Well, that was certainly interesting, on so many levels.

First thing to catch my eye, of course, was the return of the “troll” OP from episode 1. Turns out they didn’t spend all that money to use it for one episode after all. The return of that OP signaled the Alois-centric ep we expected from the PV. What I didn’t expect was for Alois to die in the end – apparently, anyway. I’m not a fan of the character but his backstory was interesting, if predictable. Obviously Jim McCain (didn’t he run for President? Oh, wait…) had a very fucked-up childhood. Real or not, Claude convinced him that Sebastian was responsible for the death of his little brother, finally giving him the wish for vengeance needed for a contract, which leads to him deposing the pedophile incumbent and taking over as the Queen’s Spider. But as was obvious from 07, Claude’s interest lies in Ciel’s soul and that soul alone. Poor Alois isn’t really in it for the vengeance and blood lust – he just wants Claude to love him. And that’s just not worth Claude’s time.

We found out a few other things too, not least of which that Hannah was a demon – not a huge surprise. And her last act with Alois’ corpse was rather ironic and disgusting. What we don’t know is what comes next – is Alois truly out of the picture, or is his soul still of some importance in what’s to come? Will we now get a third OP, or go back to the one from episodes 2-7? Are we now looking at a battle royale between demon butlers for Ciel’s soul – and has Grell truly gone over to Claude’s side? The overall quality of the series has definitely been on an uptick over the last few eps, so I’m more than committed to finding out the answers at this point. For an episode with no Ciel and Sebby, that was a fine effort.