Live-reviewing Umineko: When They Cry
Progress: End of Umineko Episode 4 + Tea Rooms / End of Question Arcs
There was quite a gap between finishing the episode and getting this post out this time. In doing so I have incidentally leaked the fact that I don’t write these posts when I finish each episode, but rather just before I start the subsequent episode. I took a break between EP4 and EP5, resulting in this awkward delay of posts. But, you can at least take this as suitable foreshadowing that EP5 is about to begin. Anyway…
When I read Higurashi, I called it an inconsistent experience. And there is no need to repeat that criticism for Umineko. Between the first and second works of the When They Cry franchise, Ryukishi07 has gained a lot more stability as a writer. Episode 4 of Umineko is an open celebration of these improvements. Poorly paced, bloated backstory selections are out, and instead we get flashbacks that build naturally into the A plot that they are meant to inform. (They are still too long, but the excessive length of everything is just a feature of Ryukishi07’s writing that I am going to have to make peace with at this point.)
While Higurashi was overly ambitious on a level that was approximately consummate with being a multi-genre visual novel of exceptional length, one readily felt that with some more practice and refinement it could have better approached its own potential. In other words, it was probably trying to do too much for a debut work, but that was part of its charm, and it only needed some straightforward fixes in order to be its best self. In contrast, Umineko does not merely fly too close to the sun, it boldly dives straight into the nuclear fire of a G-type yellow dwarf whilst Beatrice cackles to herself that “a mere star cannot kill an endless witch, you damned fool, Ushiromiya Baaaatttleeeer!”
Umineko asks and answers many questions over the sixty hour runtime of its Question Arcs, but the chief question I believe it will continue to pose over its subsequent episodes is this rather esoteric concern: What does it mean to succeed at a task when it is impossible to achieve the desired perfect result? When trying to challenge inevitable failure, is a perpetual tie more than good enough? I am not referring to a tie in Beatrice and Battler’s game, but instead a tie in the sense of Ryukishi07’s doomed attempt to achieve perfect genre equilibrium, all against the tide of a century of established rules and conventions. Umineko is perhaps miraculous precisely because it is more successful than I believe the author should be capable of. In as much as it is a success with no viable win condition before it, it is a lightning in a bottle success that overcomes its fated mediocrity that should have arisen from its deeply faulty ambitions.
Ryukishi07 wishes, in essence, to argue that someone can enjoy the mystery of Umineko regardless of their assumptions about the validity of its supernatural elements. If I were to put it in a more pithy way; Umineko theorises that literal magic and the ridiculously unrealistic tricks deployed in detective fiction are similar enough in their implausibility that potentially supernatural mysteries can still function as compelling logical whodunits. It would be premature to dwell too long on the result of this whilst still reading his work, but Ryukishi07 is facing an unbreakable ceiling as he tries to shoot for the moon, and I distinctly feel that he didn’t manage to get beyond this barrier. Despite this, it is still a whole lot better than Higurashi.
Perhaps, further discussions of quality and construction are best left until the end of Umineko. It is easy enough to just disregard the half-baked opinions of a reader who is not yet complete, so the real analysis of Umineko as a whole must wait until that point. Instead, let’s do the one thing we can only do at this precise juncture of the end of the Question Arcs: We should theorise and deduce the solution to Umineko’s mystery as best we can.
A ridiculous number of locked-rooms
At the end of the prior episode, readers may remember that I pointed to Shannon as my preliminary culprit. I did not expand too deeply into my reasoning, citing the fact that there was still a whole further episode of the Question Arcs to get through before I had any obligation to come up with concrete answers. I had mild doubts in my answer on account of my inability to explain how Shannon could have committed some of the more elaborate locked-rooms as presented on her own. I was not specifically excluding accomplices, but I saw no evidence of any outside of Nanjo.
If my confidence interval at the end of episode 3 suggested that there was a 75% chance that Shannon was the culprit, I am happy to raise that up to 98% as of the conclusion of episode 4. When viewed in consideration of the narrative tricks that have been employed by Umineko up to this point, episode 4 ceases to be any kind of mysterious series of events, and more of a straightforward revelation to prior questions. Above all else, it demonstrated that these murders have been conducted with the assistance of accomplices. There are some doubts regarding exactly how involved various cast members are, but by considering certain key characters as accomplices, the crimes become provable by human hands, with Shannon as the primary culprit.
