Review of Kagi no Kakatta Heya Ep 8

Serizawa is appearing on a TV show where he boasts about how his corporate clients are able to avoid scandals by having strong governance, thanks to his help. Aoto and Rina who are watching Serizawa being so excited onscreen despite complaining earlier about how reluctant he was to make a TV appearance, remark jokingly that they finally understand why he is so successful i.e. being able to put on different faces depending on the situation. Suddenly, the host shifts to another discussion topic where he talks about closed room mysteries and introduces a celebrity Nakata Tomoka (Shida Mirai) whose aunt Nakata Fumie, a famous manga artist, was found dead in similar circumstances. Serizawa can tell that the topic will be deflected to him soon and squirms in his seat when the host brings up his history of solving such mysteries and Tomoka immediately pleads with Serizawa to solve her aunt's case. Being on TV, Serizawa has no choice but to accept the request and even declares that he will solve this case despite the fact that it has been Enomoto who had solved all the previous cases.

After the TV appearance, Serizawa regrets accepting Tomoka's request on the spur of the moment but Aoto isn't sympathetic at all since he brought it upon himself. He asks Aoto to get Enomoto to come to his office where they will hear the full story from Tomoka.

Tomoka relates how her aunt Fumie was found dead in her house which also served as a work studio. On the day she died, one of her assistances Tachibana Asami (Iwasa Mayuko) left the work studio at 5pm so Fumie was left alone. When Tomoka spoke to her on the phone at 6-plus, Fumie remarked that she was drinking with her assistant. Subsequently, when Anzai Rikako (MEGUMI) came to work at 10pm, she realised that she forgot to bring her spare key and was planning to call out to Fumie to open the door but found her dead in the living room. According to the police's speculations, they deduced that Fumie had tripped on a pile of materials left lying on the floor, knocked against a cabinet where a 5-kg clock fell onto her head. As such, they concluded that the entire incident was an accident. However, Tomoka finds it strange that this had happened thus she wants Serizawa to investigate what was the real cause of her aunt's death. Enomoto remarks that the presence of spare keys would have ruled this case as a closed room mystery but Tomoka explains that there is a reason why nobody could have entered the house.

When the Kagi trio and Tomoka head to the house where Fumie died, they see a fierce-looking dog at the entrance which barks at the sight of them. Tomoka explains that Fumie got the dog as a way of protecting her house from burglary which is a common problem in that area. Since the dog would bark at anyone other than Fumie and the neighbours did not hear the dog barking between 5pm and 10pm when Rikako called the police, that is why the police concluded that there was nothing suspicious about Fumie's death.

Enomoto goes about his usual business to inspect the house while Aoto and Serizawa find out more about Fumie and her assistants from Tomoka. Suddenly, Asami walks in unannounced and they are surprised to see her since they didn't hear the dog barking before she entered the living room. Asami declares that she is not responsible for Fumie's death and came to stress her innocence in case they start to suspect her. Just then, they hear the dog barking in the garden and find the other assistant Rikako there trying to defend herself against the dog with a K-9 canceller. Asami snatches the canceller from Rikako and tells her not to use it on the dog. Rikako admits sheepishly that she's scared of dogs so she has the canceller with her in case the dog tries to come near her.

When everyone gets back into the house, Rikako introduces herself as the first disciple of Fumie and that she has been with her for the past 10 years. She asks Serizawa to solve the case soon so that Fumie can be put to rest but Asami remarks sarcastically that Rikako might have wanted Fumie dead more than anything else. This makes the atmosphere full of tension as it appears that Rikako and Asami are sworn enemies and all is not well between them.

After the on-site inspection, Enomoto declares that there is no way for anyone to get out through the windows since they were all locked properly. As such, the logical explanation is that if there was a criminal, he/she could only get out of the house through the main door which was guarded by the dog. However, if that really happened, the dog should have barked and attracted the attention of the neighbours. Serizawa is elated to hear this because this means the end of the case if there was no suspicion of murder but Enomoto says that although the crime scene was a closed room, he didn't say that Fumie's death was the result of an accident. This dampens Serizawa's mood especially when Aoto also says that she feels the same way.

However, when Serizawa returns to his law firm, he is swamped by reporters who are eager to know the progress of the case. As soon as Serizawa says that the case might be an accident, the reporters start to leave because there is nothing juicy to report on. When Serizawa sees this, he immediately changes his stand and claims that the case is a murder and that he will definitely solve it.

Serizawa goes back to Enomoto's office in a bid to find out what the progress of the investigation is. However, when he hears that Enomoto and Aoto are making no headway and starting to believe that Serizawa's theory that Fumie's death was merely an accident, Serizawa gets worried and tries to get the two of them to continue with their investigations. He is relieved when Aoto says that she is going to find out more about Asami and Rikako from Tomoka because they think that things between the two assistants seem to be really strained and that could have something related to Fumie's death.

