Black Butler: Public School Arc

Episode 8

Derrick Arden is present, but does that mean he's alive? Several points give me a reason to question that. First and foremost is, of course, the fact that when Ciel committed arson to smoke the missing boys out of their dormitory, Sebastian used the phrase “no souls remain in the building,” indicating that there was no proof of life. That, therefore, could mean that Derrick and the others were present, but soulless—so dead or perhaps undead. This would work with the fact that none of the boys have been home in a year; certain types of undead creatures are tied to a specific person or location and many of those same beings are hampered by daylight—meaning that it would be hard for them to return home to keep up appearances. And then, finally, when Derrick does show up at the Head Master's midnight tea, he's still wearing the color of his original house: red. If he was truly transferred from Red to Violet, wouldn't he be wearing purple? That his visible affiliation is still red feels very suspicious indeed—and that's not even going into the fact that he shows up at midnight, often known as the witching hour.

The tea being at midnight as a special treat isn't, in itself, cause for alarm. The history of boarding schools is rife with rituals and secret (or maybe “secret”) gatherings, and many schools and universities continue with such traditions today; I even attended one and you can pick up almost any boarding school novel and find plenty of variations. (I recommend Pauline Lester's Marjorie Dean series, specifically the college books.) At first, the whole thing looks as pat as the celebration after the cricket match: a special tea service, unusual boutonnieres, and of course the presence of the Head Master all combine to give the tea an air of secrecy and privilege. Of course, it's the Head Master's presence that's made Ciel want to be invited to the tea in the first place—something he wants even more ardently after he learns that the man managed to elude Sebastian. But Derrick's arrival quickly brings us back to the fact that this may be Ciel's best chance to fulfill his obligation to the queen—and it forcibly reminds Ciel that he's not the coxswain of this particular boat.

The whole thing should also make us question whether the Head Master is a red herring. There are some decent indications that he might be. I mentioned last week that he seemed too good to be human, but what if instead, he's no longer a living human? It feels strange that while we've seen him standing with other people, we haven't heard him speak—and I don't believe that we see him open his mouth to do so, either. In fact, during Ciel's challenge at the tea, the Head Master just sits there, hands steepled—it's the master standing beside him who speaks and announces Derrick's arrival. Maybe Ciel has had ahold of the wrong end of the stick all along and it's this teacher who's the problem—with the Head Master as his puppet.

In any event, this entire episode is set up in such a way that we can see Ciel slowly losing control of the situation. We open with a recounting of how he used physics to engineer his house's victory before moving on to Ciel discovering that his outfit for the boat parade is too large. This is a fake-out, however, because Sebastian, moving more valet than butler, has a new one for him. Still, it was an oversight on Ciel's part and things grow even more wobbly during the parade when his coxing can't prevent the boat from capsizing. The final insult is at the tea itself, when his “smartest man in the room” detective spiel is cruelly upset by the arrival of Derrick, completing the journey from control to everything spiraling out of it. Ciel is very smart, and he has Sebastian, but he's still a twelve-year-old boy and a student at a school where the masters have all of the real power.

Someone is using that power for something nefarious. Whether Derrick and the other missing boys number among the living or not, it's clear that the answers will require some serious recalculating on Ciel's part. You never know who or what will appear during the witching hour.

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Black Butler: Public School Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.