It is of course insufficient to simply say that there are an indeterminate number of accomplices and leave it at that. While excluding a particular character from suspicion as an accomplice is a challenging devil’s proof, the accumulation of various pieces of evidence throughout Umineko now allows us to structure a meaningful rubric for assigning accomplice status.
Firstly, a number of characters are likely to be incidental or accidental accomplices; these characters were likely told to spread seemingly harmless information which exacerbated the confusion surrounding these incidents. Salient examples of this category are Krauss and Natsuhi, who maintained the illusion that Kinzo was alive throughout the family conference. In so doing, they accidentally created the first study locked-room of episode 1, and various other confusing circumstances. These accidental accomplices go a long way to explaining the events of episode 4: Most of the cast members separated from the story in the “dungeon” likely witnessed none of the major events of the family conference, and were simply acting out what they believed to be a harmless prank, thereby accidentally acting as accomplices for the actual culprit.
In addition, there were also various minor accomplices, those who likely knew of a greater extent of the full plan, but did not themselves carry out the crime. Given that Nanjo seems to have given false statements regarding the medical states of certain “corpses”, and continued to do so even once it was clear that actual people were dying, it is safe to place him in this category. It is also safe to put the servants in this category, since they would have been necessary for several of the culprit’s tricks, and received compensation for their efforts, as we saw in the Ange flashforward sequences. Of course, the evidence that the money seen in this sequence was compensation for accomplices is only circumstantial, and maybe even dubious with Ange herself receiving compensation money; however, it is entirely possible that all of the guests’ families received this compensation, thereby giving the accomplices perfect camouflage. In other words, while this money establishes that various guests were likely accomplices, it does not necessarily specify which guests were acting in this capacity.
There were also major accomplices and the culprit herself, who both acted directly in carrying out the crimes. These were Kanon and Shannon respectively. While they both carried out parts of this incident, I am only assigning culprit status to Shannon because the motive for these crimes lies with her, she did the majority of the footwork. On top of all of this, she is generally the one who survives until the end. However, in order to properly understand the case being put forward against these two, we need to go over all of the various incidents of Umineko in order. Well, at least mostly in order: We’re going to save most of episode 1 for the end, since its solution relies heavily on facts established in later episodes. So, let’s get at it.
The following list encompasses the complete set of locked rooms of Umineko’s Question Arcs. One or two are repeated in some from across episodes, but most are standalone, so we’ll broadly list them out in order of when they first appear to the reader:
- The rose garden letter locked-room
- The storage shed mutilation locked-room
- The study receipt locked-room
- The lovers’ chain locked-room
- The boiler room trap locked-room
- The letter in the study locked-room
- The Maria in the parlour locked-room
- The Halloween party in the chapel locked-room
- The Jessica-Kanon locked-room
- The Nanjo-Kumasawa corpses locked-room
- The Natsuhi’s chambers locked-room
- The letter in the parlour locked-room
- The great locked-room circle
- The rose garden massacre locked-room
- The guesthouse disappearances locked-room
- The no-culprits-left Nanjo locked-room
- The family conference massacre locked-room
- The Jessica’s trial locked-room
- The Kyrie’s phone call locked-room
- The storage shed hangings locked-room
In other words, there are over twenty locked-rooms to solve across these four episodes of Umineko. Quite the daunting number. Luckily, the tricks are generally simple, and most importantly they are co-dependent: Spotting the logic behind each locked-room makes subsequent ones more straightforward to explain. Before we go through them individually, I will once again skip to the conclusion: The culprits are Shannon and Kanon, with the assistance of the other servants and Nanjo. With that in mind, many of these locked-rooms are not even puzzles, but utter farces.
Unfortunately, though I would like to for any readers who have not read Umineko, I cannot possibly set out the facts of each locked-room before getting to the solution. There are twenty of them, after all. Go read the manga, I guess. I hear it is good.
