first class car and instructs them to run, not walk, over the rooftops until they make it safely past the dining car to Second Class. Returning to the first class cars, she peeks through one of the windows and finds Goose Perkins and two other Lemurs holding Nice Holystone and Nick hostage. A Lemur enters the room and whispers to Goose that the Beriams have escaped, prompting all four Lemures to go investigate. As soon as the Lemures are gone, Rachel opens the window and hurries over to untie the ropes binding Nice and Nick's wrists behind their backs. Spike bursts open the door, and Rachel slams her shoulder against it long enough for Nice and Nick to escape; she then makes her own escape to the roof via the window, but suffers a bullet wound in her lower left leg courtesy of Spike in the process.

The President asks Rachel what drove her to risk her own life, but Rachel is not sure of the answer herself - all she knows is that she did not want to see any more bloodshed, especially not on the railroads that she loves so much (a love fostered through her railroad engineer father). Nicholas snidely points out that her love for trains directly conflicts with her history of stowing away aboard trains, but shamefacedly coughs at her frosty glare. Not for the first time, the President reprimands Nicholas.

Just then, Rubik enters the room holding a tea tray. He sets a full cup and saucer down for Rachel, along with a box of sugarcubes. Rachel informs the President that she has only one more thing to report, and looks down at a rope burn on her left palm.

Title card.

Back in 1931, Spike turns away from the open window and points his rifle at the door through which Nice and Nick had earlier escaped, ordering them to come out with a menacing grin. At a fizzing sound, he looks behind him and has just enough time to recognize a lit bomb on the floor before it explodes.

The sound of the explosion reaches the dining car, and Jon Panel, addressing Fang Lin-Shan, identifies it as having come from first class. Jacuzzi Splot, certain that Nice is responsible, clutches his machine gun and instructs Jon and Fang to keep a handle on the dining car, and then Donny to go to the freight hold and search for the 'package', meaning the smuggled explosives they plan to steal. Donny asks if he means to go alone, and Jacuzzi, calm and determined, replies that he made a promise to Nice to come back. If Nice dies now, he will never be able to fulfill that promise. Jon wonders if Jacuzzi isn't afraid, and Jacuzzi admits that he is terrified - but despite his terror and the possibility of his own death, his mind is made up. When he leaves, Jon is smiling. 1930. Dallas Genoard, flanked by his two fellow incomplete immortals, holds Firo Prochainezo and Ennis at gunpoint and announces that he has severed ties with Szilard Quates. Now that he and his friends have immortal bodies (and have lost Szilard's crate) they plan to do whatever they want, which in this case means finding and taking revenge on all the people who have done them wrong. With that, he asks Firo if he has any last words - and freezes when Luck Gandor aims his silenced gun at the back of Dallas' head and asks him how he and his friends obtained their "very familiar" guns.

Dallas' friends are in similar straits: on his left, Berga Gandor has one arm around his friend's neck and a gun's silencer pressed into the side of his head with his free hand; on his right, Keith Gandor has pushed away the barrel of James' gun with his left hand and the silencer of his gun pushing against James' throat. Dallas' looks back at Luck and nervously claims that he and his friends saw Firo sneaking around with the three guns earlier and, suspicious, followed. From their hiding place, they watched as Firo and a few of his allies enter a Gandor hideout with the guns and heard ensuing gunfire.

Luck cuts off Dallas' lie by revealing that Firo is a childhood friend of the Gandor brothers, and that the Gandor Family and Martillo Family are on friendly terms. He finds it 'curious' that Dallas knows that the Gandors were attacked, and tells him that the Gandors have eyewitness accounts of Dallas' group leaving the Coraggioso shortly after a bout of gunfire. Deciding that he has heard enough, Luck and his brothers shoot all three goons dead and avenge their subordinates' deaths.

Firo thanks the Gandors for saving him, and, after Luck tells him the downstairs meeting room is safe, says that he will explain the situation only after he rescues Maiza Avaro. Berga wonders what they should do with the three corpses, idly suggesting that they might be able to get away with claiming self-defense since the corpses are holding machine guns. At this, Ennis blurts out that the men are immortal and urges Berga to tie them up as fast as possible.

