Hyouka - Episode 11

Murderous Puppets

Oh, wow. Hōtarō really beat himself up on that one. Well, I don't really blame him as all his successful deductions before must have made him think, to a certain extent, that his explanations are foolproof. The episode itself carried a lot of implications and provided quite a few topics for speculation surrounding some of the other characters. Most surprising of all, in my opinion, was Irisu, who literally had everyone involved act like her puppets—a point further emphasized by the actual visual depiction of this situation.

When Hōtarō confronted Irisu about her actual motives (i.e. him and everyone else being used as "script writers" while under the impression that they were "detectives"), it was the first time the self-proclaimed "grey-coloured" student got so riled up and showed so much emotion regarding something. Furthermore, I didn't even expect Irisu to be the one responsible for all of this. Initially, I had suspected Hongō of faking the illness (out of her own will and not because of Irisu's suggestion) as she could not come up with an ending that satisfied the class' desire for people to die in the film. And as if that wasn't enough, the twist that it was actually someone else who was advising and guiding Irisu along the way was unexpected for me (there was a scene in one of the previous episodes showing the chat, but I had presumed it was irrelevant).

With the hint that "あたし" is "on the other side of the world", the most common guess would definitely be that Hōtarō's sister was actually the one behind everything that went on during this arc. But that begs the question: How does she know Irisu? I doubt it was just a coincidence that the two met randomly in a chatroom. Furthermore, is Irisu the only one from the school that Tomoe is acquainted with? It wouldn't surprise me at this point if she knew others who will make appearances in the future, and intends on using them to help cure her brother of his grey lifestyle. An alternative theory would be that "あたし" is Satoshi (meaning the "other side of the world" line was a lie) as there have been times where you could tell he was keeping something from Hōtarō. His laidback personality could possibly just be a façade used to hide his "true" thoughts and feelings. Then again, it could be a new character all together. Who knows?

As for what's ahead, it seems a new arc will be starting in the next episode, though the preview doesn't show much regarding what it's going to be about.