neko’s thinkbox

Solemn Jokers. Sooo pathetic.

Since yesterday, I have been thinking a lot over Baccano. The problem is, the more I think about it, the more I get confused. And I bet I am not the only one in this situation. No matter how you turn and twist those pieces, they won’t fit altogether. So as I announced yesterday, I created some kind of timeline, a chronological table to get a perspective of the whole story up until now. But first things first, I’ll tell you a bit about the sixth episode.

So, in the same order it has been related in the episode, we first land in the Daily Days press office. The employees Nicolas and Elean are discussing with the director (who is hidden behind a pile of documents) about the information Nicolas leaked to the Runoratas at the end of episode 5, which could put Eve Genoard in peril.

Back on the Flying Pussyfoot, where that dark red-eyed monster has taken two of the black-clothed men out of the window. The remaining guy rushed back to the room with the radio to call for backup, but he too will fall prey to that creature in a very awkward and painful way. That one girl who escaped in the dining car was just hanging under the wagon as that incident happened and witnessed the horror. She does not flinch, but when the creature suddenly appears in front of her and whispers her something in the ear, she flees screaming.

I wonder what Rail Tracer told her?

“Thank you! F*** you! A bad guy appears!”

1930, Dallas Genoard and his gang (that one group of mafia wannabes I mentioned in my previous entries) proposed to Luck Gandor to enter their organization if they could get rid of Firo. But Luck smartly refuses that offer and dismisses them with punchy arguments. He keeps the two bottles of elixir nevertheless.

Once again, back on the train, Czeslaw hides Mary in a broom closet. Later on, she is discovered by one of Russo’s guys, and he almost ends up… raping her? (lolikon!), but Chane arrives just in time to stab him in the back and get Mary out of trouble, for the moment.
Meanwhile, Jacuzzi and his friends rescue Nick, who was captured alongside Lua and another white-clothed guy. Ladd freed them earlier though, with a nice entry: “Thank you! Fuck you! A bad guy appears!” Haha.

As they exit the room, they see Ladd and his gang coming out of the next room, and they almost get into a fight. Jacuzzi accuses them of having killed the conductors, and upon this Ladd leaves to check it out in the conductor’s room, denying his involvement in the killing of the conductors and in the room he just came from.

orz

OTL

Isaac and Miria are trailing through the streets of Chicago after having been knocked over by the car (which Ennis had been driving). Once again, their highly developed intelligence unleashes some awesome dialogs like:

Isaac: “I’ll hit the car!”
Miria: “Your hand will break!”
Isaac: “Then… I’ll hit the driver!”
Miria: “How will you drag him out of the car?”
Isaac: “Then… I’ll spit on their car!”
Miria: “Waha! That’s perfect!”
Me: ….orz.

They turn into a dark alley, where they do the most stupid thing I haven’t seen in a long while. They use their hats as masks and recapitulate their “achievements”… They’re so embarrassing, lol… Then appears Dallas Genoard’s gang, visibly pissed about the turn down of the Gandors, and let their anger out on our two jokers.

1931, in front of the Genoard’s house, the Runoratas lure Eve Genoard out of her house to kidnap her.

And if it wasn’t enough, we jump on board of the train again, where Jacuzzi et al. are checking up on the room Ladd came out of earlier, and they see a lot of blood everywhere. A few instants later, they spot “Rail Tracer” out of the window.

Returning to the back alley in Chicago, Dallas Genoard is beating Isaac to a pulp, until Ennis pops in and swiftly neutralizes the villains. Ennis clearly is my favorite character in Baccano so far! She’s cute, smart and she’s strong as heck! Erm… anyway. Not only has she saved our two clowns, but she also has found the people she has been looking for; however, they aren’t in the possession of the elixir anymore. Ennis takes them to Quates and injects some kind of substance into Dallas’ body – perhaps that incomplete elixir that only makes him invulnerable.

Ennis’ Flying…

…powerkick!!

And that’s all for this episode. Well, I was putting so much concentration into my timeline that I almost overlooked the most basic things. I was namely having some Time Paradoxes in my timeline (no, I didn’t divide by 0 yet). It would be too complicated and too boring to explain it all here, but I figured out that the whole thing with the elixirs happened BEFORE Isaac and Miria went digging in California.

However, even after having watched the first five episodes again in the afternoon, I couldn’t get this straight – even now in the evening, I doubt that my theory is right because if I remember correctly… some of the events that were supposed to be before California (which was in 1930) were labeled 1931. Yeah, they often switch scenes without stating the year, so perhaps they lost me there.
I am really not in the mood to watch the episodes again now to confirm my timeline, especially since I already wasted enough time on it today. The puzzle still remains incomplete, and I am hoping for the next episodes to fill the gaps, and erase my doubts.

Here’s the timeline as promised (1.21 MB .jpg), but once again, there are no guarantees that it will be absolutely right. Also, it does look more like a draft than a final table, because I am too unsure about many events. And… I didn’t have enough time to make it look more attractive and legible yet. Maybe I can think of something tomorrow while lurking at uni. Of course, any suggestions and corrections are welcome! Until then, gokigen you!