Let’s read Umineko! - episode 4 - afterword

Hello again everyone! It’s an exciting moment for this liveblog: after eight years gathering Questions, we now can start to get some answers.

A huge thank you to everyone who has commented or discussed it with me over the years. It means a lot to me to be some small part of the ‘Umineko fandom akashic record’. So without further ado, comments from the end of episode 4!

1. heatth: on the themes of Umineko
2. anarchistserum: on motive
3. dialectrician: on the chapel murder
4. a solution for Episode 1
   1. Genji, Kumasawa, Nanjo and Natsuhi
   2. Kanon
   3. Eva and Hideyoshi
   4. summary
   5. the other episodes, briefly

heatth: on the themes of Umineko

heatth Ah, you got to the Yuri Moment! And the end of the Answers Arcs, I guess. I need to catch up with my liveblog reread. I am still halfway through EP3.

As for what I want you to draw attention to. I guess, what do you think the story is about? As in, English essay type of “about”. Themes and such.

Hopefully not the only Yuri Moment to come! I kind of love the spin this puts on Bernkastel and Lambdadelta: first this quiet girl shows up and then she drags along her awful girlfriend.

And as to themes, a good question! Despite mentioning the ‘litcrit level’ as one of the circles of interpretation, I didn’t really get into it.

Briefly, then, some of the major themes of Umineko that stand out so far. These will inevitably be shaped by what I bring to the text, and also the light shone by ‘Ryuukishi used to be a social worker’, but stuff that stands out to me:

social class

I mean, the whole 'furniture' thing, need I say more? I probably should. From the very beginning where we saw Sayo taking the flak from Natsuhi's insecurities, Battler nearly sexually assaulting her for the bit, Kanon talking about being furniture, George and Jessica's strange imbalanced relationships... in general, the relationships between the ultra-rich and the people caught into their gravity well has been a huge focus.

Notably, while the Ushiromiyas might sometimes behave kindly and honourably to other people of their social class, even for the kids there is still a certain naivete about the situations that others are living under and the unbalanced power they wield (c.f. Jessica/Kanon), and for the adults, well… yeah, they don’t even care. Also, early on, I remember Kumasawa calling attention to how cruelty propagates down the hierarchy, creating the workplace conflicts between e.g. Gohda and Sayo/Kanon.

instrumentalisation of people

Again, the whole 'furniture' thing is literally about being a useful object for another person. We've not heard much as yet about Kinzo's weird orphanage but like, a man like Kinzo running an institution specifically to give him a class of absolutely loyal servants? There is definitely something really cursed going on there.

Meanwhile we have a more playful treatment on the magic plane, which is kinda all about D/s stuff. Particularly when one of the witches gets the mic! There is a great deal of talk of using or manipulating people as toys or instruments towards various ends.

unwillingness to understand the Other

Another aspect that is particularly strong in many of the relationships we see, notably Rosa and Maria, is a conflict between how one would act towards an idealised version of a person, and ignorance or dismissal of the person they actually are. Rosa seems to like the idea of a cute little daughter to come home to, but she doesn’t care to actually understand or relate to her, particularly if it costs her anything at all. Similarly Eva. Hence of course ‘without love, it cannot be seen.’

cycle of trauma/abuse

This is more or less spelled out in the text: the Ushiromiyas are all so fucked up because growing up under Kinzo made them that way. Kasumi passes on the cruelties inflicted on her by her family. Ange imagines Maria as someone exceptional because she thinks she might just break the cycle.

sacrifices for the institution

I’m chiefly thinking of the ‘great Ushiromiya family name’ for which nearly any evil can be justified. The abstraction of the family, its traditions and so forth, is held over the heads of everyone at every turn. It’s a particular fixation of Kinzo (or it presumably was when he was alive, assuming Beatrice’s characterisation of him wasn’t entirely fabricated); likewise the Sumaderas who we are told will happily murder their own daughter rather than see her marry below her station.

escapism and suffering

Escapism and its limits were a major focus of Episode 4’s discussion of magic. Maria’s situation is unbearable, but she insists that her world of magic makes her happy. Ange is unable to sustain this in the face of her shit life, but later rebuilds an ideal of ‘magic’, and yet when she confronts Beatrice and Maria, it’s evident she is willing to deceive Maria and convince Beatrice to do the same without either of them believing in the magic narrative. So, under what circumstances should an escapist fantasy that gives comfort in an unbearable situation be torn away? This seems to be a central question.

occultism, otakuism, chuunibyō

Though I'm largely interpreting magic as metaphors for other stuff, there is evidently a genuine enthusiasm for playing around with all these different ideas of magic, most obviously the Goetic demons and the Keys of Solomon but there are some pretty deep cuts too. The 'magic scenes' also like to play around with tropes from otaku culture at large, tweaking its nose at elements of the 'database' in a way that definitely demonstrates some real familiarity.

