It’s Phantom episode 23, and Cal decides to go rouge and hold Mio hostage herself to force Reiji’s hand.

Ellen returns and tells Reiji that she’s arranged for them to escape on a ship that will leave midnight five days from then. Meanwhile, Lizzie storms in on Scythe Master, demanding to know where Phantom is since she’s nowhere to be found, and several weapons are missing.. However, he doesn’t know, believing that she was with Lizzie, though he doesn’t seem all that concerned either. Lizzie decides to go after Cal and tells Scythe Master to notify McGuire and Shiga. Meanwhile, Reiji apologizes to Mio about what happened before, implying that Cal was his girlfriend back in the US, and that he didn’t think that she’d come back to see him.

Reiji then sees Mio off, but once Mio gets home, Cal arrives to and demands that Mio get on her bike so that Cal can tell her about “her beloved Reiji’s secret.” Having Cal’s gun pointed at her, Mio feels like she has no choice, and goes on a nice peaceful motorcycle ride with Cal, but finally stops when she runs into Lizzie. Cal tells Lizzie that if anyone touches Reiji or Ellen, that she’ll kill Mio, but Lizzie basically just tells Cal that she’s crazy, puts her gun at her, and tells her to calm down.

Cal pulls out her watch and starts playing it, saying that she’ll shoot when the song finishes. However, Lizzie remembers back on having to kill Claudia and tells Cal that she doesn’t want to shoot her. However, undeterred by any of this, when the song stops, Cal shoots Lizzie and then drives on.

Cal takes Mio to an abandoned building where she tells Mio that Reiji was an assassin back in the US and killed countless people. She also tells Mio that Daisuke isn’t her uncle, like she believed, but is her half-brother. Mio says she doesn’t believe her, but Cal tells her to keep all this in mind when the bloodbath starts.

Cal calls Reiji to tell him that she’s got Mio, and tells him that she’ll kill Mio if he runs away without fighting. Ellen decides that she and Reiji should act independently now, with Reiji doing whatever Cal wants while Ellen finds and kills her. Meanwhile, Shiga goes berserk on Scythe Master for allowing Cal to go rouge and kidnap Mio. However, Scythe Master promises Shiga a “satisfying end” by calling on his gang of assassin girls that he’s kept hidden away.

You gotta admit, she might be crazy, but it was a pretty smart move to run and take Mio hostage to force Reiji into a confrontation with her. Of course, in doing so, she’s got Inferno going after her now (you would think Inferno would boot Scythe Master after he’s 0 for 3 regarding his Phantoms rebelling). I guess I figured that Mio would find out eventually about Reiji. Now the question is what will happen regarding her. I still have a feeling that she’s going to play a role other than helpless hostage.

Meanwhile, once again I’m completely wrong about who dies and when. I thought Lizzie had cleared a way to survive until the end, and then she gets shot in this episode. Now, note: just like in the past, we don’t really see her actually die, so her death should still be taken with a grain of salt. She may still pop up in the end to help get rid of Cal.

Meanwhile, my theory that Cal would “turn good” and go against Inferno seems to have taken a hit this week. She’s just too crazy and deranged, I think, and won’t listen to reason from anyone. This will probably only end with her going down, most likely at the hand of Reiji. Of course, there are still 3 episodes left after this, so I guess she still has time to “go good.”

Scythe Master also looks almost gleeful to be able to break out his group of girl assassins, and he doesn’t seem a bit surprised about what’s happened. I think I said in the last review that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in his plans to off Cal during all of this, knowing that she would be useless to Inferno after killing Reiji.

Ellen is now putting herself back into direct peril by going after Cal alone. I’d think that she and Reiji would have the best chance against Cal if they ganged up on her, especially now that she’s gone Rouge and likely won’t get any backup from Inferno. However, Ellen either believes that she can take down Cal herself, or believes that there is no hope and is just using herself as a shield to give Reiji time to escape.