Gosick 20 – show me your power

Some really interesting architecture is featured in this episode.

Episode 20 of Gosick was a “leg-work” episode, in which we get more information about the mystery of the previous queen of Saubure. It had some visually striking elements, especially the various shots of the building shown above. There was also ample opportunity for Albert de Blois to show himself as a detestable person, but it was really Kujo’s turn to shine.

Monochromaticism and extreme and extreme symmetry.

Zoom out: Here we can see that the pigeon was sitting on a cat's nose.

Pan down: The doors into which Victorica is led towards her father, Albert de Blois.

This building with the intense architectural style is some sort of performance hall with a dungeon in its basement? While everyone else is here to watch a performance of the Blue Rose of Saubreme, Victorica is brought down a spiral staircase to a special room in the basement. All of the clues have supposedly been presented to her, and now she must solve the mystery. Victorica’s father communicates with her only through an intercom system, and lets his henchmen rough Victorica up a bit.

An unusually stylized scene. Almost like something you would see in a play.

Kujo realizes that Victorica cannot solve the mystery with only the clues she has been provided, because if all it required was public knowledge, she would already have solved it. He therefore embarks on a quick investigation of the facts. This section was very rushed, and I can only assume they packed in a lot of light novel material to get him back to Victorica’s side within the episode.

Albert de Blois loves his crazy-ass cult stuff.

When Victorica tries to explain that she doesn’t have all of the information, Albert’s satanic priests tie her up inside of some magical diagram, and ring bells and burn incense and candles. Fortunately for Vickie, Kujo comes storming in, with an assist from Brian Roscoe. Apparently his information is enough to win her release, but Victorica decides to dig up the remains of a showgirl’s corpse.

As I said, some of this episode moved by very fast, so I think they were compressing a lot to get us to this point. There are only a few episodes left, and the contents of the grave must be more important than Kujo’s legwork. The crazy environment in the room where Victorica was held, the brief, but emotional, interactions between Victorica and Kujo, and the sensational assistance provided by Brian Roscoe were all very interesting, so I think the decision to steal time from Kujo’s investigation to present those scenes properly was the right choice.

In several ways this was Kujo’s turn to shine. First, instead of stumbling upon clues as he has a tendency to do in earlier episodes, he actively investigates. He dramatically saves Victorica from her insane father (again), but he also manages to deliver a sort-of romantic speech about his relationship with Victorica, while holding her in his arms. Notably Victorica never once calls him an idiot, and instead kind of compliments him, by recalling the lines of her mother.