It all definitely makes me think about how the original definition of chuunibyō, before it broadened to catch all kinds of edgy shit that teenagers like, was specifically the phenomenon of middle schoolers thinking they are psychic—i.e. literally Maria’s whole deal. This is gonna sound really pretentious, but it kinda feels like the idea of chuunibyō is the core of this whole story, both putting it in context and inhabiting it from inside?

OK, hopefully that’s enough to be going with! I feel like these may all be a bit surface-level but that’s the stuff that stands out as particular focuses so far.

anarchistserum: on motive

anarchistserum: I’ve been loving this liveblog’s return! I think you’ve given a lot of it some serious thought - the only thing I think you could look at more closely is motive.

(also, from what I remember, the epitaph solution requires an infamous level of local knowledge, so don’t sweat it too much)

I’ll keep that in mind re the epitaph. I thought solving it would be a long shot, but I wanted to make a best effort all the same!

As for motive, well, that’s a good question. The first episode furnished us with no end of ‘needs money’ type motives, but I feel like there must be more to it than that. I do feel like the Ushiromiya family is straining with so much tension from all the shit they’ve already done to each other that it’s only a matter of time before it explodes, hence my suspicion that the answer isn’t so much ‘one person killed everybody’ as ‘one person got killed and then all hell broke loose’.

That still leaves the question of the hypothetical Beatrice I outlined last time. I feel like the way she’s been treated by Kinzo and the rest must have something to do with it. I think ‘she killed someone because she believes in magic’ would be a cop-out answer though. Maybe Battler’s ‘sin’ six years ago was so unforgiveable that it motivated her to act when he showed his face again?

Here’s an ugly theory which I don’t like…

• Battler, not George or Jessica, had a relationship with one of the servants
• the shape of that relationship was distorted by the ‘furniture’ ideology, so Battler disavowing his Ushiromiya name was a big deal somehow because of what it implied about being ‘human’ vs being ‘furniture’
• idk this is bleak I don’t like it

Anyway it seems like Battler should be the last to die, not the first, so ‘Beatrice killed Battler and that kicked off the murders’ is a bit of a non-starter. I’m probably fixating on the wrong things.

dialectrician: on the chapel murder

dialectrician: Real solution of the chapel murder is much sillier than that. You’ll kick yourself for not seeing it.

For context, the part about how Beatrice can’t win and no miracle will come for her is the author being in dialogue with higurashi. Basically there’s a commentary from the author at hhe end of one of the games where he talks about how he wanted a story where the villain is “saved” too, but stories where that happens it’s typically done by the cheap mechanic of introducing some greater threat at the end, therefore sacrificing a new antagonist to save the old.

That’s good to know about Higurashi! And it’s an interesting observation. Villains often provide most of the narrative driving force in stories, so if you want to redeem a villain, you need either a self-motivated protagonist or a new threat to replace them. It’s funny this should come up, because we are apparently going to get new ‘Game Masters’ in this episode.

As for the chapel murders…

I can’t believe I didn’t think of this, but all the red text works if Rosa is the culprit. For example, we have lines like…

From the time Maria received her key to the instant Rosa unsealed the envelope the next day, the key did not pass into anyone’s hands

I assumed that Rosa only unsealed the envelope moments before they went into the chapel and discovered the bodies, but there’s nothing here to say that Rosa didn’t open the envelope multiple times. This shifts the timeframe of the murders: now it needs to be after midnight to qualify as ‘the next day’. But given there’s a fairly long timeframe there where Rosa is out of Battler’s sight, it would be easy for her to go away and murder the other six after she had berated Maria in the garden. In fact, reading back, it’s kinda blatant: Rosa suddenly remembers the envelope in Maria’s possession when they realise they’re missing the key to the chapel.

