Let’s be honest, Golden Kamuy took off the restrictor plate and started firing on all cylinders a long time ago.  I don’t think this series knows a “too” anything – too loud, too frenetic, too violent, too hokey, too many characters, too many betrayals.  It just sets a new level one week, and sets about blowing past it the next.  That it can be that obscenely bombastic show and still deliver as many interior emotional moments as effectively as it does is something of a miracle – but this week wasn’t really about those moments.

There’s an old saying that fits situations like this: “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard”.  I have no interest in being the scorecard, especially as I’m assuming anyone who’s reading this has seen the episode, so I won’t try to recap the madness we see playing out here.  But it’s quite the hugger-mugger indeed.  Lt. Tsurumi is steaming up the river, blasting the hell out of Abashiri Prison with big guns.  The warden is telling his men (quite rightly) that they may as well fight, as no one will be left alive by the time Tsurumi is done.  Sugimoto and Shirashi are barricaded in with the fake Nopperabo, as Inkarmat and Tanigaki Nispa try to escape through the tunnel they’ve dug.  And Hijikata – who’s executed his plan by using Sugimoto as bait but wasn’t expecting to be triple-crossed by Inkarmat – is headed for the chapel where he suspects the real Nopperabo is kept.  As for poor Cikapasi, who knows – he has a way of disappearing in situations like this one.

So much betrayal. For all the action and violence playing out around it, the most pure drama here comes from the one nugget of restraint in this episode – Asirpa’s decision.  Hijikata is a clever old bastard – he’s killed two birds by setting Sugimoto up, knowing that sooner or later he was going to become an obstacle.  But he hasn’t reckoned on the sheer volumes of courage and loyalty Asirpa packs into that little body of hers.  Hijikata (who’s accompanied by Anji) makes a very persuasive case for why she shouldn’t pass up likely her only chance to see her Aca and learn the truth. For a while I was concerned that Asirpa had rationalized Hijikata’s words into the truth, but she was only playing along – as soon as he says where he thinks Nopperabo is secretly held, she bolts the first chance she gets to try and rescue Sugimoto.

This is all a good reminder that for all his grandfatherly charm, Hijikata is a cold-blooded fanatic at heart.  And the entire episode is a good refresher about Tsurumi, too.  He’s been cast as a comic, almost fatherly figure of late, but there can be no mistake – this is a very twisted and damaged man who intends to do great evil.  Killing everyone at the prison – all of the guards, all of the prisoners – to make sure his fake story about locusts and a prison riot isn’t exposed is nothing to him.  Turning Hokkaido into a giant weapons factory and exploiting its people is nothing to him.  He’s driven by a thirst for revenge for genuine wrongs done to him and his men and he’s charming as fuck, but this is one evil bastard.  And almost surely insane, too.

There’s no better example of Noda-sensei creating insane situations and blowing past them than having Kadokura release all 700 of Japan’s worst criminals into the midst of this already unbelievably chaotic melee.  That action ends up helping Sugimoto and Shiraishi, though that wasn’t why the dying guard captain did it.  With that distraction they’re able to escape, though only Shiraishi is limber enough to squeeze through the tiny window at ground level he leads them to.  And with Ushiyama’s help TanigakInkarmat is able to escape the tunnel – after a hilarious fake-out where it seems Ushiyama is going to sacrifice himself for them.  Eventually Kiroanke comes back for Sugimoto, who tells him to go look after Asirpa (he doesn’t trust Shiraishi) and that he’ll bring Nopperabo to her Abashiri’s main gate.

Nikaidou – remember him? – has managed to survive the brawl with the prisoners and follow Sugimoto, and the scrap between the two of them is especially brutal.  Sugimoto take a dagger through the cheek and gets shot with Nikaidou’s shoe-volver, but the man’s pain threshold is obviously inhuman.  Nikaidou loses yet another limb in the process (“‘Tis but a scratch!”) but I have no doubt he’ll survive yet again, lighter by the weight of another appendage and chunk of his sanity.  Meanwhile the warden has killed Anji Toni in a sneak attack, handcuffs himself to Hijikata and the two of them do battle with katana – a duel I can only see ending one way (perhaps with Hijikata showing up with the warden’s arm still cuffed to him).

Wounded badly enough that even he’s feeling it, Sugimoto drags himself to the chapel and the episode ends in the only place it really could – with Sugimoto and Nopperabo finally face-to-face.  A face, in the latter case, featuring very Asirpa-like blue eyes.  No one can accuse Golden Kamuy of not giving next week’s finale proper build-up – this entire season has been like ten tidal waves converging on a single beach, and the sheer spectacle they stand to cause when they crash together should be something to behold.