The rose garden letter locked-room
Once we consider the servants as accomplices, all of their alibis fall apart — any of them could deliver the letter and umbrella to the rose garden. Kanon could have left earlier than assumed and handed Maria the letter, or Shannon being with Kumasawa at all could be a complete lie. Shannon seems the most likely to impersonate Beatrice due to her build and gender, and so she is the presumed culprit. If I were to put it was my own Blue Truth, a suitable servant, either Shannon or Kanon, presented themselves as “Beatrice” and delivered the letter and umbrella to Maria.
Skipping ahead to episode 2 for a moment…
The Halloween party in the chapel locked-room
With the complicity of the servants, the core premise of this locked-room becomes suspect. After all, the door might well have been unlocked to begin with. Rosa did check the lock by pushing and pulling on the door briefly, but other scenes in the series have suggested that the door to the chapel is difficult to open even when unlocked. Additionally, for reasons we will discuss later, it is not impossible for Rosa to go along with lying about the lock for her own reasons if she was told to by “Beatrice”. This crime and locked-room was created by the efforts of some group of the servants together. The magic circle which references Maria was probably drawn by whomever is playing the part of “Beatrice” — in other words, Shannon. Basically, the chapel door was never locked, the locked-room was an illusion created by a conspiracy to lie held among the culprit and the accomplices.
The Jessica-Kanon locked-room
With the cooperation of any of the servants this locked-room is simple to explain. The culprit need only work with Kanon to kill Jessica, kill Kanon, dispose of his corpse elsewhere, leave Kanon’s master key behind in Jessica’s room, and then lock the door from the outside with their own master key. Obviously, because Kanon’s corpse is never found, there is no physical proof that Kanon was killed at that point per se, but the Red Truth insists he was killed in Jessica’s room so we must accept it in some form, even without a credible motive other than creating a locked-room.
The Nanjo-Kumasawa corpses locked-room
Episode 2 in particular was always the easiest to explain once the servants are suspected. Indeed, much of the drama of the episodes comes from Battler’s attempts to not suspect them when they are so clearly suspicious. This locked-room is no different. Nanjo and Kumasawa’s corpses were never locked in the servants’ room. They were killed, possibly inside of the room in order to explain the blood, disposed of elsewhere in order to preserve the illusion of the order of the sacrifices, and the locked-room was a farce created by the lies and master keys of the servants. The servants simply locked the door after they left, and Gohda opened it when the whole cast returned.
The Natsuhi’s chambers locked-room
Shannon, George, and Gohda entered Natsuhi’s room using the key to the room obtained from the chapel. Once inside the room, Shannon could easily kill George and Gohda and lock herself inside the room. No further use of master keys is required, eliminating the problem of the Red Truth declaring that Rosa only let go of a master key the single time that Battler used it to uncover this locked-room. It is never stated in Red Truth that Shannon died here and the stake was not actually in her body, leaving open the possibility of a faked death. However, Battler confirmed her death as best is possible for an amateur, so while a faked death remains theoretically possible, it is more straightforward to suggest that she intended to die at the end of her massacre and committed suicide as the final sacrifice. In other words, Shannon killed Gohda and George, locked herself within Natsuhi’s room, and prepared herself as the final sacrifice (in whichever sense).
The letter in the parlour locked-room
As Battler correctly surmises, the assumption that he is the only possible culprit came from Rosa’s deliberate decision to assume the innocence of herself and Maria. However, Maria would happily follow through with instructions given to her by “Beatrice”. Maria likely placed the letter in the room.
The great locked-room circle
As previously deduced, the only means to create this locked-room is a faked death within the room that was sealed last. Among the rooms, the only ones that can be escaped from after the fact are the parlour and the chapel, and the parlour is the most suitable for being sealed last for two interconnected reasons as well as a third crucial reason. Firstly, the parlour was the intended starting point of the circle for the investigators due to its prominent location and easy outside access. Secondly, the fact that the window would likely be broken by a third party would allow the culprit an easy escape after faking their death without leaving the obvious traces of a break out that would have been necessary in the chapel. Additionally, the chapel would more difficult to seal last because it does not use the master keys, and therefore some scheme was needed to seal the chapel key in the boiler room and still lock oneself in the chapel. Therefore the “corpse” found in the parlour is the remaining viable culprit, who used Nanjo to fake their death. That culprit is Shannon.
