Episode 11: Prophecy of Death

Review by Brian Shea

April 1, 2006

The Crusade's crew, who are in a jail cell, yell at the guards. Down the hall Hitomi is brought into a dark room where her interrogation is to take place. Chid is there, in a cell at the side of the room. He says he wants to trust her, but is hesitant and says he'll wait for Plactu's reading. Plactu, who is really Zongi, is behind Hitomi and says it is time to start. In his cell, Van yells at Boris about Hitomi being first. Van says Zaibach could attack at any moment and they are wasting time. Boris tells them how a messenger from Asturia arrived notifying them of a bounty on Allen and Escaflowne. Millerna says that Allen is telling the truth; Boris says they will wait for Plactu's questioning. Later, Plactu questions Hitomi, who says she is from the Mystic Moon. Plactu asks Hitomi how she found the excavation site and Vione. Hitomi says that she did it by dowsing with her pendant. Boris believes this proves Miguel's claims. Plactu demands to see Hitomi's pendant, but when he touches it the whole room turns black and Zongi's disguise disappears. From the outside, it only appears like Hitomi and Plactu are paralyzed, confusing Chid and Boris. In the vision, Zongi watches as the scene of him taking Plactu's body takes place once again. Hitomi says she knows that Zongi is a deceptant. Zongi recalls a message from his elder, then a battle where Zongi killed his brother, thinking he was someone else. Later, Folken asks Zongi to work for him. Zongi says he will have to kill Hitomi, but suddenly liquid metal appears from beneath him, smothering him. However, he grabs Hitomi's leg and the liquid metal surrounds her too, killing her. Hitomi falls over dead; Plactu is in shock, but alright. Chid and Millerna rush to Hitomi and find out that her heart stopped. Guards rush by Van's cell and one of them tells him that Hitomi is dead. Chid rushes in to tell them, and Allen takes Chid hostage with a sharp blade. He demands they be let out, and the guards follow his orders. Millerna performs CPR on Hitomi, but to no avail. Allen, Van and Merle are released and they head to the room where Hitomi and Millerna are. Van performs CPR on Hitomi.

Van continues to perform CPR on Hitomi and she eventually regains consciousness. Allen releases his grip on Chid, revealing his weapon to be Merle's nail file. Allen is taken captive once more. Hitomi, still in shock says that the deceptant is going to die. At that time, Zongi rushes through the woods, very nervous about what happened. He sees a hallucination of the trees turning into liquid metal and heads to a nearby temple. Back at the castle, Hitomi tells Chid that Plactu is really a Zaibach spy. Nobody is able to find out where Plactu is, and Van says they should release them so they can get the spy. Chid walks up to Allen and draws his knife, then cuts off Allen's bindings, asking him to find Zongi. However, Allen is still too ill so Van and Hitomi are allowed to go instead. They head out on Escaflowne. Chid says he let them go because of Allen's strong trust for Van. At the temple, Zongi tells Dilandau about Hitomi's abilities. Dilandau flashes back to when Hitomi saved Van on the bridge, when she pointed out the Guymelefs in the woods, when she warned Van of his attack and when he saw her in Asturia. Dilandau gets in his Guymelef and wraps the liquid metal around Zongi, giving out punishment for Miguel's death. Van and Hitomi approach the temple and Hitomi senses Zongi dying. Zongi is crushed by the liquid metal and Hitomi passes out just as Escaflowne flies over the temple. Dilandau, Chester and Gatti fire at Escaflowne. Hitomi wakes up and tells Van to imagine them in his mind. Escaflowne takes out its sword while still in Dragon mode. Van tries to envision Dilandau's Guymelef at the top of the temple and is successful, cutting off its stealth cloak. Dilandau turns around to counter attack, but Escaflowne cuts off his Guymelef's arm then knocks it down the temple stairs. However, Dilandau sees that Hitomi is there with Van. Van then quickly dispatches both Chester and Gatti, but Dilandau charges Escaflowne, attempting to kill Hitomi. However Escaflowne bashes in his Guymelef's head and escapes. Since Dilandau's Guymelef is damaged, he is unable to chase after him. The next day, everyone is freed because they found Plactu's dried up corpse in the forest. Chid says he would have trusted them anyway since they returned. Suddenly, word comes that Duke Freid has returned to the country. There is a big ceremony to welcome his return.

This episode is really good, containing one of the most suspenseful parts of the series when Hitomi dies. It kept you on the edge, wondering if Hitomi would be alright or not. Another cool scene was the vision of Hitomi and Zongi dying. I liked the way they used various imagery and Zongi's past. The battle at the end was pretty cool too, one of the few times in the series we see Van fight with Escaflowne in Dragon form.

Overall Rating 4 out of 5 stars