Baccano! Episode 13

"Both the Immortals and Those Who Aren't Sing the Praises of Life Equally" is the thirteenth episode of the 2007 Baccano! anime.

Recap Scenes
Czeslaw Meyer slapping Isaac Dian’s hand away (E12); Donny yanking on a rope that Isaac, Miria, and Czes are on the other end of (E12); Nice Holystone giving Jacuzzi Splot her last cherry bomb, and Jacuzzi clutching the bomb as he flees from Goose Perkins (E12); Szilard Quates yanking Isaac through an automobile’s broken windshield, Szilard handing Ennis a knife, and Ennis standing over Isaac and Miria while they plead (E12); Ladd Russo and Lua Klein falling from the Flying Pussyfoot, with the rope coming undone around Lua’s neck while Claire Stanfield and Chané Laforet look on (E12).

Synopsis
1931. Ladd Russo lies unconscious on the side of the railroad tracks with fresh blood splashed across his chest. The blood is his; all that remains of his left forearm is bone sticking out of his hollow left sleeve. Lua Klein leans over him, unharmed.

Claire Stanfield observes the two retreating figures from where he stands on the roof of the Flying Pussyfoot, and remarks to Chané Laforet that while he cannot tell when it comes to Ladd, Lua seems to be in one piece. He adds admiringly that Ladd was "something else altogether," rather than the scum Claire initially thought he was, and turns to ask if Chané agrees. She remains impassive. Walking toward her, Claire recalls that he had said he would kill whomever survived the rooftop duel - but since he cannot tell whether or not Ladd is alive or dead, he is now in a quandary.

Claire proceeds to guess how Huey Laforet is related to Chané, while a vision of Huey stands behind him and stares at Chané through the gap between his fingers. The vision shakes his head at her when Claire guesses incorrectly, but allows her to confirm Claire's correct guess that Huey is Chané's father. When Claire asks if Huey is really immortal, the vision of Huey places a finger to his lips, prompting Chané to draw her knife and step back defensively.

Undaunted, Claire slowly steps toward her and deduces that she is concerned he will threaten Huey and steal the secret of his immortality. Chané moves backward as he advances, and he surmises that Huey must be her only family - and as such, she wants to protect him no matter what. Chané nods to indicate that he is correct. After a moment's silence, Claire suggests that she marry him, making him family. As family, he would be obligated to protect Huey just like Chané does. He assures her that his intentions are serious, and that he will not betray her like the Lemures. Further, Claire has no interest in the secret of Huey's immortality because he believes he will never die.

Chané stares at him, conflicted, but before she can respond Claire grabs her shoulders and moves her to the side just in time for a bullet to pass through the space where she had been standing. Peeking out from the end of a car in the distance is Spike, aiming his sniper rifle at them and peering through its scope. Dried streams of blood cake his hair and face, presumably from a head injury he received due to Nice's bomb in episode twelve. While Claire stares at Spike, he suggests that Chané jump into an upcoming river once they cross it if she wants to avoid the police - but before she does, he wants her to carve her response to his proposal in the roof of the car.

He offers her a short goodbye as he prepares to run, inviting her to throw a knife at him - after all, it won't be able to hit him - and with that races across the cars' rooftops toward Spike, dodging every bullet Spike shoots at him. Chané watches him depart, her eyes wide.

Title card.

Globs of blood are briefly seen chasing the Flying Pussyfoot as it crosses the wide river in question. Unaware of Chané dropping from the roof above them into the river below, Nice Holystone and Nick retrieve the crate of spare grenades Donny left for them in a freight hold; as Nice hooks the grenades to her belt, she remarks that while Jacuzzi Splot may normally be a crybaby, all his tears dry up once he sets his mind on something - like when he got his tattoo.

Shoving a heavy cargo case out of the hold, Nick reaches for another case and asks Nice why Jacuzzi cries all the time in the first place.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, the doors to the freight hold in the car in front of them are also open, and one end of a thick rope appears to be tied to something near the doorframe. Part of the rope lies taut against the roof of the next car, upon the roof of which are Jacuzzi and Goose Perkins. Goose hefts the nozzle of his flamethrower and asks Jacuzzi if he is ready to die, and Jacuzzi's fingers clench around the cherry bomb in his right hand.