PS. A Red Truth seems at first glance to exclude any false deaths in these locked-rooms, but that is not truly the case. I will address this directly a few locked-rooms down
The rose garden massacre locked-room
After finding the secret entrance to Kinzo’s second mansion, and the gold contained within, Eva and Hideyoshi hijacked the incidents in order to silence Rosa and secure the fortune for themselves. Hideyoshi created a false alibi for Eva, who then went outside and killed Rosa and Maria in the rose garden.
The mansion food run locked-room
Based on the financial motive, we can assume that Eva would not kill her own family. Therefore, Eva did not kill Hideyoshi. Therefore, two valid theories exist for this locked-room: Firstly, all three might have been killed by Shannon who waited in ambush after having left the closed circle of suspects. Secondly, Hideyoshi may have attempted to escape Rudolf and Kyrie’s attempts to entrap him, and then all three were killed in the ensuing gun fight amongst themselves. Either way, Shannon would have planted the stakes afterwards to suggest adherence to the Witch’s ritual. Quibbling over Eva’s alibi is not needed to explain these deaths.
The guesthouse disappearances locked-room
As before, George could not have been killed by Eva. However, no such logic exists for Krauss and Natsuhi. Therefore, it is possible that they were killed by separate culprits. The nearly simultaneous timings lends itself to this theory. George was likely beckoned to leave through the window by Shannon, and then Nanjo locked the window behind him. Shannon then took him to the mansion and murdered him. Separately, Eva killed or incapacitated Krauss and Natsuhi, likely by poisoning their coffee, then moved their corpses outside. It is unimportant whether it was Shannon or Eva that planted the stakes in their corpses after the fact, so we can assume it was probably Shannon.
The no-culprits-left Nanjo locked-room
This locked-room was created by Red Truths rather than classical circumstances. And those can be repeated in full:
Kinzo is dead. Krauss is dead. Natsuhi is dead. Hideyoshi is dead. George is dead. Rudolf is dead. Kyrie is dead. Rosa is dead. Maria is dead. Genji is dead. Shannon is dead. Kanon is dead. Gohda is dead. Kumasawa is dead. Nanjo is dead. Those 15 are all dead.
Battler is alive. Eva is alive. Jessica is alive.
Eva was with Battler the whole time. Jessica Ushiromiya has not committed murder.
From these we can surmise the following assumptions: seventeen living people were on this island; eighteen were listed above, but Kinzo was dead from the start, leaving seventeen living people and one extra corpse. The problem is that the Red Truth explicitly excludes each of those eighteen names from being the culprit. However, the Red Truth does not exclude prior deaths. Even if we have deduced that “the culprit”=>Shannon, that does not necessarily mean that Shannon=>”the culprit” at all times. In other words, there were nineteen “people” involved in every game; seventeen humans and two corpses — although it is not at all required that the Shannon listed in the Red Truth is still a physical corpse on the island, she could have died long ago and been replaced by “the culprit”. This also allows the circumvention of the Red Truth that seems to exclude false deaths for the great locked-room circle. Therein we move towards a more concrete theory of these incidents.
So, “the culprit”, who we have come to know as Shannon, is the one who killed Nanjo and Jessica. The one named “Shannon” in the Red Truth was already dead long before this point. The culprit simply waited in ambush like she had done for George and possibly Hideyoshi, and in so doing did not violate any of the Red Truths.
The family conference massacre locked-room
As presented, this appears to be an impossible crime where six victims were killed by magical means in front of almost the entire cast. For the first time, Battler receives reliable testimony verifying a magical murder. However, that is simply not possible. To be clear, we cannot exclude the use of magic as presented using physical evidence alone. After all, that would constitute a devil’s proof scenario. Yet, in the context of the rest of Umineko, that explanation is simply impossible. Were magic available to the culprit before now, the holes that are present in the previous locked-rooms would not be present. Therefore, there are only two explanations: Firstly, we could conjecture that the culprit only gained magic for this episode. Alternatively, we could conjecture that the witnesses are lying. It is obvious that between the two, the latter is the only reasonable theory.