Berga is beyond baffled by this, and then thunderstruck at the sight of Dallas' blood retreating into his body. As the last of the blood vanishes, Dallas turns his head to glare up at Berga with a devilish grin cracking across his face.

Inside The Alveare, Maiza winces on the floor from the pain of his broken arm regenerating. Szilard, pitiless, looms over him and demands to know to whom Maiza gave the Cure-All Elixir. Maiza grits his teeth, silent, and Szilard raises his right hand toward his bowed head - only to be distracted by a smattering of machine gun fire outside. Maiza uses the opportunity to leap to his feet and crash through one of the closed windows to the alleyway outside. Szilard takes chase.

In the alleyway, Maiza stands and runs down the alley toward the back alley behind the Alveare, from where Ennis is simultaneously running towards him. Szilard crashes through another window seconds later, and is immediately hit by a car.

1931. Claire Stanfield imparts his solipsist views unto Ladd Russo and Chané Laforet on the roof of the Flying Pussyfoot 's caboose. From his perspective as the center and creator of the world, he cannot be sure whether or not Ladd and Chané actually exist or whether they are part of a dream he is having. It is impossible for Claire to imagine himself dying, or what the world would be like without him. Thus, though it is impossible for the world to disappear entirely, everyone else will vanish once he dies - leaving him the only one left in the world. Underneath one of the freight hold-fitted cars, Czeslaw Meyer rests where Claire had left him: tied to the metalwork, missing his right arm and both legs. Czes hazily wonders if he is finally being punished for having devoured his abusive guardian Fermet, whom he had devoured after the man had thrust a red hot poker into his eye in the name of science. After rifling through Fermet's memories, Czes realized that Fermet cared only for and delighted in his ''pain. ''Remembering that disillusionment, Czes vows to never trust anyone again.

In the car above, Miria Harvent opens the freight doors and spies Czes' left arm dangling over the side of the metalworks. She urgently calls Isaac Dian's name, and he is equally horrified by the sight.

Czes, dimly reaffirming his plan to devour the other immortal first, is on the cusp of unconsciousness when splashes of blood on his cheek rouse him. He opens his eyes to find Isaac, his face shuttered with worry, clinging to the train above him. Isaac's worried expression morphs into relief at Czes' movement, and he calls out to Miria that Czes is still alive. In contrast, Czes remains listless - right up until the blood on his cheek zips back into a long cut on Isaac's wrist, which seals moments later. In an instant, all of Czes' lethargy is replaced with acute, panic-sharp fear at the revelation that Isaac is the Immortal. Unaware of Czes' terror, Isaac hurriedly loosens the rope around Czes' torso and reaches out to Czes with his right hand. Believing that Isaac is trying to devour him, Czes slaps away his arm and causes both himself and Isaac to fall off the train. Isaac immediately wraps his right arm around Czes' torso and grabs Miria's outstretched hand with his left hand, resulting in her falling out of the car. She manages to grip onto the car with her right hand, but cannot hold on thanks to the strong wind.

Airborne, Miria and Isaac embrace at once in order to shield Czeslaw's body between them.

On the roof of the caboose, Ladd claims that he is surprised someone as "goddamned arrogant" as Claire can keep a straight face (after his solipsist speech) - but Claire shoots back that arrogance is not the only factor in play, but vengeance as well. He tells Ladd that his White Suits killed Tony, the conductor who taught Claire everything about the profession. Ladd realizes that Claire must have killed Dune, and, similarly wanting revenge, immediately assumes a boxing stance and throws rapid-fire punches at Claire.

Claire dodges each and every one before maneuvering into a handstand on Ladd's shoulders with aggravating ease. As he moves out of the handstand, he taunts, "All I have to do is think something..." - Ladd turns, infuriated, only for a bullet to blow away part of his already nicked ear; he looks up to see Claire holding the Lemur conductor's smoking pistol, and Claire finishes, "...And it becomes true!"