Jacuzzi hurtles toward Goose, screaming, and Goose levels the nozzle at him. It splutters ineffectually, weak flames nothing like they ought to be, and Goose is aghast when he remembers how the rope had swept under his feet and caused him to fall and bang his equipment against the roof. He looks back just in time for Jacuzzi to headbutt him in the face, crushing his nose.

As Jacuzzi headbutts Goose's face repeatedly, he remembers visiting a heavily bandaged Nice after she lost her right eye, some years before. He had explained to her that, after much thought, he'd reasoned that the times when he will want to cry the most are the times when he will need to be at his best. Thus, he decided that he will cry all the time, whenever he feels like it, so that when the time comes for him to be strong all his tears will have dried up.

Goose, his nose bloody, missing a tooth, looks down at Jacuzzi with murder in his eyes.

Three gunshots ring out, causing Nice and Nick to tense. Nice, fear audible in her voice, rushes off and hurriedly orders Nick to jump off the train and join up with their recovery team. Through the open doorway, the recovery team is seen by the riverbank retrieving the stolen cargo floating in the water. Nick looks outside, and scratches his head.

On the rooftop two cars away, Jacuzzi presses his left hand to a bleeding wound on the right side of his torso, two more bullet wounds by his knees. Goose laughs and shows off the contraption on his left hand: attached to a fingerless glove is a makeshift gun, rigged to fire a bullet every time he makes a fist and punches someone. Confident once more, he hefts the flamethrower's nozzle and gloats that there is no way Jacuzzi will be able to escape the flames at such close proximity. He asks if Jacuzzi has any last words, but both of them are distracted and mutually horrified at the sight of blood swirling at their feet.

Goose backs away from the writhing mass of liquid and shouts for an explanation as to what it is. Jacuzzi turns to see more blood squirming over the end of the caboose and, eyes wide, hypothesizes that it is the Rail Tracer.

1930. Maiza Avaro collapses to his knees, having been shot in both kneecaps by Szilard Quates. Behind them, Ennis kneels on the hood of Szilard's automobile and points her knife threateningly at a stunned Isaac Dian through the hole in the windshield while Miria Harvent looks on from the passenger seat. Very quietly, she thanks them, apologizes, and expresses her happiness at being able to speak with them one last time. Isaac and Miria breathe a sigh of relief as she retracts the knife, and snap to attention when she asks them for a favor: to remember her. They lean forward, concerned, but can only watch as she leaps off the roof and charges toward Szilard.

Maiza bows his head, waiting for Szilard to devour him. Szilard is seconds away from placing his right hand on Maiza's head when Ennis drives the knife into his back, literally and figuratively backstabbing him.

In 1931, Goose fires off spurts of flames at the wriggling blood on the rooftop in a terrified effort to destroy it. Jacuzzi seizes his chance and tosses the cherry bomb over Goose's head before immediately dropping to the roof and covering his head. Goose turns to see the bomb rolling into the still burning flames behind him.

On the roof of the car in front of them, Czes opens his eyes at the sound of Isaac and Miria calling his name and finds them kneeling over him, their faces filled with worry. Still missing both legs and his right arm, he murmurs that he does not understand why they have not yet devoured him.

An explosion from the roof over rips through the air, and Isaac and Miria flinch and shrink away from the sound, the searing heat and light. Goose yells incoherently as the heat and wind of the explosion pushes against his back, sending him airborne. Nick, from where he clings to a crate in the river, is awestruck at the blast.

Goose lands on the very end of the caboose, worse for wear but ultimately alive. At the sight of Jacuzzi sprinting toward him, he lurches to his feet, pulls out a knife from his inner breast pocket and demands to know how Jacuzzi plans on beating him without any weapons. Jacuzzi, echoing Isaac, shouts, "I've got a gun in my heart!" even as Goose stabs him in the arm, and tackles Goose off the end of the car. Goose falls faster thanks to the flamethrower, and Jacuzzi watches with dread as the man collides with the tracks.