Tomoka reveals that Rikako has been Asami's assistant for the past 10 years but ever since Asami joined the work studio, her skills have made her overshadow Rikako's contributions and that Asami had been asked to take on more important work which Rikako had never done before. To make things worse, Asami kept telling Rikako that Fumie found her to be a burden and that Rikako was in danger of being fired.

Soon after, Fumie's house is found to be ransacked when Tomoka returns to clear her aunt's stuff. The strap originally attached to Rikako's K9 canceller was found at the work studio thus she becomes the prime suspect of being the culprit of this act in a bid to hide something. However, Enomoto finds out through a security video feed from Fumie's neighbour that the true culprit was Asami who wanted Rikako to be arrested for Fumie's murder as she believed that Rikako bore a grudge against her teacher. It was then revealed that Asami had lied to Rikako that Fumie was going to hire someone new to replace her and Asami truly believed that Rikako would kill Fumie after thinking that the latter had betrayed their relationship built over years.

The Kagi trio are walking through a park at night when Aoto suddenly remarks that she heard a high-frequency mosquito sound which only young people can hear. Serizawa starts to pretend that he can hear it in order to show that he's still "young". This sets Enomoto thinking and he suddenly realises the trick to the solving the mystery.

Aoto and Enomoto ask Rikako to Fumie's house and confront her with what they have found. When told about the motive of hatred towards Fumie, Rikako says that there is no proof of her killing her teacher just because of lies by Asami. However, Enomoto then explains that Rikako had planned her murder scheme meticulously by making use of the dog at the garden and the K9 canceller. He even shows her proof to back up his theory. The last nail in the coffin comes from Serizawa who tricked Rikako into digging her own grave and revealing that she was indeed lying about the circumstances that night when Fumie died. Having no way to deny the allegations, Rikako can only admit to killing Fumie.

After the case is solved, Serizawa goes on TV to bask in the glory of having solved another closed-room case. Aoto suddenly looks at Enomoto and says that she finally sees that (someone or something) can be relied on which makes the latter feel happy for a moment because he thinks that she is talking about him. When Aoto clarifies that she is talking about a dog, Enomoto starts to sulk and ignores Aoto's questions when she realises that she has made him angry but can't seem to know what exactly she had said wrongly...

This episode boasts of a trio of guest stars i.e. Shida Mirai, MEGUMI and Iwasa Mayuko which is a bit unusual because there is one guest star most of the time. Although I don't think we'll be seeing MEGUMI and Iwasa's roles anymore, Shida's character may jolly well make a comeback in future because frankly speaking, I don't see how they would get someone like her to act in such a small role just to introduce the Kagi trio to the case. I would have liked to see more of her but too bad, she was only making brief appearances in this story. And yes, she's really getting prettier these days which is a far cry from her sweet girl look years ago in Joou no Kyoushitsu.

As for the story itself, I think it was quite obvious who the culprit was because it could only be Asami or Rikako. And going by the usual "logic" of suspense mysteries, it is usually the unexpected one to be the culprit so that it can be a surprise on the viewer. Anyway, the moment the dog canceller made its appearance in this episode, Rikako already appeared to be the likely killer rather than Asami who just didn't seem to have a reason to kill Fumie. Since Asami was the favoured one, Rikako had a stronger motive since she felt that she was being slighted. Although it was hinted that Asami felt jealous over the bond Rikako and Fumie built up over the years, that was nothing compared to the feeling of being outdone by a newcomer which Rikako felt. She must have felt indignant over the preferential treatment but still she might not have thought of killing Fumie even if she was fired. The problem was that Asami had been fanning the flames of hatred in Rikako by telling lies and destroying the trust between Rikako and Fumie. That's why when Rikako realised that she was about to lose her job, she also lost her sanity at the same time. It also goes to show that a lie can have a drastic effect if it is allowed to grow out of proportion and how it can have unintended side effects.

Serizawa is prominently featured in this episode especially for his repeated boasting which causes him to be stuck in this mess. It was funny to see him trying to convince Aoto and Enomoto to see his point (whichever side it may be) as long as it suited his personal agenda. There wasn't anything significant going on between Aoto and Enomoto in this episode except for the sulking incident at the end where Aoto was so dense that she didn't know what went wrong and Enomoto simply did not want to answer Aoto because he was embarrassed at misunderstanding her words and yet annoyed that she didn't think of him in the same good way as she described a dog. ^__^ It will probably take ages for anything romantic to happen between them because one keeps his feelings to himself while the other has no idea what is going on!