Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler II Episode Nine "Hollow Butler" --Review

This episode advances the plot in some major ways. We get some more revelations on the connection between Alois and Sebastian, and Claude makes a major move in his war with Sebastian. (Well, if it can be called a war. We could call it a food fight, maybe.) This episode has a lot of disturbing content, from brainwashing to references to child abuse.

We open on a staff meeting of sorts between Claude and his allies. He asks the footman trio and Hannah what they think he is going to do with Alois soul, which is currently occupying a ruby ring surrounded by diamonds. (I am wondering if there is anything particularly significant about the setting of the ring.) One of the footmen suggests that he will eat Alois' soul, which is almost the right answer. Another of the footmen thinks he is going wear the ring, but he is off base. Claude asks Hannah what she thinks, and she notes that Claude has changed the décor. Claude does a soft shoe routine, and says that she is right on the money--he plans on changing "navy" to "midnight blue."

We shift scenes to Sebastian, who thinks he understands Claude's next move. He delivers a message about a series of attacks that have been happening in London. Boys about Ciel's age are having their eyes gouged out. Ciel assumes that Trancy is involved, and he's at least half right. Ciel is also trying to cope with some memories that are starting to surface, and the events of the previous episode, when he stabbed Alois. (Apparently, this is the first time he had stabbed someone.) He believes at this point that Alois must still be alive.

Sebastian and Ciel are interrupted in the middle of their investigation by an attack from two death gods, who believe that Sebastian is responsible for the current difficulties with their soul retrieval efforts. One of them is Ronald Knox, a friend of Grell Sutcliffe. (Ronald's tagline is even worse than Grell's by the way.) Sebastian is able to disable Knox's "scythe" which is a lawnmower. (Yeah, don't bring a lawnmower to a knife fight, dude.) Also on hand is William Spears, whose telescoping pruning shears are not so easily jammed. Sebastian is able to get away long enough to hide Ciel in a crate, before continuing the battle.

Claude meanwhile, is crocheting a doily. (It is a very Significant Doily because Claude is talks about snaring Ciel's soul while he is crocheting it. The doily is apparently a physical expression of the spell Claude is going to use to capture Ciel's soul. Kuroshitsuji writers, what are you smoking, and where did you buy it?)

While Ciel is in the crate, he begins to have severe flashbacks, and becomes very angry. He jumps out of the crate and runs off, intent on catching up with Alois or Sebastian. As he does, he startles some kids, to whom he says "Children should play at home!" The kids yell back that "you're a kid too!" (It is funny how often Ciel tends to forget that little detail...) He chases someone he assumes is Alois into an alley, and is grabbed by official looking types who appear to be either from Scotland yard or a sanitarium. Hannah shows up and says that Ciel is actually Alois Trancy. Ciel denies this vehemently, but Hannah manages to spin-doctor everything so that they believe her, and not Ciel.

Ciel undergoes some very severe questioning in a sanitarium, followed by a trip to a dunking stool. When Ciel's control is completely shattered, a psychologist gets him to start telling his life history, "correcting him" as he speaks with details from Alois' life history. Ciel is extremely confused and distraught, and in what is a deeply disturbing series of revelations, it turns out that the "psychologist," is actually Claude, using an illusion spell. Claude spins a story that matches closely enough to Ciel's real memories of what happened to him in the past, that Ciel accepts the false memories as reality. Then Claude puts Alois' soul-ring on Ciel's finger. Ciel screams and faints.

Sebastian meanwhile finally gets away from William and Ronald and runs to the sanitarium. (The pattern of attacks takes the shape of a rough "spider web.") Sebastian finds that the real doctors and nurses have been murdered, and he ends up fighting with Hannah. (She has lots and lots of guns hidden in many unlikely places on her person.) There is an interesting exchange where he asks her why she's working with Claude when she is powerful herself. She does not answer the question, but does tell him what Claude is planning on doing to Ciel.

Sebastian makes it to where Ciel is, however, he is too late. Ciel 's memories have been confused to the point that he believes that Sebastian is the one who murdered his parents. Ciel orders Sebastian to remove himself from his sight. The contract is still in effect, so Sebastian has to obey him. Sebastian leaves in defeat, our last sight of him is his declaration that dinner is unforgivably late, but he will dispose of the spiders first. Ciel's last scene shows him being carried into the Trancy mansion by Claude, wrapped up in the Significant Doily.

If Claude is telling the truth, (and it seems that he is, at least his version of it) Sebastian did have a contract with Luka, which lead to Alois wanting revenge on Sebastian. I think it is likely that Claude has some rivalry with Sebastian--one-sided, because Sebastian doesn't seem to have been aware of it. (I am very curious about the faint resemblances between the footmen trio, Claude and Sebastian. Hannah is still an unknown quantity, though she's probably also a demon.)

The next episode preview indicates that Sebastian might flip out entirely.

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