Grinning, Claire says that there would be no sport in killing Ladd with the gun when he could just as easily kill him with his bare hands, and that he deliberately shot Ladd's ear in order in order to humiliate him. He wants Ladd to die a broken man, as atonement for Tony's death - or more precisely, Claire's world that has lost Tony. Ladd's bestial snarl melts into a sly sneer, and he mockingly asks how "the almighty ruler of this world" plans on killing him - whatever the plan is, Ladd will do everything he can to show Claire that the world does not work to his whims; he will kill Claire, and dance upon his body in celebration of him no longer existing in Ladd's world. Claire asks Ladd to answer one question before he kills him, which is whether or not the woman in the White Dress - Lua Klein - is special in some way. Ladd snaps that Lua's sole reason for living is to die at his hands alone, and that Claire under no circumstances is allowed to kill her in his stead. Satisfied, Claire replies that thanks to Ladd giving him the 'full picture', he knows exactly what Ladd will do next. Ladd hesitates, a hint of apprehension in his eyes, and Claire announces that Ladd will voluntarily throw himself off the train. He steps aside, revealing Lua clinging to the edge of the roof some distance away. Ladd calls out to her, alarmed, and Claire looks her way with sinister intent.

Over in first class, a bomb goes off and fills the car's corridor with smoke. Several Lemures fire blindly into the smokescreen, only to turn and flee at the sight of a bomb soaring through the smoke their way. It goes off seconds later. On the other side of the smokescreen, Nice lights a third bomb and tosses it through the open doorway of the room she and Nick are sheltering in, shivering with bliss at the ensuing explosion. Across from her, Nick removes his hands from his ears and says that they have to go reconnect with Jacuzzi the sooner the better.

Nice throws one last bomb behind her with bittersweet glee and follows him to the sole intact window in the room. Nick pushes the window open and is immediately knocked backward into Nice and onto the floor by Goose Perkins' shoes, the scene reminiscent of Rachel's earlier dispatchment of a Lemur. Goose levels his pistol at the two of them and coldly comments that, given how many explosives Nice has been hiding under her clothes, he should never have dealt with her as a gentleman. Jacuzzi bursts through the door with his machine gun in hand, shouting Nice's name. He ducks behind the wall when Goose shoots at him and immediately retaliates by opening fire, following Goose into the bathroom and firing into the full bathtub before retreating with a slam of the door. Goose, who had hid behind the bathtub instead of in it, asks himself if this is a trial ordained by "Master Huey" - for if it is, he cannot afford to run away or die. He stands, determined to battle through every 'trial' henceforth.

The sound of machine gun fire is echoed in 1930 as Dallas Genoard and his friends finish carrying out their murder-revenge spree to the tune of five corpses: those of the Gandor brothers; Firo; and Ennis, whose blood is already trickling back into their body. The three men decide to make tracks before she regenerates and head into the side alleyway, running a good distance before skidding to a halt at the sight of an automobile haphazardly juddering toward them. The vehicle is none other than Szilard Quates' automobile, and at its helm is none other than Isaac. In the passenger's seat, Miria - the car shaking so violently that her voice undulates - exclaims over their good fortune in finding such a large car parked on the street. Isaac agrees enthusiastically: while they have never stolen such a large car before, it will surely be perfect for stopping a machine gun. Spotting Dallas' group in the headlights, Miria brightly encourages Isaac to run them over. The men try to run but are no match for the automobile's speed, and upon impact tumble over the hood of the car and onto the road.

Isaac cranes his head to look back at them through the rear window; Miria's shriek for him to watch the road comes too late, and Szilard Quates' body slams into the windshield with such force that the glass breaks. Isaac panics and reverses the car right into Dallas.

1931. Lua clings precariously to the rooftop of a Flying Pussyfoot car, and Ladd frantically shouts at her to climb back down to safety - visibly and audibly upset that she endangered herself against his orders. She remains put, pleading for him to avoid fighting Claire and to run away instead.

Ladd turns toward Chané and Claire just in time to see Claire leap over the side of the car, and he rushes toward Lua as fast as he can in an effort to reach her first. Chané does not move to help or hinder him, continuing to play the silent, detached observer as she has done ever since Claire and Ladd faced off. Ladd's effort proves to be in vain; he kneels in front of Lua only for Claire to snatch her right under his nose. Landing on the rooftop with Lua in hand, Claire turns to face Claire with his right arm around Lua's neck and says that Ladd will now throw himself off the train.