The only question is, who could convince everyone to lie? And under what conditions? The obvious answer to the first question is Kinzo, as the family head he could compel anyone there to follow any instructions he wanted by using the inheritance as a carrot. However, Kinzo was already dead, so that is impossible. But that line of thinking does give us a hint. Anyone who presented themselves credibly as having sway over the inheritance could compel such a farce just as easily. In that case, the next question is under what conditions would the lie be maintained as it was? There was one core, obvious requirement: Only intentional accomplices may witness the fact that any of the deaths are real, if those who were merely lying for the inheritance were to learn that so many murders had occurred, we can reasonably assume that Battler would have at least heard as much through Kyrie, who herself would have deduced the extra step that Rudolf was actually killed.
With these facts combined, we can put together a reasonable hypothesis for the fundamental nature of episode 4: Shannon attended the family conference in her Beatrice disguise. As they did in other episodes, the adults of the family came to believe that she was Beatrice and Kinzo’s daughter, not a literal witch. This meant that Shannon/Beatrice was the rightful heir of the inheritance. Armed with this leverage, Shannon likely proposed many conditions in order to disguise her true motive. Finally, she proposed a prank on the cousins, perhaps she disguised this as a challenge to determine who receives the most inheritance, in a manner similar to Kinzo in the original text. The prank was that the adults would hide themselves away in various designated corners of the mansion, and then calls would be made to the cousins convincing them that various magical murders had been carried out. This was all used as camouflage to carry out actual murders, and then prepare the corpses in a manner that imitates the stories that were told to the cousins. For example, the six “killed” at the family conference were shot in the head and then had their bodies moved to the dining room. Similar methods of imitating the stories given to Battler post hoc accounts for all of the murders of this episode to varying degrees.
The Jessica’s trial locked-room
With the above solution, the later deaths of episode 4 become very simple to explain. Jessica was killed by the culprit not long after her phone call with Battler. During the phone call she was compelled to lie in ways that the culprit could replicate post hoc. She could say that George was dead not because she had seen it, but because the culprit had already killed George and told Jessica to say as much. The culprit likely did not use money to compel this phone call, which would not have moved Jessica, but the threat of violence.
The Kyrie’s phone call locked-room
Similarly to the above, Kyrie’s phone call was a case of reversed causation. Kyrie did not describe her death accurately to Battler before it happened because she died due to a mysterious magical power or anything. Instead, the culprit simply killed Kyrie afterwards in accordance with what she had told Battler. This was done in order to create the appearance of the phone call’s description of magic being truthful. Unlike with Jessica, Kyrie is too forward thinking to have simply caved to threats to violence without giving Battler any hints. Therefore, Kyrie likely believed that no one had died even at that point, and that is why she was willing to feed Battler a completely false story.
The storage shed hangings locked-room
Since the two victims in this case were both accomplices, killing them was simple. Shannon simply needed to ask them to pass her the key, and then she opened the storage shed under the pretence of releasing them, only to then kill them. It remains uncertain how the subsequent locked-room was created, but the absence of Red Truths given outside of the game board means that physical tricks unavailable to other rooms remain viable. Shannon could have used a fishing wire to place the key back in Gohda’s pocket, or she could have replaced the key with a fake after foreseeing that the only way into the locked-room involved breaking the lock meaning that the key’s authenticity could not be checked, or she could have switched the padlock with a new one, which we know are stored within the storage shed. The point is that this locked-room was created by the fact that Gohda and Kumasawa opened the door voluntarily, were killed, and then Shannon created the locked-room by using a basic physical trick relating to the key and lock. Afterwards, she could have easily faked her death or actually killed herself. We have seen her willing to do both throughout these episodes. With these locked-rooms all solved, we now have all of the pieces necessary to solve the remaining locked-rooms from episode 1.
The storage shed mutilation locked-room
The basics of this room remain as simple as they have been since the first episode. Because of the significant timeframe and the fact that the door locks from the outside, it can barely be said to qualify as a locked-room. Especially with the assistance of the other servants, arranging this room is as simple as pie. Whether the victims were killed by poison or whether they were all shot by the servants as a group remains unimportant. What does remain important, however, is the massive wrinkle in this whole situation. Indeed, it might well sink the whole theory so far. Our key culprit, Shannon, is killed in the very first locked-room. Due to the Red Truth, we know that all the victims were correctly identified and they were all dead (the blanket “correctly identified” also eliminates the possibility of the prior “Shannon” having her corpse used as a double, troublingly). In other words, this means that our culprit Shannon is killed straight away in this episode.
