Damn this episode flew by so much faster than I could remember, so I was taken aback when it suddenly ended. But it was yet another dramatic and painful one to watch. Since Yusei’s arrival to the detention center, the torture sessions just keep on coming. Honestly it’s quite amazing how resilient his body is considering how much it has gone through in such a short period of time.
Before shit goes down yet again, Yusei, Himuro and Yanagi were all transferred to another section of the Detention Center. Himuro explained they are now guaranteed to be stuck there for at least 6 months. But not long after that, we learn from Yusei’s new roommate Aoyama that’s a lie as he has been stuck there for over a year. They intend to keep them forever to serve as an example of those from Satellite who come to Neo Domino City. That is precisely why he has been working on breaking out for the past 6 months. How he managed to be in contact with his friends in the first place to make the arrangements remains a secret. But unfortunately for Yusei, even though he was offered a ticket to escape, he finds himself in yet another time crunch again. He had (willingly) gotten himself into trouble by speaking out against the Chief who challenged him to a duel at 8:30PM, which is quite problematic considering he and Aoyama were supposed to escape between 8PM – 9PM. Heck, even if he were to make it, it’s hard to say whether he would even be in the condition to escape. Aoyama had even tried to persuade him to just escape with him alone since Himuro and Yanagi are wounded, but Yusei refused to leave them behind and was set to carry out the duel.
And to make matters worse, the duel was designed for Yusei to fail from the get-go. They did so by confiscating both Himuro’s and Yanagi’s decks so that Yusei would lose by default because he had nothing to duel with, to setting a rigged system up so that only Yusei would be electrocuted while the Chief will escape unscathed when damage is inflicted onto them. Yusei was able to overcome the first trap thanks to the generosity of his fellow inmates who have all entrusted their special card they keep close to them so he would have a deck to fight with. Talk about entrusting your hope into one’s hands.
It just goes to show how Chief is hands down, is among some of the nastiest characters in this series. If you thought his gross habit of picking his nose and beating up Himuro and Yanagi were bad enough, well boy do I have news for you! This guy decides to pick on Yusei because he cannot accept that Signer could possibly be a man from Satellite. Remember a Signer is supposed to be someone who is “Chosen by the Stars”, and that kind of thing is unfathomable, so what does he decide to do about it? HE STRAIGHT UP ANNOUNCES HE INTENDS TO KILL HIM!
That is exactly what makes this so messed up. This Chief also has no qualms of murdering Satellite Prisoners. It was quite chilling to see him brag about many how past ‘examples’ didn’t survive in a duel against him because the electric shocks reflects the amount of the damage inflicted onto them. Right now Yusei has just gone through three rounds of about 300 damage, but it could seriously get dangerous if it becomes too frequent or if he were to be inflicted too much damage in one go. It is highly probable that’s what killed people in the past. What’s also unnerving is the fact Godwin and other security guards have all turned a blind eye to the Chief’s crimes, worse of all, allow him to continue to abuse his power. We of course already knew the discrimination and how these folks think of the citizens of Satellite to be nothing more than garbage, but it just takes it to a whole new level of dehumanization when they are willing to kill these people without a shred of remorse.
That being said, if there was one speck of humor that managed to get through this episode, it was when Yusei hilariously asked if there was any way to escape because he has stuff he needs to do, which prompted Himuro to make a point of, ‘Don’t we all?’ Yusei sweetie, prison is not supposed to be convenient, why else would they be torturing you? Of course it’s precisely because of that he has all the more reason and need to escape as soon as possible.
A word on the Chief’s deck for those who care:
Chief uses the Iron Chain archetype. A deck more or less built on “torturing” the opponent through deck destruction and light burn damage. Essentially giving your opponent a slow death while removing cards they could potentially fight back with.