Just then the Flying Pussyfoot passes a post with a metal hook hanging off of a horizontal wooden beam. Claire lassos the hook with a coil of rope he'd been carrying, and ties the other end around Lua's neck like a noose. Lua bows her head passively, tranquil even as the rope rapidly loses slack. Claire releases her and backs away, slyly 'wondering' what choice Ladd will make - after all, Claire recalls, Ladd said he was the only one allowed to kill Lua.

As the rope reaches its limit, Ladd scoops up Lua with his right arm and grabs the now-taut rope with his left hand, hoarsely yelling at the burning friction of the rope skidding against his palm. The friction is so immense that his fingers snap off, but what concerns Ladd more is the sight of the noose coming loose around Lua's neck. He looks back at the receding train and finds Claire giving him a knowing grin - the noose's knot had been a false one, meaning that Lua had not actually been in any danger. Ladd had played right into his hands. With a star-filled night sky above them, Ladd looks down at Lua in a rare moment of tenderness and wishes that he could kill her "right now and forever." Lua's eyes shine at the sentiment; emboldened, Ladd glares at the rapidly approaching water tower and, with a roar, draws back his ravaged hand for one final punch. There is a sickening crunch as flesh meets metal.

Elsewhere on the train, Jacuzzi shoots off the lock and handle of a door leading to the outside. He orders Nice and Nick to go meet up with Donny in the freight hold, and can only assume (or hope) that Jon ("Ian") and Fang will be able to handle the dining car on their own. In the meantime, Jacuzzi intends to use himself as bait and draw their foes in. Nice asks him to wait, and he watches unflinchingly as she lifts her eyepatch and retrieves her sole remaining cherry bomb from her eye socket. She warns him that it is not all that strong, but he merely thanks her as he takes it and promises to "let it blow with love." Nice raises her eyebrows and teasingly chastises him for the 'naughty' comparison, but the sound of gunfire in the near distance sombers the mood.

Goose reaches the open door seconds later, leaning outside to spot Jacuzzi on the roof of the next car. After firing a few bullets Jacuzzi's way with his handgun, he ducks back inside and orders his men to travel through the cars and head Jacuzzi off while he chases Jacuzzi via the rooftops. Two of the men obediently run into the next car, but Goose stops the third and asks him to bring "it" to him. Up on the roof, Jacuzzi readies his machine gun and hollers for Goose to come up and fight him. Goose, hoisting himself up onto the roof despite the canisters he now wears on his back, concedes that Jacuzzi has "guts" and that it is "too bad" Jacuzzi is not on his side - and he raises the nozzle of his device and unleashes a torrent of fire in Jacuzzi's direction.

Meanwhile, Isaac uses the coil of rope he's been carrying around his shoulder in a frantic attempt to lasso something, anything, on the train. He misses and swears in frustration, but a hand shoots out and grabs the other end of the rope before he, Miria, and Czes can hit the ground. Their savior is Rachel, who grips onto the rope with her left hand, holds onto the side of the train with her right hand, and braces her weight against the metalwork with her feet. She is able to support their weight for an impressive several seconds, but her injured leg cannot, and the pain causes her to let go of the rope in spite of her best efforts.

One heartbeat later, Claire leaps off the roof overhead and grabs the rope, a stunt that stuns the only two people who witness it - Isaac and Rachel. He rebounds off the water tower and safely lands on the roof of the caboose thanks to his acrobatic know-how.

On the other end of the train, Jacuzzi dodges the jets of flame from Goose's flamethrower and fires off a few bullets his way with his machine gun, only to run out of ammo. He drops it and flees toward Second Class. Goose watches him run and, vexed, wonders where his men are. Inside the dining car, Goose's men struggle futilely to open the door leading to first class - unaware that a long gun has been tied to its exterior doorknob, blocking movement. A chorus of guns cocking behind them draws their attention, and they turn to find every single passenger armed and holding them at gunpoint. Also armed are Fang (standing on the bar counter) and Jon ("Ian"), the latter of whom remarks that it was "awfully nice" of the Lemures to leave their weapons cache unguarded in the freight hold. Fang cheerfully adds that one just can't afford to turn one's back on one's hostages, even for a second. The Lemures, grimacing, drop their guns in surrender.

