Summary:

It looks like Claudia is tired of Scythe Master stealing her thunder, so she lays a little bait for him in hopes that he will get overly greedy.  The premise is that Claudia is trying to secretly brown nose the higher-ups and needs Scythe Master’s help.  Scythe Master loves secret scheming and cannot resist Claudia’s plan to give 500 kg of cocaine (worth 200,000,000 USD) to the Godo family in return for their loyalty and backing.  This provides a big target unprotected by the bulk of Inferno’s network, and Claudia gets permission from Raymond McGwire to terminate Scythe Master if he gets out of line.  Claudia advances her plan by trying to subtly drive a wedge between Reiji and Ellen.  Even though Reiji is still too young to be going through a midlife crisis, Claudia takes the important first step of letting him drive her awesome sports car.

We get a flashback to when Reiji first met Ellen, and Reiji mentions having more dreams.  Ellen reveals that the only dream she has is of wind and colors, and Reiji wonders if the dreams are memories of her homeland.  Meanwhile, Scythe Master falls for the bait and gives both members of Phantom an assignment at the train yard without informing Claudia or anyone else in Inferno.  Claudia, however, is one step ahead  of Scythe Master and assigns Lizzie to cocaine duty while ordering Reiji to come over to her place to “guard” her.

Naturally this is just another excuse for Claudia to get her hands on Reiji for some more training.  First she messes with his mind by showing Reiji his passport (and terrible handwriting), then she puts her hands on his crotch while mentioning that she wants Reiji to be a willing partner, and not just a blow up doll puppet.  Reiji is completely thrown off by this, and wonders if he really can just return to Tokyo; he even goes so far as to call up his parents in Japan.  Unfortunately, Reiji comes to the conclusion that there is no way he can return to his old life.  Claudia’s plan is working to perfection, and as Reiji does some soul searching, Ellen’s attempt to steal Lizzie’s shipment of cocaine goes terribly wrong.

When Reiji finally goes back to the apartment, he’s surprised to see Ellen bleeding all over the place.  Even worse, it’s not just a heavy menstrual flow day; when Lizzie got the jump on a fleeing Ellen, she inexplicably decided to shoot Ellen right in the baby-maker.  Ellen is stuck being Scythe Master’s sacrificial pawn, but she urges Reiji to return to Inferno and save himself (since Claudia can provide an alibi).  Instead, Reiji gets a hot knife and, in a pseudo-sexual scene, digs the bullet out of Ellen’s ovary/uterus.  Now how many coworkers would do that for you?

Ellen starts getting really emo about not having a passport or an identity to cling to, so Reiji tries to appease her by tearing up his own passport.  Reiji also tries to convince her that staying hidden will keep Scythe Master safe, because as long as Ellen is roaming free, Inferno will be cautious in tracking Scythe Master.  The little honeymoon is going well, but Lizzie’s quite the tracker and catches up to Reiji while he’s trying to hotwire a new escape car.  Lizzie then proceeds to slap Reiji around until it’s apparent that he really doesn’t know where Scythe Master is.

Speaking of Scythe Master, he’s also tracked the ex-Phantom members down.  Right after Ellen kills the scrub that Claudia sent, Scythe Master steps out and criticizes Ellen for being a total wimp.  As great as Reiji is, no one gives an awesome oil massage like Scythe Master, and next thing we know Ellen’s back by her creepy master’s side.  A beaten down Reiji has no choice but to accept Claudia’s odd plan to get Ellen back by killing Scythe Master, so it looks like we’ll get some ex-Phantom x ex-Phantom exposition action next time.

Reaction:

You know, looking back, it’s possible that Ellen is just staring up at a light bulb in the last scene.  However, knowing Scythe Master, I immediately assumed it was a video camera.  In fact, I was surprised that Ellen wasn’t laying in bed with a bunch of creepy strung-up mannequins at the end of episode 9.  And who was that male scrub that Scythe Master had to hang out with while he was separated from Ellen?  Oh the luxuries you have to give up when you’re on the run!

Ellen and Reiji were very cute in these episodes, especially when Ellen was getting all emo-suicidal so Reiji gave her a name and tore up his passport to make them more equal.  “Ellen” is a fine name, although it would have been awesome if Reiji suggested something like “Hotcakes” or “Pussycat” instead.  I was also very impressed with Lizzie.  Is she quiet like a ghost or something?  She got the drop on both Phantom members, and didn’t even get scratched.  Lizzie was much more successful than her boss Claudia, and it looks like Reiji really prefers younger women; sorry Claudia, but he’s just not that into you.

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