Battler even hinted at this with his ‘culprit pretended to find the key on one of the bodies’ theory for the locked-room loop later on.

‘Rosa dunnit’ is now going to be my theory, but don’t tell me :p

Of course, this does really leave the question as to why Rosa would leave a cheery message to Maria by stuffing the mutilated bodies of her siblings with candy. She’s an awful person, but in the mundane sad way that people are awful. This would be a fair few steps beyond!

(Thinking about it even more, another solution is that Maria was the killer. A six-year-old child killing six adults seems pretty far-fetched, but it is also entirely consistent with the red statements. In that case, Maria was wishing herself a happy halloween. Again, pretty far-fetched!)

With this in mind I am wondering if there are any other cunning little tricks like that to observe in the other murders. Rather than bog things down here trying to solve everything, though, let me make this plan: when it seems like we’re about to encounter a solution, I’ll make a final stab at writing my theory before I read the solution.

Except… well, let’s do one.

a solution for Episode 1

Genji, Kumasawa, Nanjo and Natsuhi

I am kind of itching to try the deaths of Genji, Nanjo and Kumasawa in Episode 1, which Battler explained with a simultaneous mutual murder followed by Maria hiding the guns. Reading the liveblog back, after Natsuhi ordered the servants out, she was alone with Battler, Jessica and George. They got a phone call and arrived in the parlour to find all three dead and Maria singing beside her.

The only red text we have is:

Beatrice: Maria, who was in the same room, did not kill them! And of course, their three deaths were homicides!

Beatrice: I guarantee the identities of all unidentified corpses. Therefore, there were no body‐double tricks!

Lambdadelta: Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo were not killers!

However, since all four people outside of the room have been declared not to have been the killers, and other actors ruled out, we have quite a conundrum. However, in this case a ‘trap X’ theory has not yet been ruled out. Though it would be a pretty daft solution, because there is no ‘aha’ moment like the previous problem where you need to notice the hidden assumption. Also, shortly thereafter, someone comes out and shoots Natsuhi on the stairway, and for that one, a ‘trap X’ has been ruled out.

If Battler was not present in this scene, we could of course imagine that Natsuhi walked into the room and gunned down the three servants. However, assuming we can at least trust piece!Battler as a reliable witness, he’d have noticed that.

That said, we abandon Battler’s POV after Natsuhi leaves the room, so it’s possible that one of the kids went out there and shot her? Perhaps someone blamed her for the murders earlier?

Kanon

Both of these problems can also be solved if we find some way to reduce the cast by 1 and find space for a ‘person X’. We also have Kanon’s non-accidental death. Actually, reading back my liveblog, it’s not 100% clear that Kanon actually died. Kanon might not be dead from the stab wound, Nanjo is called, they find Kinzo in the incinerator, I never make a note of Kanon’s death being confirmed..?

Checking the script for Episode 1, Chapter 14-15, Kanon is thought to be alive when the Ushiromiyas arrive. Kanon’s death is declared by Nanjo at the beginning of the next chapter. So a potential solution is: Nanjo simply lied about Kanon dying, and from that point on, Kanon was the culprit for the remaining murders.

The red text, crucially, does not say that Kanon is dead:

Beatrice: All of the survivors have alibis! Let us include the dead as well!! In short, no kind of human or dead person on the island could have killed Kanon!

Beatrice: Kanon did not commit suicide.

Lambdadelta: Kanon did not die in an accident.

All of this is easily true if Kanon never actually died. So the theory is: Kanon purposefully inflicted a self-injury, then Nanjo lied about it being fatal.

Eva and Hideyoshi

Since this now seems like a solution to Episode 1, we might as well also consider the deaths of Eva and Hideyoshi. For this one we have:

Beatrice: Both deaths were homicides! It is not the case that, after the construction of the locked room, one of them committed suicide after murdering the other! Furthermore, the murder was carried out with both the victim and the perpetrator in the same room! No method exists for the perpetrator to commit murder from outside the room

Battler’s solution was someone playing dead using a fake corpse or similar method, and then hiding inside the room. This is supposed to be ruled out by Beatrice’s guarantee of the identity of all the corpses. So, let’s consider alibis. At this time, Nanjo, Genji, Kumasawa and Kanon are in the kitchen, and Battler, Natsuhi, Hideyoshi, Jessica, George and Maria are in the parlour.