Isaac and Miria turn at the sound of a second explosion, smoke billowing from a point behind the train. Isaac wonders if it is the "bad guys," but Miria's shriek diverts his attention to a squirming mass of red liquid converging on Czes. They assume that it must be the Rail Tracer coming to eat what is left of Czes, and they desperately cover Czes with their own bodies in an attempt to save him.

Meanwhile, Jacuzzi clings to the end of the caboose, having barely escaped Goose's fate. Nice arrives to help him up, and he is relieved to see that she is safe before collapsing into her arms. As the two of them kneel on the roof, Jacuzzi melts into her embrace and softly compliments her cherry bomb (he thinks it has great market potential) - only to stiffen at something in the distance. Nice tentatively releases him, and he muses to her that he thinks everyone is right: he probably has been crying too much over nothing in the past. However, he thinks of those extra tears as tears he shed for Nice, and therefore - no matter what Nice may face in the future - she ought never to have need of crying again, since he done all the crying for her.

Nice turns around and finds a red silhouetted man standing on the car in front of them, framed by the rising sun. Jacuzzi stands with firm resolve, Goose's knife still protruding from his arm, and Nice spots one of her grenades in his right hand. She cries out his name to no avail.

In 1930, Ennis keeps a firm grip on her knife's handle so that it remains embedded in Szilard's back. Szilard states that he knew Ennis would betray him one day, just like all the other 'puppets' he'd created before her did once they had acquired unnecessary knowledge. His eyes widen, and Ennis collapses to the ground. The knife is pushed out of Szilard's wound completely as the wound regenerates, and once it is sealed he turns around and promises to make her suffer before he dies.

A powdery ball hits him in the face, causing him to cough. Isaac and Miria have exited the car to come to Ennis' rescue, pelting Szilard with their lime-pepper bombs while demanding to know what he did to Ennis.

Someone out of sight asks the same question, and Szilard turns to see Firo Prochainezo smirking at him. Ennis lifts her head at the familiar voice, astonished as the previously-dead Gandor brothers and the Martillo executives all stream into the alley one after the other. Maiza is equally stunned to see his friends alive; when Randy leans out of a window and asks, "How come killing us didn't make us dead?" Szilard realizes that these men are the ones who drank his Cure-All Elixir.

Pezzo, leaning out of another window, drenches Szilard in gasoline fuel, and Randy tosses a lit match Szilard's way. The two of them gleefully remark that though they have burned many things in the past, this is the first time that they have burned a human head. Szilard jerkily moves as his head burns, and Ennis shouts at Firo to put his right hand on Szilard's head. Firo obediently charges at Szilard, who reacts immediately by outstretching his own right hand Firo's way.

Firo swiftly takes out his knife and slices off a good portion of Szilard's hand before placing his right hand on Szilard's burning forehead, at which point Ennis instructs him to think I want to eat. Firo does, devouring Szilard where he stands.

1931. Isaac and Miria realize that the "red stuff" is gone, and open their eyes to find Czes alive and whole. His bare right arm and legs are fully restored, and he peers up at them with a bleary gaze.

One rooftop over, Jacuzzi prepares to confront the red silhouette - only to stop in place when the silhouette shakes an admonishing finger at him. The silhouette leaps down and out of sight; when Nice asks Jacuzzi what it was, Jacuzzi questioningly suggests it was the Rail Tracer. A moment later, Donny emerges from the gap between the cars in front of them and calls out Jacuzzi's name. Jacuzzi is pleased to see that Donny is unharmed, and he walks toward his friend with Nice's assistance.

Meanwhile, Czes slowly reaches his right hand out toward Isaac, intending to devour him. Isaac clasps Czes' hand between his own two hands, and, teary-eyed, warbles that he is "so glad" Czes is alive. Miria tearily echoes the sentiment, though she wonders how Czes' wounds healed so fast. Isaac has a ready explanation: Czes was gobbled by the Rail Tracer, which normally only eats bad children. After the Rail Tracer realized Czes was a good child, it came back to return the limbs it ate.

