Durarara!! ×2 The Second Arc

Episode 10

Okay, try not to panic, Durarara!! fans. This week was not that bad. I know the more focused character episodes were nice, and we were all getting used to following the story pretty well, but just because it got a little more erratic this week doesn't mean the sky is falling (yet.) There's a perfectly simple explanation for all this scene-hopping rigamarole, and I think we'll all be on solid ground again in the coming weeks.

From what I understand, many of the scenes in this fast-paced conversation-hopping episode are leftover bits from previous books that went unanimated but have some mild relevance to the grand finale, so I guess the production team decided to just stick them in this transitory episode before cour's end. So I've bulleted the episode's more minor diversions below for posterity, but don't sweat the scene-swapping in this episode too much. If any of these little moments ends up mattering to the climax in a major way, they'll be revisited in greater detail before then. (Durarara!! is nothing if not fond of the flashback.) If not, just consider them non-essential housecleaning for a very busy show.

• Shijima, the bratty deposed leader of Heaven's Slave now wanted by the Awakusu, runs back to his family for help and finds himself in the presence of Yodogiri Jinnai. Except it's not Yodogiri Jinnai. Ironically, Jinnai appears to use the same trick as Izaya does when dealing with people that he'd rather not reveal his face to, and sends a mild look-alike in his place. This look-alike has a secretary with "future important character" written all over her face, but she doesn't like to talk much, only listen in on the family's negotiation. Not-Jinnai tells Shijima he can protect him from Izaya and the Awakusu if he'll help him infiltrate a little group known as The Dollars.
• Shiki informs his goons that they'll be backing down on the hunt for Shijima, since his informants have told him that Shijima's fallen under Yodogiri Jinnai's protection. Strangely, Shiki seems more afraid of Jinnai's secretary than Jinnai himself, but either way he doesn't consider it worth the trouble.
• Haruna Niekawa's tabloid reporter dad (from the Saika arc way back in the first season) has recovered from his Saika-ization enough to resume the search for his lost daughter, which also leads him to investigate The Dollars, because of course Haruna is part of Izaya's Best Friends Club and therefore infiltrating The Dollars as well. The policeman he asks for information is actually the daughter of the crazy motorcycle cop that's always chasing down Celty, because kicks and giggles, I guess. Everything in 'Bukuro is connected and all that jazz.
• Akabayashi meets up with Izaya to ask him for information about Mikado, since Anri's romantic involvement with the kid has become more and more obvious, and Akabayashi is very protective of the only daughter of his lost lady love. Izaya promises that he'll keep Akabayashi informed of Mikado's movements and keep her little boyfriend out of any "serious" trouble. Hardy har har, Izaya.
• Anri gets dragged into cosplaying by Erika and learns that Masaomi is back in town. (She and Erika also learn another shocking thing together, but I'll get to that at the end of the review.)

So yeah, there's more loose-end tidying this week than climactic setup, and unfortunately, that also makes this a not-very-interesting episode overall. I guess we needed to cool down some after the emotional highs of previous weeks, but this episode goes a little too far in the opposite direction. It's largely an emotional dead zone for almost twenty minutes, before capping off with an intriguing cliffhanger to give us just a twinge more insight into Aoba and Izaya's respective plans. Of course, that means the episode should be narrated from the perspective of someone closely tied to both scumbags: Aoba's big brother Izumii.

Izumii's not a very nice man, but he's also not quite as stupid as we've been led to believe. Aoba seems genuinely scared to see him wandering around outside of prison, and his big bro only makes things worse by telling Aoba that he knows the little turd betrayed and usurped him. Apparently, this has been their sibling dynamic since they were tiny, and Izumii has finally learned something from it. "I'm going to try a change of pace," he warns Aoba, hinting that he's working for Izaya now and making it clear that the jig is up about Mikado being the shadow-boss of The Dollars. Izumii lets the audience know that he's learned how much better it is to be the neck of a gang than the head. Not only can you turn the head any way you want to, but even when the head gets cut off, you'll still be around to put on a bloody show. Aoba taught him that through years of trickery and abuse, and it's finally Izumii's turn to flip the script. Izumii may be human garbage, but anyone who can strike a little fear into Aoba's heart isn't so bad by me.

So how does Izumii plan to exercise his power as the neck of Izaya's Best Friends Club? Well, we only find out after Masaomi meets up with Dotachin and friends, pleading with them to leave The Dollars and join the Yellow Scarves. Needless to say, the gang isn't remotely tempted to take him up on that, but his offer does leave them with a lot to think about. He warns them that the same thing that happened to the Yellow Scarves is happening to the Dollars, but on a potentially more devastating scale thanks to the involvement of the former Blue Squares and maybe even Mikado himself. Right when Dotachin puts two and two together and resolves to confront Mikado about those power-hungry fantasies he's been having, Izumii (in disguise) plows down the sidewalk in a minivan and hits Dotachin at full speed. Well, damn.

Saburo, Walker, and Erika (alongside Anri) hear the news in a devastating montage of cell phone calls at the end of the episode. Mortal injury has befallen plenty of Durarara!! characters in the past with minor consequences, but the reactions of Dotachin's friends mark this as a much bigger deal. I don't think we've ever seen the gang this emotionally shaken before, which means Dotachin is probably in very bad shape. Even Saki is stunned by the news, because she's the only one who knows that Masaomi went to Ikebukuro to talk shop with Dotachin, which puts her lover boy in immediate danger as well. The whole fallout from this twist delivers a nice emotional climax to an episode largely devoid of emotion in favor of infodumping, but what does it mean for Izaya's plan?

Well, clearly this isn't something that Aoba wanted to happen, because Dotachin being injured will potentially draw Mikado into conflict over his vendetta, and Aoba can't afford for Mikado to waver at this early stage of the game. Izumii was probably happy to take out the hit and stick it to his little brother, but I don't know what stock Izaya has in this dirty trick yet. I think he's trying to help Mikado in the long run, but Izaya's idea of "help" is a double-edged sword that probably doesn't take anyone else's well-being into consideration. Either way, it's a terrific shift in dynamic that saves the episode from being completely forgettable, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the season will end.

Rating: B-

Durarara!! ×2 The Second Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.