On its own, Shannon dying is not a problem. After all, she has been willing to die in as many as two of the other episodes. However, in both cases, it was as the last sacrifice, after she had successfully completed her murder spree. As a result, this single death is completely incongruent with the theory of the case as we have known it until now. So, what is to be done? There are only two explanations that are possible: Either Shannon is actually dead and yet the accomplices finished her work, or she did not die by some means which does not violate the Red Truth. And frankly, neither one can be particularly proven with the available evidence, so this one shall remain our one “incomplete” locked-room at the end of this post. However, I can outline what each of the two explanations would look like without being able to prove either of them.
If Shannon were killed here, it was either a betrayal from Kanon, or a planned action for her chief accomplice to take over. Either way, the essential character of the manoeuvre is that Kanon takes over as the culprit for the rest of the episode. It is unclear why Shannon would make this choice rather than simply killing Kanon or someone else to serve as a sacrifice, but such a motive is unknowable. There is no need to further speculate on how the trick was done because Shannon’s corpse fulfilled the trick on its own, and as we’ll see, Kanon could have committed the rest of the incident without Shannon’s assistance.
If Shannon were not killed here, the central question is how. Shannon exiting the closed circle of suspects would make the rest of the locked-rooms even more simple to explain. But, this one becomes a doozy. The Red Truth eliminates the three most obvious tricks: she could not fake her death, she could not swap places with another cast member (such as using Kanon’s corpse as her own), and she could not use the previous “Shannon” as her own corpse (the Red Truth specified no misidentified corpses, not merely that the corpse was Shannon). Therefore, with those tricks removed, only one possibility remains. If no corpses were misidentified, and Shannon is alive, Shannon’s “corpse” must have been absent from the logic of that Red Truth somehow. The Red Truth does seem to exclude this possibility in almost all imaginable forms, however, if we strictly adhere to a baseline that has been a lifesaver throughout the rest of Umineko, we do get somewhere: If we don’t believe in anything Battler doesn’t see himself, we can get around this Red Truth.
Technically, Battler and the cousins only see four corpses, the fifth is only seen by the adults inside the storage shed, and it just so happens to be Shannon’s. However, this runs into an insurmountable problem. It requires that many of the adults who were not accomplices lie about Shannon’s corpse for no clear reason. We know from episode 4 that the adults will lie in order to secure the inheritance. However, this premise falls apart once they learn that the murders are real. Certainly, I might be able to see Eva and Hideyoshi lying in order to secure the inheritance so long as they were given a guarantee of their family’s safety. However, such a thing is impossible for Natsuhi who had just witnessed her husband’s corpse. Therefore, while we have circumvented the Red Truth, we have failed to adequately deduce the solution to this locked-room. I cannot offer any Blue Truths, merely a pair of twin contingencies. Perhaps Shannon and Kanon both survived, and perhaps Shannon died and Kanon survive. Either way, the survivors among them carried out the rest of the murders.
The study receipt locked-room
In contrast to the previous case, this one is so simple and absurd it is laughable after reading the later episodes. Since Kinzo is dead, this whole locked-room is a farce. Natsuhi simply couldn’t explain as much, otherwise she would be suspected for the storage shed murders.
The lovers’ chain locked-room
With the complicity of the servants, this locked-room is easy to explain. Especially if Shannon did survive the storage shed incident and managed to offer assistance from beyond the closed circle. Kanon and Genji simply lied about being there to check on Eva and Hideyoshi. They arrived at the room, entered it, 5 minutes passed wherein Eva and Hideyoshi were killed by them, and then they called for the others. The chain was either cut when they first arrived or after the fact, it does not matter which was the case because the locked-room was a farce created by their lies in the first place.
