It’s Phantom episode 15, and Reiji and Cal set out to stop the Godoh sniper from striking again.  However, they run into an unexpected hitch on their mission.

We pick up right where the last episode left off, with Reiji thinking he saw Ellen, but he can’t believe it since he’s sure he killed her, yet he still hopes that she’s alive so he can be “forgiven.” Meanwhile, the Godoh boys are becoming increasingly incensed at Inferno’s inability to protect their members, and are starting to suspect that Inferno, and Claudia specifically, are the ones behind the killings. Meanwhile, Claudia still suspects Issac, and so coaxes the Godoh group to formally join Inferno so that Issac can no longer touch them. Of course, Claudia suspects that Issac will try to ambush the group before their initiation, so, once again, she plans on having Reiji catch him in the act.

When Reiji gets home, he finds that Cal has disassembled a sniping rifle she found around the house. Reiji has her re-assemble it to see how well she does (she does very well), and she tells Reiji that she’s always been good at disassembling and reassembling random things she finds. After that, Reiji tells Cal about the principles of sniping, such as needing to be in a high location like a roof, and a sufficient distance away to not be detected. He then tells Cal to study where a sniper might shoot from if they were going to ambush the Godoh members as “homework.”

The next day, Reiji and Cal arrive at the meeting place to scope things out. Reiji’s about to quit for the day when Cal notices two ribbons tied to nearby buildings, suggesting that they’re markers to detect the wind put out by the sniper. this allows Reiji to pinpoint where the sniper is planning on shooting, so he can set up a spot to try to snipe them. Cal begs to let her watch, since the sniper might be the person who killed Judy, so Reiji decides to let Cal be his observer. Then as a reward, Reiji gives Cal a State Alchemist’s watch.

Finally, the next day the much larger Godoh group arrives to meet Claudia as Reiji and Cal set up their sniping position. Cal sees the sniper, but Reiji hesitates because he fears it might be Ellen. Finally, Cal yells at him to shoot, so he does. The shot misses because of a water tank in the way, but causes the sniper to reveal himself: Issac’s right hand man, Randy Weber, 2nd in command of the Bloodies. Randy and Reiji shoot at each other at the same time, hitting each other. However, Reiji only get scraped on the face, while Randy gets shot in the head. Reiji tells Cal that he’s the one who killed Judy, and also mentions that Issac’s involvement is confirmed.

However, all of a sudden, another sniper shoots, barely missing Daisuke in the meeting room. This seems to be the last straw for Daisuke and the Godoh members and a confrontation between the two groups appears inevitable. The camera then zooms out to reveal that the 2nd sniper, tucked away in a room in a building (as opposed to being on a roof)…is Ellen.

Ok, wow. Let’s get the things we know out of the way first:

We now know that the girl that we’ve seen before is indeed Ellen (with some bonus longer hair). We also know that she’s still working for Scythe Master since she says “yes master” at the end of the episode through her headset. I think we can pretty much say for sure that she is the one who killed the Godoh member in the hotel in the last episode as well as the one who killed Judy.

Now, let’s get to things we don’t know, and it seems like it’s a rather significant list:

First, Issac and Randy: what was their goal? Were they working with Ellen to try to snipe the Godoh group, were they working independently, but still both trying to snipe them, or was Randy somehow put out for the same reason Reiji was: to protect the meeting to keep his reputation?

It seems to me that the 3rd possibility seems the least likely, as I’d think it would be apparent from Reiji’s point of view whether Randy was shooting toward the conference room or not. Also, I’m not sure what Issac would gain from somehow saving the Godoh group, especially at that point.  However, Issac did seem to be annoyed at the end, though that could either be from the sniper getting a shot off (if it’s the 3rd possibility) or the fact that the shot missed Daisuke (if it’s the second possibility).

If we are to assume that Randy was trying to shoot Daisuke, then the next question is: were they working with Ellen or not? My thinking on this is: probably not, due to Issac’s annoyance that I noted above. If Ellen was out as a sniper, why needlessly expose yourself by having a 2nd sniper? I guess that’s good for redundancy’s sake, but it also increases the chance that someone will get found. Also, if they weren’t working together, and Randy had shot Daisuke, Issac could just pin it on whoever has already been going after the Godoh members.

Next: now that Issac has (probably) been exposed as trying to off the Godoh leader in the US, what will happen to him? I’m sure that McGuire won’t be all that pleased with that. Meanwhile, how will Inferno defuse this new situation with the Godohs, or will it end up as a shootout like it did with the Stone family?  Though it appears that the Godoh’s certainly have the numbers at the moment.

As it stands right now, Reiji would be at a great disadvantage if he got into a fight with Ellen. He doesn’t want to hurt her again, but Ellen has probably been thoroughly brainwashed by Scythe Master again to do whatever he says without thinking. That’s probably where Cal will come in, since Cal will no doubt have little hesitation to go after Ellen if, and probably when, she finds out that she’s the one who killed Judy.

Last, but not least, to wrap some stuff up here: still no new opening or ending this week. I think we’re supposed to get new ones, but I’m not 100% sure on that. If we don’t get them next week, I’ll start to doubt whether we ever will. Also, I’m kind of expecting another set of time jumps soon as well. The show art seems to show Cal as much older than she is now, so we’ll need to jump ahead a few years so Cal can grow older. I doubt we’ll get any time jumps next episode, but we might the episode after that.

I’d also like to note that Phantom does a good job of using real world places, whether it’s the Las Vegas hotels or an accurate maps of Los Angeles (though the building they’re supposedly meeting in looks nothing like the building at the location on the map, and isn’t surrounded by other skyscrapers, since the actual building is smack dab in the middle of the Los Angeles skyscraper distrct).  P.S.: This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this building.

Update

Jesus there is too much to write about this episode.

I think I missed this above:  I think it’s clear from Ellen saying “mission accomplished” at the end that she meant to aim for the statue to create discord between Godoh and Inferno.  I think I sort of hinted at that above, but didn’t really say it.  And was that a Gepard?