Well now, that was certainly quite the turn of events.  Appare-Ranman has played a pretty predictable hand for the most part and this episode certainly followed suit, but the ending was another matter.  Some things were confirmed that can’t have surprised many viewers.  Richard as Gil T. Cigar was pretty much a given, and the railroad barons being behind the sabotage plot was a turn I predicted as soon as the plot became part of the plot (indeed, history is littered with similar twists).  It’s har to overstate how much wealth and power the railroad tycoons accumulated during this period in American history.

As for Gil, he’s certainly not a charismatic anti-hero – this is a full-on villain in the classic western movie style.  He’s not really interested in carrying out the sabotage for its own sake or even in the money he’s demanding from Al – he just wants to sow as much chaos as he can.  He’s also offended by the idea of the race itself – that grown men (much less ex-outlaws) – and Jin – could sink so much energy into such a spectacle – so literally blowing it up probably gives him a certain extra pleasure.

Let’s be honest, such men are not components of deep or subtle narratives, they’re devices for conventional ones.  But that’s fine, because Appare-Ranman has never really pretended to be anything else.  And it does have some legitimately engaging if straightforward character elements to be sure.  As for Hototo finally coming face to face with the real Gil (and knowing about it) that’s a bit of an anti-climax for now – Hototo is mostly in shock and Gil not all that interested (indeed, I think Gil probably respects Hototo more than any of the others because of the choices he’s made).  But the real drama is with Kosame this week.

Kosame has emerged as this show’s best character, no doubt.  So if he really is dead with three episodes to go that would be kind of a bummer.  Then again if his death is a fake-out, that would be a bummer too because it’d be a borderline cheat – and very cliched.  So if you ask me what I hope really happens next week I’m not sure, but my heart tells me I’d like to see Kosame live, screw the critical implications.  Appare-Ranman is simply a better series with him around, that’s all.  The circumstances were well-played, as I could totally see Kosame doing what he did (indeed I have a hard time seeing him doing anything else).  We’ll see what happens – and for this series to have me genuinely in suspense about the next episode at this stage is a positive development.