I don’t know why, exactly, but there have always been little things about Yakusoku no Neverland that annoy me more than they probably should.  Like the excessive smiling (though that goes down as a pet peeve of mine, so no surprise in that).  Another is the seeming recklessness with which the kids have their strategy meetings – right out in the open adjacent to the house or even in it, not even bothering to lower their voices.  Considering how smart these rugrats are supposed to be (and the story certainly doesn’t work if they’re not) isn’t that kind of extremely dumb?

Oh well, at least that did come back to bite them this week – but more on that in a minute or three.  As usual for Yakusoku no Neverland there’s a lot happening – I haven’t gone back to double-check my impression that the anime is moving faster than the manga generally, though I know a few specific instances where it is – it’s possible Kanbe Mamoru’s stylish but relentlessly busy cinematography is contributing to that impression.  That cliffhanger turns out to be a dud, as it’s one of the little ones going into Mama’s room.  But rather than gladly accept their reprieve and make a run for it, Don and Gilda double down on their bad judgment and after Don finds the key to the secret room, decide to explore it further.

I’m actually quite OK with that, because let’s be clear here – 11 year-old kids are going to show bad judgment a lot of the time, even really smart ones.  And there’s no reason to think Don and Gilda are as smart as the big three, who reign supreme over their fellow livestock in test scores and everything else.  That trio is indeed busy being geniuses, as we’re introduced (already) to another significant name – William Minerva.  It’s he who seems to have been the former owner of a lot of the books in the Grace Field library.  And his goshuincho (book stamp) is the proof he left behind in his books.  But it’s not just a stamp – each book (or most of them) are a message in morse code (note that it was little Phil who noticed this, not Emma herself).

Even if Emma, Norman and Ray are nuts to be having their conversation where and when they are, they’re at least talking about the right thing – what kind of world are they trying to escape into, anyway?  Their next big step is to scale the wall and do some reconnaissance about the surrounding area, but that’s like trying to navigate in the ocean based on what you can see with the naked eye from your boat.  Minerva’s puzzling messages , cryptic they may be, are the children’s first tangible evidence that there might be something – or someone – on the outside worth trying to find.

There’s understandable ugliness when Don and Gilda rejoin the group – Ray is suitably pissed that they took such a risk, and Don even more pissed that he and Gilda were lied to about what’s really happening here.  Ray is dispatched by Norman to feed false information to Mama (even incorporating the bruised cheek that Don has bestowed on him as part of the story), and to distract her while the reconnoitring mission can be undertaken the next morning.

Unfortunately the power trio’s carelessness has caught up to them – Sister Krone has overheard their plotting, and she’s an uninvited guest on their visit to the wall.  Even if you take away the anime version’s needlessly unhinged behavior, Krone is a wild card – Ray gives the kids at least a connection to what Isabelle’s thoughts may be, but Krone is totally unpredictable.  She immediately informs Norman, Emma, Gilda and Don that she knows what they’re up to – but rather than tell them they’re busted, she offers to join forces.  This development will certainly put all of Norman’s chess wizardry to the test…