1931 Winter: The Time of the Oasis/Final Chapter: Neither Hare nor There

Synopsis
Jacuzzi's Gang and the Vanishing Bunny (still harboring Carzelio Runorata) reach the river at the site where the collection of the train cargo is to take place. While the delinquents, plus Sonia Bake and Cazze, seem to be having a good time setting up for the retrieval, Pamela and Lana discuss their options regarding the kidnapping plan out of earshot; though Pamela had initially been alright with framing the delinquents for Cazze's kidnapping, she's beginning to have second thoughts due to the fact that the delinquents hadn't gotten in the way of the plan. In the middle of weighing her options, however, she's cut short by the faint sound of a scream.

Gabriel pauses in the middle of torturing of one of the Lemure men at the campsite as Pamela and Lana approach. He quickly hides the limp bodies of the men behind a nearby car, then hides himself, observing the women. Pamela and Lana take some time to peek around the campsite, growing uneasy at the strange setup and the sight of blood on the corner of one of the tents. Lana grows anxious, assuming that the camp has been attacked by the 'huge shadow' she'd seen earlier, and Pamela decides to err on the cautious side, suggesting they return to the others. Before leaving, Lana catches sight of what she assumes is a hand grenade and grabs it, declaring that they can use it against the huge shadow. As the two of them walk away, Pamela remarks that she's "worried about Cazze and Sonia". Recognizing the nickname of his charge, Gabriel begins to silently follow them away from the camp.

Back at the riverbank, Jacuzzi's Gang had already finished lining their boats up by the water and had begun to kill time by playing in and around the water. One of the boys falls completely into the water; because it's unbearably cold, he pleads with someone to go get him a blanket from the truck. As he's the only one currently not playing in the water, Cazze agrees, and makes his way towards one of the trucks the delinquents had brought. As he climbs into the truck to get a blanket, Cazze comes face to face with the grizzly bear Cookie, who had still been stowing away in the back.

Rather than expressing fear towards the large bear, Cazze grows excited and begins to pet it as if it were a dog or a cat. Cookie reacts well to this treatment and responds by gently nuzzling Cazze's cheek, which in turn makes Cazze even more excited. Eventually, though, he remembers what he came for and grabs one of the blankets that had been piled on top of Cookie, exiting the truck. He's on his way back towards the delinquents when an arm around his neck suddenly prevents him from calling out to them, and a loud gunshot rings out.

The noise makes the delinquents turn around, and they see Sarges with four or five other Lemures, who they assume are soldiers, standing behind them. One of the men had fired his gun towards the ground, and Sarges himself had put a knife to Cazze's throat. The Lemures begin to interrogate the delinquents, asking who they are, only for the equally confused delinquents to turn the question back on them. The delinquents say they've done nothing wrong, to which Sarges replies that he's already seen the bodies of his men in the back of one of their trucks (which unbeknownst to him belongs to the Vanishing Bunny).

Melody responds that they aren't the owners of the truck, and that the truck's actual owners had found the men unconscious already and decided to try and bring them to the river for some fresh air. Sarges doesn't believe this, and tightens his grip on Cazze's neck; it's at that moment that the delinquents realize that the men aren't soldiers after all.

Pamela and Lana, who had been watching the scene from further away, discuss how they're going to get Cazze out of harm's way. As they deliberate trying to get the guns out of a truck, Gabriel suddenly makes himself known and advises the two of them against rushing in. Claiming that the job of rescuing Cazze belongs to "Me and I", Gabriel continues to observe the situation from the same spot as Pamela and Lana when he catches sight of something unusual.

Back down at the beach, Sarges continues to attempt an interrogation on the delinquents, asking how they managed to incapacitate his men. The delinquents don't respond, however, focusing their attention on something behind Sarges. One of the delinquents timidly points out that whatever had happened to his comrades was probably because of that; Sarges turns around to find himself face-to-face with Cookie. From a distance, Lana shrieks, identifying Cookie as the huge shadow she had seen earlier when she'd first come across the two Lemures at the bungalows. With this new development, Pamela turns to ask Gabriel what he plans to do about the appearance of the bear, but Gabriel has already vanished.

Struck by the absurdity of the situation, Sarges and the other Lemures take a moment too long to recover from their shock. In the ensuing pause, Cookie attempts to bat the gun out of one of the men's hands and accidentally knocks him flying, sending the man into unconsciousness. At the same time, Gabriel had made his way behind the Lemures and grabbed the wrist of Sarges' knife-wielding hand, while Juliano burst out of the woods on his motorcycle. Gabriel flips Sarges over and positions himself in between Sarges and Cazze; both Gabriel and Juliano express relief that Cazze is alright before telling him to run further towards the river to safety.