The boiler room trap locked-room
And now Kanon dies. Or does he? In this case, an intractable locked-room is only solvable because of an overeager use of the Red Truth. No kind of human or dead person on the island could have killed Kanon. Kanon did not commit suicide. Kanon did not die in an accident. In other words, thinking about things sensibly: Kanon was not murdered, did not commit suicide, and was not killed in an accident. Given a cause of death that excludes natural causes and disease, that can only mean that Kanon did not even die. And conveniently we are not given a Red Truth to contradict that theory this time around. With the assistance of Nanjo, Kanon faked his death and exited the closed circle.
The letter in the study locked-room
As with the parlour letter puzzle from later episodes, Maria is naturally the chief suspect here since she was serving as the “messenger of Beatrice” and would have placed the letter without worrying about the murder spree. However, any of the three true accomplices in the room, Genji, Kumasawa, or Nanjo, could have also placed the letter. It was as simple as any of these four people placing the letter in the middle of the room.
The Maria in the parlour locked-room
Since every person in this locked-room was an accomplice, there was no need for any tricks to create this locked-room. Kanon (and Shannon?) were simply invited into the room, and then killed everyone but Maria. The murderer then called the study’s phone in order to entice the other survivors to move to the parlour. Then, either Shannon or Kanon shot Natsuhi with a gun after Natsuhi wandered off on her own.
Summing up
Obviously, this post is ridiculously long. And it did not serve as much of a “review” of episode 4 or even the Question Arcs. But I felt it was important to get exactly why I felt that the culprit was Shannon down on paper. Not out of any need to parade the fact that I “solved Umineko” or anything. Many of the most important questions remain unanswered. Based on my experience with Higurashi, I expect there’s whole subplots I am yet to address. For example there’s a whole secondary mystery behind understanding why the “game” is happening at all, and what dictates the variations between routes to begin with.
To begin with, I did not even touch on the motive for Shannon, which is a crucial question for why I assigned her the role of chief culprit. After all, there is no clue argument for her being the chief culprit over Kanon. While one could argue that she must be the chief culprit because she killed Kanon in episode 2, the inverse of that argument applies to episode 1. However, I am sticking with Shannon for now for two reasons: Firstly, Shannon makes a much more credible double for “Beatrice” when she appears in the game board in episodes 2 and 4 — although Kanon does have suitable twink energy for some convincing crossdressing. However, more importantly, when putting together a rough conjecture for the motive of the culprit, one cannot help but assume that they were on the island during the previous family conferences when Maria and the younger Ange formed the Mariage Sorciere. The culprit likely served the physical role of being the “Beatrice” of this triad. I can only imagine that someone who replaced Shannon for some reason being the only viable candidate for such a conjecture. As for her real identity, there is next to no evidence to make any meaning theories. I guess it would make the most sense for all of the orphaned servants to have some backstory relating to the second mansion where Kinzo kept Beatrice. Hell, Shannon could even be telling the truth in a certain sense when she calls herself “Beatrice” if that is the case.
There is a trend of mystery criticism that tends to talk about mystery fiction purely in terms of difficulty. This comes as no surprise because the genre is inherently more “interactive” than other forms of fiction, so one should expect some of its critical language to mirror that of games. Yet, I can’t help but find it annoying whenever a mystery novel is reduced to nothing more than a position on the axis between “too difficult” and “too simple”. What I want to express in this post more than anything is that my opinion on Umineko is not coloured by either of those kinds of positions. Solving the locked-rooms of Umineko was achievable with the evidence presented so far (except that damned storage shed, it got me both times), but it was the complete opposite of too simple. In fact, it was freaking hard. And so, when in the future I either compliment or criticise elements of this visual novel, please understand that none of it is about not being able to cope with the difficult of the mystery in either direction. Instead, there are conversations to be had about the strengths and weaknesses of certain narrative structures regardless or whether or not they offer the right balance of difficulty.
The next time I post about Umineko might well come from a place closer to completion where I can more deeply wrestle with what I might mean if I were to say that Umineko is insufficient and makes many mistakes even if it is not unsatisfying as a mystery. As with Higurashi, whether or not I continue blogging each episode from here on out depends on their content. If I have points to make about them as standalone stories, I will post about it. If those points are better served by talking about Umineko as a whole, I will probably save them until I am done. Either way, I expect my Umineko posts to continue being a lot longer than my Higurashi ones, there’s a lot more to talk about here.