Czes sits up and protests that Isaac is wrong - he is a bad child. He confesses that he lied back in the dining car when he said that he was going to New York to see his family. In reality, he is travelling there to see an acquaintance. He does not, in fact, have a family at all, and he never will have one.

Isaac and Miria each place a hand on either of Czes' shoulders, now even more convinced that he is a good boy. They reason that Czes must have lied to them because he did not want them to worry, when all along he was in the most pain of all. Sobbing openly, they again insist that he is a "good, sweet boy," to which he timidly asks, "...Really?".

Isaac places his hand over his heart and exclaims that from now on Czes can leave everything up to "dear Uncle Isaac," and Miria brightly says that Czes can relax now that Isaac is taking charge. She cups Czes' cheek and warmly assures him that it is finally safe for him to smile, but Czes' eyes only gleam wetly instead.

All three turn to the right at the sound of Jacuzzi calling their names, and they spot Jacuzzi, Nice, and Donny waving at them from the rooftop of the penultimate car.

1930. Firo considers his right hand as he stands over Szilard's burning sartorial remains, and then moves around them to kneel by Ennis' side as she lays dying on the street. He helps her into a recumbent position, and she requests that he devour her before she dies. When Firo asks why she is "talking nonsense," she explains that if he devours her he can relay to Isaac and Miria all the things she wanted to say to them. He softly tells her to speak with them herself and lightly touches her forehead with his right hand.

Ennis' eyes widen, and she is suddenly strong enough to sit up by herself. Firo says that he somehow knew exactly how to save her, and she realizes that he must have known thanks to Szilard's memories. Firo remarks that such knowledge was worth eating "that geezer" as he stands and offers Ennis a hand up, and proceeds to introduce himself and ask for her name. She answers the question, but wonders why he asked considering he ought to already know it from his inherited memories. He admits that he wanted to hear her say it, and she blushes slightly, smiling.

Randy and Pezzo immediately start hooting at the duo, and Isaac and Miria immediately join in on the teasing. Everyone present looks on with smiles on their faces except for Maiza, who stands detached from the back of the crowd.

In 1932, Don Bartolo Runorata of the Runorata Family demands to know what happened to Dallas Genoard. Luck Gandor, flanked by his older brothers Keith and Berga, finally reveals Dallas' fate.

In November 1930 (date unindicated), Dallas Genoard wakes up in a oil drum and finds that his hands and legs have been bound with rope. His two friends are in the same straits. Furthermore, they are in a large, unfamiliar warehouse - and the Gandor brothers stand before them, healthy and whole and very much not-dead. Dallas is flabbergasted to see them alive and demands an explanation, to which Luck replies that, according to Firo, the Gandors possess immortal bodies just like Dallas and his goons. However, unliked Dallas and his goons, the Gandors will not die of old age.

Luck says that, having taken into account Dallas and company's immortal bodies, he and his brothers have elected to hold the three men responsible for their crimes. Dallas flinches at a metallic creaking sound behind him, and he turns to see a long metal half pipe connecting his barrel to the catwalk above. Two shadowy men on the catwalk tip a container full of wet cement downward, spilling cement down the metal and into the barrel. As Dallas' barrel fills, Luck announces that the three men will be sent to drown at the bottom of the Hudson River for their punishment. Berga adds that this was the only suitable punishment they could think of, since they cannot kill the three men permanently.

Keith steps forward and drops a loose pack of cards into Dallas' barrel, and Berga compliments his generosity. Luck says that the cards are Keith's farewell gift, since Dallas will have plenty of time to spare at he bottom of the river before dying of old age. Dallas' eyes fill with tears.

Back in January 1932, Eve Genoard trembles with the news of her brother's awful fate as Elean Duga and Tick Jefferson listen on in silence from the billiards room. Luck politely but firmly points out that her older brother gruesomely murdered several of his friends in the very same room they are now standing in one year prior, and did so without mercy. He refuses to apologize for Dallas' retribution, but expresses his sincere condolences for her pain.