Goose, cackling, keeps up his fiery offensive and pursues Jacuzzi over the rooftops at full speed. As Jacuzzi runs, he stares at the cherry bomb between his fingers and laments that he has nothing to light it with - and then stops to turn and face Goose head-on. Goose confidently steps onto the roof of the same car, and Jacuzzi brazenly glares at him.

Nearby, Donny is idling in the freight hold when Claire opens the hold's exterior doors from the outside and enters. Donny takes in Claire's bloody state and immediately guesses that he is the Rail Tracer, but Claire is in no mood or position to grace Donny with an answer. Instead, he drags Donny's head down to his own eye level by the lapel of Donny's coat; holding out the rope, Claire orders him to take and pull it as hard as he can, because - except for "the kid" - there are some "fine passengers" on the rope's other end. Donny peers out of the door and gapes at the sight of Isaac, Miria, and Czes on the other end of the rope. Alarmed, he uses all his strength to yank on the rope and 'reel them in' - that, combined with the speed and movements of the train - sends the screaming trio soaring over the heads of a mutually flabbergasted Goose and Jacuzzi. Jacuzzi calls out his friends' names in shock, watching as they drop suddenly over the other side of the train. Jacuzzi neatly jumps over the rope as it passes over the roof, but Goose is not so nimble - the rope sweeps his feet out from under him and he falls, the canisters on his back audibly crashing into the roof. He sits up and looks over at where Isaac, Miria, and Czes had soared, wondering what on earth just happened.

1930. Ennis, alive and whole, wakes to the sight of Firo's and the Gandor brothers' corpses sprawled out in front of her. Either not recognizing or not processing the conspicuous lack of blood on or around the corpses, she hurtles around the corner to the alleyway down which Maiza is running in her direction. She stops at the sight of Szilard's automobile swerving behind Maiza, and Maiza halts in turn at the sound of glass shattering behind him. He turns to see Szilard's body draped over the hood of the vehicle.

Isaac reverses, backing the automobile over Dallas and company and pinning them to the ground. In front of him, Szilard punches through the fractured windshield and grabs Isaac by the collar of his priest garments, dragging his head through the hole in the glass. Wincing, Isaac opens his eyes and is astonished to see Ennis standing in the alley, looking his way. Miria cries out for Ennis to save Isaac, causing Szilard's to look accusingly at his servant and demand an explanation for why the thieves know Ennis' name and are driving his automobile. Ennis quails under Szilard's wrath and looks away. Szilard harrumphs and decides to leave the subject for another time. Hopping off the hood of the car, he pulls out a knife from under his gentleman's cloak and hands to Ennis. He orders her to guard Isaac and Miria with the knife he pulls out from under his gentleman's cloak, adding that she must kill them if they resist. She takes the knife. Meanwhile, Szilard stops a few feet away from Maiza - who, with Isaac and Miria at risk, does not move for fear of endangering them - pulls out a handgun from under his cloak, and shoots Maiza's knees.

Maiza cries out and crumples, kneeling in front of Szilard and gritting his teeth against the pain. Szilard scoffs at Maiza valuing Isaac's and Miria's lives over his own, scornfully disparaging Maiza as unworthy of the power he currently possesses. Behind Szilard, Isaac and Miria yelp when Ennis lands on the hood of the car and imploringly say that she must be joking. They cannot fathom that she could sincerely hurt them.

Szilard looks their way and states that Ennis is a homunculus of his own creation, garbage incapable of feeling or acting on its own – but as of this moment, Maiza is worth even less than such an insect.

Preview
Miria and Isaac exclaim that immortals and non-immortals, mysterious people and non-mysterious people, and those who are equal and those who are not, all sing.

1930
Click "Expand" for differences regarding the 1930 timeline.

See Episode 10 and Episode 11 for notes on the anime's and the novels' distinctly different setups for this episode's events.

