Well, let there be no question about one thing – Golden Kamuy is batshit nuts.  I mean sure, we pretty much already knew that.  But that side of the series really seems to be asserting itself in the last few episodes.  It’s a fine line the series is walking here, because it obviously has a very intricate plot and complex characters. and isn’t shy about the social commentary either.  Do you risk that being taken seriously with orcas jumping out of the water to snatch serial killers and the conversation in the Chinese restaurant?  Yes – in lesser hands, for sure.  But this series seems to be able to pull it off, which may be some sort of miracle.

Against that backdrop, an episode set in what’s clearly an homage to H.H. Holmes’ Murder Castle seems perfectly natural.  Holmes (real name Herman Webster Mudgett) was the doctor who became one of the most infamous serial killers in history.  His reign of terror is profiled brilliantly in Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, which recounts Holmes at the peak of his powers during the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 (roughy contemporaneous with Golden Kamuy, in fact).  Holmes customized a building in Chicago as a “murder hotel”, which the “Sapporo World Hotel” in this episode is closely modeled on.

Uchiyama is the towering central figure of this episode, at least as far as the comedy is concerned.  He ends up at the hotel just before the Sugimoto party arrives (Shiraishi is supposedly to secretly meet with him the next day), and immediately falls for the proprietress.  That Ienaga Kano (Ohara Sayaka), who clearly has the advantage on Ushiyama in that she knows who he is.  Ushiyama is pretty shameless, but then we knew he was pretty much a wild animal when it comes to his libido.  Ienaga is interested in him, but only for his body – “she” is actually a collector.

Things really liven up with Sugimoto arrives in the company of Asirpa, Shiraishi and Kiroanke.  Ienaga knows Shiraishi, too, because he knows both men from the same place.  I’m not sure how exactly an old man gets to looking like he does here, but Shiraishi is fooled too – at least at first.  Meanwhile Asirpa calls Ushiyama “judo ears” and he and Sugimoto (neither one of them seems to know who the other is) immediately bond over being GAR.  This leads to an invitation for drinks at the local Chinese restaurant, where Ushiyama lectures the others on the history of Sapporo beer – and considerably more than that.

This whole scene is pretty audacious, what with Asirpa getting drunk again and then Ushiyama starting in with a soliloquy on dicks.  Ushiyama also gets drunk enough to let it slip that he knows Hijikata (though he lamely tries to cover for his mistake) which I think is a pretty major slip-up for a guy in his position.  Ienaga, meanwhile, has decided he’s interested in both Ushiyama (for his giant body) and Asirpa for her eyes – though he’s also about to kill Shiraishi, that’s really just a matter of him being in the way.

The payoff for all this is certainly over-the-top but once again, it just seems to fit Golden Kamuy.  This is a series that attacks its narrative with reckless abandon to say the least, and it definitely takes the kitchen sink approach to Ienaga’s downfall and demise.  I didn’t figure for a minute Ushiyama was dead (a mere bomb is not gonna take out that guy), though I suspect Ienaga is, but it’s interesting to puzzle over where his loyalties lie.  Partnering with Hijikata is certainly convenient at the moment, but I could easily see Ushiyama as being the sort of guy to cast that aside if it ever stopped making sense for him.