Bartolo asks Luck if it would be all right if the Runoratas picked Dallas and his cronies up, considering that the brothers essentially "threw away" the three men. Luck acknowledges Bartolo's point, but looks over to Eve and notes that family by rights ought to have first claim. Eve steps forward and asks Bartolo what he plans on doing with Dallas, a bold move that Elean futilely and fearfully protests behind her.

The mafia don informs her plainly that he plans on examining Dallas at a laboratory, which he supposes will at least free her brother from the grisly fate of eternal drowning. Eve asks if she would be allowed to visit Dallas at the research lab, and Bartolo gives her his word that she would. With his promise secured, she requests that he fetch her brother.

Elean, unable to take the proceedings any longer, emerges from his hiding spot and asks if Eve can really accept such circumstances when Bartolo is the one responsible for killing members of her family. Bartolo looks at him and declares that he intends to "clear up this matter" once and for all. He says that he never ordered the murders of Raymond and Jeffrey Genoard, and that Gustavo Bagetta murdered them of his own accord.

Gustavo finally blinks awake from where he lies on the floor, sporting a black eye and bloody nose. He hoists himself up with the help of a nearby table, clear relief in his voice at the sight of Bartolo - and Bartolo shoots him through the temple with a small handgun, causing Eve to gasp and cover her eyes. Bartolo hands off the gun to his subordinate and asks if he has made his feelings on the matter clear. Eve lowers her hands and clasps them together, murmuring that Dallas needs to understand that there really are such things as miracles. If she can help him escape from his current hell, then perhaps he will come to realize it.

Bartolo excuses himself to the Gandors, and he and his men begin escorting Eve out of the room. Elean calls out Eve's name as he and Tick round the card table, but she only looks back at him once before disappearing through the doorway. Elean stares after her, melancholic.

December 31, Grand Central Station. As seen in Episode 01, Isaac and Miria hug Maiza and Ennis respectively as the Gandor brothers and Firo look on, overjoyed to see their friends. Czeslaw steps off the train moments later, suitcase in hand, and is silent as Maiza turns to smile at him.

Miria circles over to take Czes by the shoulders, introducing him to Ennis. Isaac joins them and enthuses that Ennis ought to take Czes as her younger brother, so they can both have someone. Ennis' eyes widen in surprise as the Gandor brothers quietly slip away behind her, and Isaac and Miria announce that Czes their "gift to [Ennis]" with cheerfulness markedly contrasting Czes' somber countenance.

Ennis smiles and comes over to crouch in front of Czes, who hesitantly returns her kind greeting. He is more concerned with Maiza, however, who walks over to greet him with a warm smile on his face. Czes silently reminds himself that the whole point of him coming to New York (besides his deal with the Runoratas) was to devour Maiza as his old companion approaches, and Isaac and Miria conclude that Maiza must be the acquaintance Czes was planning on meeting. They immediately move to spy on the two from a short distance away.

Czes dolefully predicts that Maiza intends to devour him, and urges himself to devour Maiza first. He raises his right hand, only for Maiza to place his left hand on Czes' head and gently smooth his hair. Upset, Czes screws his eyes shut and tries to convince himself that Maiza is only pretending to be kind in order to devour him later. Upon seeing his expression, Maiza soothingly assures him that it is "all right." Czes' eyes fly open, glistening even as he tells himself to not believe a word Maiza says.

Maiza tells him to "cheer up," and that it is "just like before," and Czes, tears now streaming down his face, silently replies that they can never return to how they were all those centuries ago before hugging Maiza tight. Burying his face into Maiza's shirt, Czes wails that he has missed Maiza terribly while Maiza returns the embrace and continues stroking his hair. Isaac and Miria nod in satisfaction from where they crouch on the floor.