When Dallas turns at the sound of Luck's voice in the novel, Luck presses his gun into Dallas' forehead, between his eyes.

The Gandors' knowledge of the massacre at the Coraggioso is slightly less plausible in the anime given that the massacre happened hours before the party, and the viewer is left to assume that the Gandors must have learned of the massacre before arriving at the Alveare. Since the events of Nov 1930 take place over two days and one night in the novel, the Gandors learn of the massacre after the party upon returning to the Coraggioso. When the police leave the next day, the Gandors decide to head to the Alveare to speak with the Martillos.

Anime-Luck is much more composed than his novel counterpart over the deaths of Mike and the other Gandors. In the novel, Luck's fury is visible, audible, and potent in the seconds before he shoots, but the anime commits to portraying him and his anger as cool and collected. Berga and Keith go so far as to reassure and support Luck after his loss of composure in the novels.

When the man Berga kills regenerates and guns him down in the novel, both Luck and Keith shout Berga's name. Ennis has just enough time to wonder how the goons regenerated so quickly before she and the others are gunned down.

Szilard's and Maiza's brief discussion over homunculi while inside the Alveare is cut from the anime, as is Szilard's question over whether or not Maiza had the 'demon' manipulate his dead friend's souls. When Szilard is distracted by the gunfire, Maiza actually grabs his ankles and flips him to the floor before making his escape through the window in the novels.

Maiza actually appears in Isaac's and Miria's paths first after they slam into Dallas' crew, not Szilard. Maiza notices them instantly and manages to dodge out of the way in time, and then they hit Szilard.

Ennis' quiet words of distress over seeing Firo's and the Gandors' corpses are cut from the anime. When she rounds the corner in the novel, she finds Szilard holding a knife to Isaac's throat while Maiza glares at him - a sequence of events that plays out differently in the anime. It's then that Isaac and Miria spot her and cry out her name, and Szilard, in consternation, hands her the knife and others her to guard them while he devours Maiza. Ennis restrains Isaac like Szilard had done.

1931
Click "Expand" for differences regarding the 1931 timeline.

While Rachel does report to the President in the novels (Nicholas is not present), most of their meeting is not actually written out.

Rachel is not as purely heroic as the anime implies. In reality, she fiercely argued with herself to not save Natalie and Mary upon spotting them - but her body moved of its own volition. She also deals with the Lemur differently: she kicks the window to catch his attention, and once the Lemur opens the window drops down on him and causes him to lose his balance. She kicks his stomach, causing him to fall through the window outside and roll down the hill, and prays that she did not kill him.

Her clothes are supposed to be covered in black soot by the time she rescues Natalie and Mary, but they stay relatively clean throughout the journey in the anime. She also uses a rope to lift Mary and then Natalie, not cloth. After breaking up Mary's and Natalie's hug, Rachel runs with them to the end of the car and jumps with them over to the next; they run until they hear a gunshot, at which point Rachel tells them to run until they make it over the dining car. Natalie realizes that Rachel has been shot in the thigh (not the ankle, an injury that Rachel receives later in the episode), but leaves with Mary at Rachel's urging.

It's then that Spike - who'd shot the bullet - pops up and asks Rachel to move so that he can shoot Mary. He banters with Goose, who's watching from down below (and who orders a Lemur to drag Rachel down), and Goose orders him to shoot Chané at the first solid opportunity.

Rachel is bound by her arms and legs and laid down next to Nice and Nick - thus captured alongside them, completely different to the anime - while Goose and five or six Lemures surround them. Goose believes that Rachel must be the legendary assassin Vino, and that she is responsible for killing the conductors. Cradling her chin, he says that it is thanks to her and the White Suits that his plans are ruined, and he wonders why the "Rail Tracer" would do something so unprofitable. Nice and Nick's eyes go wide at the name, but Rachel merely cackles and says that she is not the red monster - who at this rate will probably eat all of them just like he ate "that boy."

In the anime, Goose and the Lemures leave after their comrade reports that the Beriams have escaped. In the novels, the Lemur reports instead that their men in the dining car have vanished (Claire's doing). Once alone, Rachel uses her specially serrated fingernail to cut through the ropes binding her, Nice, and Nick, and afterwards somberly informs them that the boy the Rail Tracer butchered was the boy in the dining car.