Although all are supposed to have alibis, notably the former group is out of sight of Battler. In the narrative we’re given, Genji and Kanon go to check on Eva and Hideyoshi and discover the door is locked and chained, and an envelope has been left by the door. Obviously it would be easy for one of them to lock the door, but the chain is another matter.

However, a close reading of chapter 13 reveals the following timeline:

• Kanon and Genji find the letter by the door.
• Genji and Kanon return to the kitchen. Genji orders Kanon and Kumasawa to get bolt cutters while he and Nanjo go to fetch Natsuhi.
• Kanon and Kumasawa return to the room and find the magic circle has been drawn in the meantime
• Kanon and Kumasawa cut the door open and find Eva dead
• Natsuhi and everyone else, including Battler, arrive to find the door cut open already!

Look, it’s right there. You just have to disregard the scenes where Kanon and Kumasawa were onscreen together.

So, a possible solution is:

• Genji orders Kanon and Kumasawa to get the bolt cutters
• Kanon opens the door and murders Eva and Hideyoshi, and draws the magic circle on the door. Kumasawa is an accomplice but she does not carry out the murder herself, so she’s not a ‘killer’.
• Nanjo, an accomplice, proclaims that the bodies were killed in the last hour rather than in the last five minutes.

summary

So overall, for episode 1, a new, much simpler working theory:

• Kanon is the sole murderer.
• Nanjo and Kumasawa are accomplices or at least scared into compliance; they did not kill anyone but did help to cover Kanon’s tracks.
• Kanon killed Eva and Hideyoshi in the brief time window when the door was open, but before the others arrived.
• Kanon pretended to be killed in the boiler room, perhaps after incinerating Kinzo’s corpse. Nanjo lied about Kanon not making it.
• Kanon killed Gohda, Kumasawa and Nanjo after Natsuhi forced them all out of the room.
• Kanon shot Natsuhi.

This is I believe consistent with Battler’s POV and also the red text we’ve seen. (Sorry Kanon! I don’t think you’re necessarily the culprit in the other games though.)

the other episodes, briefly

I am now suspecting Rosa for Episode 2 (though I’d still need to come up with ‘Rosa theories’ for the remaining murders), and Lambdadelta didn’t give us a reason not to suspect Eva for Episode 3 so maybe Battler’s actually right about that one.

As for Episode 4… well, the mysteries are kind of vague because it was a weird episode, but it could very well be Kyrie, since she said a bunch of weird stuff on the phone pointing to the existence of magic and that can most easily be explained away by calling her a liar. Since she was the last to die of her group, it’s quite possible that she was the one who killed them.

That still leaves the question of the identity of the ‘Beatrice’ who appeared on the roof and spoke to Battler. It could be Kanon again, whose body was never found? If we claim Kanon and Rosa are the ones who are able to convincingly play Beatrice, it is possible that it was Kanon who addressed Battler from the top of the mansion.

However, Beatrice said:

Kanon is dead. Among the five in Kyrie’s group, he was the first to die. In short, he was the ninth victim.

So at least four murders can’t be blamed on Kanon. That said, it is also possible that “Kyrie’s group” was still alive at this time, despite the fact that Kyrie’s call was abruptly cut off. Battler only discovered most of the bodies after ‘Beatrice’ gave him the key to the mansion.

It’s also possible that the two different designs of Beatrice are a hint as to who is ‘playing’ Beatrice in each episode. If I’m right about Rosa being the culprit in Episode 2, then ‘jacket!Beatrice’ is Rosa, so it may be Rosa who appeared on the roof of Episode 4. (And if it was Maria, it could be Maria who appeared on the roof—and then killed herself by poison, which is easier to explain than Rosa killing herself in a way that smashed her head open.)

Since Battler was locked in the guesthouse for most of the episode, there’s too much fog here to come up with a conclusive theory at this point. We’ll have to wait for more clues.

I don’t know what possible motive could lead Kanon etc. to cold-bloodedly kill everyone like this. Perhaps we will have to assume that in each scenario the character in question is somehow manipulated by Beatrice into becoming a mass murderer.

Probably none of these are true of Rokkenjima Prime.

That’s 3000 words and I haven’t even started the next chapter! With that in mind, let’s call this an ‘afterword’ for Episode 4 and the Question Arc, and the next post will begin Episode 5.