Everyone's attention in 1930 is drawn to Maiza, to whom Firo approaches and says that he "understands everything." Maiza covers his face with one hand, upset at the thought of having passed his "curse" on to the Martillos - but Firo bemusedly points out that it is not as if he or any of the others present wanted to die in the first place, so they probably will not mind living for eternity. Firo is in such a good mood that he goes so far as to shout Yahoo!, and Randy and Pezzo cheerfully - if uncomprehendingly - shout Yahoo! in turn, urging Maiza to cheer up.

Randy, Pezzo, Isaac, and Miria dance together in jubilant celebration, and Maiza watches on in astonishment as his fellow Martillos - Molsa Martillo, Kanshichirou Yaguruma, Seina, and Lia Lin-Shan included - laugh merrily in spite of their newfound "curse."

The anime returns to the beginning of the promotion party as the credits roll, where Molsa raises his glass and toasts to Firo's new executive rank. Isaac and Miria liberally fill everyone's glasses with their stolen immortality elixir, reasoning that it is the least they can do to show their gratitude.

Back in the 'present', Maiza quietly remarks to his deceased brother Gretto that he hopes "that this is right" before finally breaking out into a smile, which Ronny Schiatto notices from where he is observing Maiza around the corner. Ronny muses that he had in fact noticed [that the liquor was actually the elixir] but chose not to say anything at the time, thinking that they would be able to muddle their way through the consequences.

Claire reads the note that Chané carved for him onto the rooftop as the sun rises in 1931, which states that she will wait for him forever in Manhattan and that she will look for him while he should look for her in turn. Claire mutters that Manhattan is an awfully large place to find someone in, and what is more, he never told her his name. He promises to search for her after he fulfills his obligation to the Gandors, and steps off the side of the Flying Pussyfoot.

2001. Isaac and Miria, dressed in garish attire straight out of the seventies, run down the sidewalk and leave stolen cell phones scattered across the pavement in their walk, much to the bemusement of passersby. Isaac declares that with this act they have saved hoards of children, from - as Miria interjects - microwave signals. Isaac, agreeing, recalls reading in either the British Sun or Nature that families are conversing less and less thanks to cell phone microwaves. Children spend all their time playing video games, fathers are cheating on their wives, and mothers are going off to work in what Miria calls the breakdown of the family. Isaac vows that they will do their best to fight such changes.

The two come to a stop in the middle of a deserted street, and Isaac is seized with an inkling that neither he nor Miria have aged. He and Miria lapse into several seconds of silence at this notion until it finally hits them that they have not, in fact, aged, and their subsequent tearful embrace topples their fake afro and pink hat respectively off their heads. Isaac wonders if they are somehow being born anew on a daily basis, which Miria interprets as every day being a birthday. Isaac exclaims that they have to call everyone and celebrate, and Miria enthusiastically wishes him happy birthday.

Trivia

 * This episode is the only episode to not end with the question "What's next on Baccano!". Instead, it ends with "Many birthdays to come!".


 * The two sources that Isaac cites in reference to the collapse of the family are real publications. The "British Sun," officially known as "The Sun," is an English tabloid, and Nature is an English multidisciplinary science journal. The two publications are vastly different in content and reputation.
 * Goose's hand-firing mechanism was originally designed to hold one shot, but Huey modified it to hold three.
 * The flamethrower that Goose uses is a 1918-model German flamethrower, modified slightly to keep up with modern technology. The antique was originally used by Huey after he acquired it through illegal channels.
 * The Flying Pussyfoot arrives at Grand Central Station in the anime, but the station is actually Pennsylvania Station in the novels. The exterior shot of the station correctly spells "Grand," whereas an earlier episode misspells it as "Grando."

Unanswered Questions

 * Did Gustav St. Germain and Carol ever set the story straight?


 * What was Elmer's wish in 1711? What happened to him and the other immortals?
 * Does Claire ever reunite with Chané?
 * What happens to Jacuzzi's gang after their train heist?
 * Will the Runoratas go after Czes for failing to deliver his prototype explosives?
 * Did Claire kill Spike?
 * Episode 01 shows Ladd and Lua surrounded by police, but what happened to them afterwards?
 * What becomes of Szilard's coterie of old men?