Spike does not burst into the room in pursuit of the escapes hostages in the novel, so he neither shoots Rachel nor experiences Nice's bomb up close and personal.

Goose orders his men to abandon their mission and focus on killing on all the passengers before he leaves to deal with Nice and Nick.

After Jacuzzi leaves to go help Nice, Fang notices that he did not mention Nick and wonders if he isn't worried about him. Jon comments that Nick is "kind of forgettable."

The anime cuts out the events leading up to Isaac and Miria discovering Czes. After investigating the conductors' compartment, and having walked straight past the freight holds where Jacuzzi and Donny are interrogating Upham and Ladd and Czes are negotiating, they move through the third-class car and untie all the third-class passengers (to whom they explain that a monster is eating everyone and that there is a gun battle underway).

A child's nearby screams cut off with the sound of breaking glass, and Miria uneasily wonders if the sound was Mary and Czes. Upon finding an open compartment, they enter to see two Lemures looking out the window and whispering to each other. Isaac and Miria assume they were bullying the screaming child and pelt them with their lime-pepper bombs, causing the men to drop their thompsons. The duo claim the guns for themselves, point them at the men, and successfully make them surrender after challenging them to a duel.

Once Isaac and Miria shut the men in a nearby compartment, they return to look out the window and are struck dumb at the sight of Czes, tied to the space between the wheels.

As Isaac and Miria were walking through third class, Claire had intervened in a confrontation between Turner and Rachel. The confrontation, along with Claire's and Rachel's subsequent conversation, is cut from the anime - meaning that the anime leaves out how Claire knew about Isaac and Miria. He'd stopped talking with Rachel to enter the compartment where he'd found Czes, only to see Miria leaning out of the window.

Miria is holding onto Isaac, who unlike the anime is in fact hanging nearly upside down from the window to assist Czes. His hand is scratched, not his wrist. Isaac exits the window entirely to crawl along the ironworks underneath the train.

When Isaac throws his lasso and misses, he and Miria actually slam into the ground (shielding Czes from the impact with their bodies) before Rachel grabs onto the rope, and even then are dragged against the gravel while she holds onto them. They never touch the ground in the anime. The other end of the rope is also attached to Isaac's belt in the novels.

Claire does not enter the freight hold when he spots Donny, he merely clings to the outside ornamentation instead. Unlike his anime counterpart, he is visibly surprised when Donny identifies him as the Rail Tracer.

Ladd actually realizes that Claire was likely the person who killed Dune upon first sight in the novels, but in the anime does not seem to realize it until Claire's mention of Tony. He points out a contradiction - if everyone is a figment of Claire's imagination, then why should he care about Tony? - but Claire says that there is nothing wrong with feeling friendship or obligation towards figments of one's imagination.

The anime leaves out the events that cause to Lua climbing onto the roof, like it did with Isaac and Miria and the freight hold. In the novels, she and Who had gone to the second class compartment just like Ladd orders them to, only to find Doctor Fred treating Jack inside the room - two characters cut from the train in the anime. Fred had actually been granted permission to use the room by Ladd several hours earlier, and had started treating Jack's injuries after Jacuzzi and Donny dropped him off in the compartment. As Who assists Fred with treating Jack, Lua looks out the window and spots Claire spying on them from the outside. She regards him silently (Claire finds her lack of reaction 'weird'), recognizing him to be some sort of monster - one that she instinctively knows could kill Ladd.

After Fred - who similarly wishes to die - notes that there is now life in Lua's eyes, Lua sets out to find Ladd and warn him away from the monster. All this is missing from the anime.

Goose holds two guns when he kicks Nick back into the room, not one, and he trains one at Nick and the other at Nice. At his command, Nice reluctantly removes all twelve remaining sticks of dynamite from her clothes; Goose remarks that it was a good thing he didn't shoot her before decking her with the butt of one gun. Enraged, Nick withdraws his knife, only for Goose to shoot him in the arm. Jacuzzi bursts in right before Goose can shoot Nick in the head, and is grazed multiple times by shots fired from Goose's two pistols. Instead of ducking into the bathroom, Goose rolls behind the bed (not in the anime) to escape the machine gun fire.