Around this time, Sarges realizes that every single one of his men has now been disarmed; one by either Gabriel or Juliano and two more by Cookie, who had carried on trying to get the guns away from the men wielding them and continued to knock them unconscious in the process. Cazze takes this opportunity to run towards the rest of the delinquents, to Sarges' dismay.

Still under the misunderstanding that Sarges and his group had been responsible for kidnapping Cazze in the first place, Gabriel and Juliano berate him for making an enemy of the Runorata Family. Sarges, under the misunderstanding that the twins and the delinquents had all arrived to stop the plan on The Flying Pussyfoot to go through, replies that he hadn't known Bartolo Runorata was Senator Beriam's "loyal hound," something that further provokes the twins.

Before they can act, however, the Lemures who'd been in the back of the Vanishing Bunny's truck approach with Sonia's guns in hand, threatening the twins. Though the twins don't seem frightened, they express reluctance to fight because of the clear order to avoid letting Cazze see any kind of violence. At this moment, Lana flings the grenade she'd picked up into the fray, attempting to take the Lemures and the twins out in one fell swoop. However, what she had assumed to be a hand grenade turns out to be a smoke flare, and it swiftly conceals the area in smoke.

As the smoke takes over, Cookie recalls the 'grand entrance' he used to make in the circus through billowing smoke, and charges blindly into it. The two Lemures who had been brought to the scene by Pamela and Lana, severely handicapped by the smoke, are bowled over by the bear for the second time that day. The twins then swiftly dispatch the rest of the Lemures, and by the time Pamela and Lana finally make their way down to the scene, they're already in the process of piling up bodies.

Gabriel and Juliano discuss the strange demands of the note Pamela had left at the bungalows, telling them to put all the money in a crate. Gabriel mentions that the objective of the men in military uniforms hadn't been kiddnapping Cazze after all; they had instead been after the train. Gabriel shoots back a look towards Pamela and Lana, and sends Juliano away to to retrieve Cazze while he goes to talk to the two girls. Without much pressure, Lana steps forward and tearfully admits that she had been the sole person responsible for the plan to kidnap Cazze after he'd gotten into their truck.

Rather than disposing of Lana, as both she and Pamela assume he will do, Gabriel fishes out a half dollar from his wallet and hands it over to Lana as ransom money, with the stipulation that she doesn't talk about the fact that Cazze had been handed over for a mere fifty cents. Pamela replies that they're in Gabriel's debt for his mercy, to which he calls them even, saying that he hasn't seen Cazze enjoy himself this much in "a very long time."

Gabriel walks away, quickly replaced by Sonia, who chides the two of them for fighting after seeing how frightened Lana looks. Lana requests that Pamela praise her for not passing out; after she fulfills this request, Sonia points towards the smokescreen, from which Cookie has reemerged, and Lana passes out.

Reuniting with Cazze, Gabriel inquires over the boy's safety, to which Cazze responds by apologizing for worrying him. Gabriel and Juliano express that they're not angry with him, but warn him that his family will scold him severely when they return to the mansion. While Cazze expresses that he had a lot of fun while he was out, he asks Gabriel and Juliano for one final thing before they begin heading back home; he'd like to take home the bear that he'd made friends with in the back of the truck.

While the twins deal with Cookie and the delinquents begin preparing to fish cargo from the river, Sarges remains alive in a boat he'd prepared in advance, bleeding profusely from the head. As he contemplates what he can do in revenge, he weakly points the machine gun he'd brought with him at all the figures on the shore, but stops in his before he can fire as he notices the delinquents looking at something above him. He looks up just in time to catch Chané Laforet jumping from the train, followed by a heavy crate, which hits him dead-on.

The delinquents look onto the train with confusion, noting that it seems to be going a little faster than it should be. As a result of their curious gazes, they also happen to notice Chané jump from the train, and fish her out of the river along with the rest of the cargo.

In between dealing with the twins, Cookie glances over at the train crossing the bridge, catching sight of something red clinging onto the side of it and roaring loudly. On the train, Claire Stanfield looks back at the bear, recognizing it immediately as Cookie and waving gleefuly as he passes by.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Melody
 * Sonia Bake
 * Carzelio Runorata
 * Pamela
 * Lana
 * Gabriel
 * Chaini
 * Charkie
 * Sarges
 * Juliano
 * Chané Laforet
 * Claire Stanfield