Claire takes out the large rope under his jacket after Ladd yells at Lua for disobeying him in the novels, right in front of Ladd's eyes. (The anime cuts out earlier scenes that explain how he acquired the rope). It's then that Claire reminds Ladd of his prediction, and he calmly stands and unravels the rope while Ladd charges at him, not Lua - who is still pleading with him not to fight. Right as Ladd's punch is about to connect, Claire grins and tosses one loop around Lua's neck and the other around the hook.

Whereas there is enough time in the anime for Claire to present Ladd with a choice of what to do, Ladd has a only a split second in the novels to act. He grabs the rope and Lua in the instant before they are swept off the train. In the novels, Ladd takes specific note of when his ring finger is severed (comparing the rope twisting around it to an engagement ring) - it is, in fact, the only finger he loses while airborne in the novels, unlike the anime - and genuinely yells when the noose appears to tighten around Lua's neck in a stranglehold - though it then falls away.

Lua actively struggles to maneuver herself under Ladd's body while they are airborne in an attempt to protect him from the inevitable impact in the novels, but she is already underneath him in the anime. Ladd silently criticizes the life in her eyes, and then punches the incoming pole (a water tower in the anime).

Goose is given the flamethrower after he emerges from the first class bedroom (where he'd escaped the gunfire) in the novels. Jacuzzi does not goad him into climbing upward, preferring to wait silently, and Goose does not call out to him on the ladder. Instead, Jacuzzi spots just the nozzle poking out over the roof, and falls to the ground at the unexpected jet of flames it produces. It's then that Goose clambers up and takes chase.

When the dining car passengers hold the Lemures at gunpoint, Jon coldly informs them that all he and Fang taught the passengers was how to pull a trigger. His throwaway line in the anime about the unguarded freight hold is meant to imply that they stole the Lemures' guns and ammunition. What the anime left out in the previous episode - and this one - was Jacuzzi asking the passengers for their help after he took control of the dining car. After the Lemures surrender, Jon ties them up with tablecloth.

Jacuzzi realizes that he does not have anything to light the cherry bomb with after he stops and faces Goose, not while he is fleeing. Miria is clinging to Isaac's legs when they soar over the car.

1932
Click "Expand" for differences regarding the 1932 timeline.

Rubik's appearance in the Daily Days office in the anime is meant to imply that he has been working for the Daily Days all along, not the Runorata Family. In the novels, he does not appear to have a connection to the events of January 1932, though he is said to have once worked for the Runoratas. Similarly, his connection to the Daily Days, while real, is also different: in the novels, he used to regularly sell information to the Daily Days - not work for them.

Trivia

 * Goof: There are two instances in which we see Keith hold James at gunpoint, and a mistake can in the first: in the frame, a duplicate James partially appears in the far right side of the screen. The duplicate appears to originate from the second instance, matching one of the frames in which James collapses backward after being shot. (The goof can be found at approximately six minutes and eight seconds into the episode).


 * None of the passengers' guns in the dining car scene are actually loaded. Only Jon's and Fang's guns are.
 * The mustached Lemur who surrenders with his comrades in the dining car is the same Lemur who ran from Ladd in the previous episode. He replaces Upham in the anime; though Upham is the Lemur who runs from Ladd, he is not one of the Lemures who surrenders in the dining car.
 * In the flashback, Fermet is wearing Y-back suspenders, which would not become popular until the 1850s. Suspenders themselves were first invented in 1820. Assuming the costume design is accurate, then Fermet was potentially torturing Czes until sometime in the 1850s.

Unanswered Questions

 * Where is Dallas in 1932, and what have the Gandors done to him?
 * What will Ennis do now that Maiza is at Szilard's mercy?
 * Will Firo and the Gandors regenerate in time to intervene in the alleyway showdown?
 * Why is Rachel a stowaway despite her love of trains?
 * How will Jacuzzi fare against Goose and what happened to Isaac, Miria, and Czes?
 * What does Chané plan to do now that Ladd is no longer an immediate threat?