Alice no Toge ep7 [review]

UPDATE: This episode’s rating increased from last week’s 9.0% to 11.5%! That’s great news although I still think it deserves higher. Actually upon watching ep7, I don’t really care about ratings anymore. Whatever final rating it gets, this show is definitely one of the best this season. Ep 7 reaffirmed what this drama is capable of and I personally feel the current rating doesn’t quite do it justice. As of now, the average is 11.44% and if not mistaken, it’s the 5th highest rating drama this season, just behind BORDER (which astoundingly got 16.7% last week with average 11.76% (I have yet to watch the episode and determine the reason for the sudden increase). MOZU on the other hand, decreased to its lowest rating so far – 8.7% (average =11.16%).

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How do I even begin with this episode? There are so many things I want to say it’s hard to sum it all in a paragraph or so. So my thoughts section might be lengthy…but before that….

My heart needs some healing.

Let me go take a breather.
__________________________________________________

Alright….

This episode brings this show to another whole new level. If there’s one thing you have to admit about Alice no Toge is that whatever they show you on the surface might not be what it is underneath. ‘Never judge a book by its cover’ seems to be getting old but it rings exceptionally true in this episode.

 

Basically, after getting her cover blown by Hoshino who did some unnecessary stuffs last week, Asumi is in a pinch. It’ll be harder to get closer to Bandai now that he knows who she is. So she decided to use Arima sensei and hopefully, he’ll be an ally.

However, Nishikado disagreed and warned her not to involve anyone else, especially Arima. You’d think by now Asumi should’ve learned from her past mistakes especially dealing with Hyuga’s ex-mistress and even Miura Naoko, she should know better. However, being constantly pushed to the corner and running out of time, Asumi was getting more and more careless in her revenge plan. You can see that she wasn’t thinking straight either. It’s beginning to ruin her judgment and this…as we see at the end of this episode, ultimately pushed her further down again instead of gaining victory.

That night, Nishikado stumbled into Date who returned after her stint in 1^st episode. She told him she’s now working with a salary 4 times higher than Seirin University Hospital.

On the other hand, Bandai told Yuma to invite Asumi for dinner, as an introduction since Yuma’s dating her. Asumi of course, agreed as she was obviously not backing down.

Asumi told Arima sensei about the message Bandai sent to Miura Naoko (previous episode). Arima sensei promised to investigate the matter and see if he could retrieve the message from the hospital’s email log.

Hoshino saw the clip where Hyuga made the statement in episode 3 about Osanai Takao’s case. She was beginning to think Asumi was just trying to clear her father’s name over the fraud. However, Bandai again, brainwashed her and said Asumi was just using Yuma to dig information about him.

Asumi argued with Nishikado about her decision to tell Arima sensei about Bandai’s mail. He then explained why he didn’t trust Arima. Apparently, his younger sister, Yui died in the operation handled by Arima. Although Asumi’s father had told Nishikado that there was recovery chances for Yui, suddenly, her condition changed that day while Asumi’s father was not around. So Arima sensei operated on Yui and she died. Because of that, Nishikado never truly trusted Arima.

Nishakado grew angrier when Asumi told him she was going to Bandai’s house.

Nishikado was saying “You’re not thinking of going to his house right? The house of a killer!”

Yuma overheard that.

Their conversation stopped abruptly and Asumi brushed away any of Yuma’s curiosity.

Nishikado met a patient who I think is Arima’s daughter. What will this lead to?

Hoshino tried to tell Yuma that Asumi was just using him to get information about Bandai. She also told him that Bandai asked her to investigate about Asumi. However, Yuma said that Bandai has nothing to do with him. Basically, Yuma still believes in Asumi!

Hoshino…your unrequited love is painful.

Asumi followed Yuma to visit Kenta (remember the kid who always pranked her). He’s in a bad condition now.

During dinner, when asked about her family by Yuma’s mother (who I thought didn’t exist by the way! But oh! So Yuma still has a mother!) Asumi explained she once had a father, who was also a doctor but passed away 15 years ago. Yuma was curious whether it was due to sickness or etc. Asumi said it was another different reason but didn’t explain further.

Bandai then asked Yuma to go get something so he could have some alone time with Asumi.

I absolutely LOVE every scene between Bandai and Asumi. Those glares, the smirks, you can almost feel their face muscles twitch! Just so much tension going on.

Bandai gave her choices whether to leave the hospital on her own will or he would call the police. Asumi confidently returned his own words back at him ‘If there’s no proof, there’s no truth in it’. Bandai was pissed as his own words came back to haunt him.

Meanwhile, Date invited Nishikado out again for a drink which made Nishikado suspicious of her motive.

He asked whether she was actually targeting Asumi by getting close to him. To which date brushed off saying she has no intention to stay in the spotlight and that she’s having a blast now in her current life.

But Nishikado noticed something….Date’s nail paint were chipped and didn’t appear to be taken care of. She didn’t look like having a great life afterall.

Yuma came back home to find Asumi gone. He argued with his father and demanded to know why he was so against Asumi. Did he have any dirty secrets afterall?

“I’m leaving this house.”

Way to go Yuma!!! This is the first time Yuma actually stood against his father.

Yuma chased after Asumi and apologized for how the dinner went. He then told her that he actually had a dream. After meeting patients like Kenta, he realized that he wanted to become closer to each patient.

His dream was to be a visiting doctor in the countryside after finishing his internship at Seirin. He didn’t plan to stay behind in the university hospital or aim to be like his father.

Yuma was anything but his father. He was such a gentle, kind and caring person!

Asumi received a call suddenly from Arima saying the mail was retrieved.

THIS NEXT SCENE BROKE MY HEART SO MUCH T___T

Yuma gathered enough courage and told Asumi he planned to leave house after his internship and followed his dream. He asked whether Asumi would come with him? He was basically, proposing at this point!!!(sort of anyways).

However, because Asumi finally found the trump card to bring Bandai down, she needed to break up with Yuma. What’s the best way? That is to shatter his heart and not give him chances to heal.

You can sense the immense guilt in Asumi’s voice and facial expression, especially when she wasn’t facing Yuma.

She used Yuma’s dream to crush him, saying how disappointed she was in him. She had thought Yuma would continue to climb the status and be an elite in the university hospital instead of choosing a lifestyle of a visiting doctor.

“Sayonara”

Gosh I just felt so sorry for Yuma! I knew this ‘love’ angle will end tragically, I just knew it!

I admit I didn’t care for him in the beginning but his unwavering love for Asumi since day 1 was something that stayed strong! I had wanted Nishikado to pair up with Asumi but this episode, even for a fraction of a second, I was hoping for Yuma and Asumi to end up together. Yuma OWNED this episode, you’ll get it at the end of this.

Next morning, Asumi went to get the mail documents from Arima but he began to ask questions. He asked whether Osanai Takao was her father and also about Date, Chihara and Hyuga’s case.

Asumi confessed she was Osanai Takao’s daughter but didn’t admit for the other cases regarding Date and Chihara.

 This showed that Arima sensei definitely had something going on. He didn’t push further and gave her the documents.

Meanwhile, Nishikado suspected Date and decided to pay her apartment a visit by pretending to be her brother.

Date had become a psycho….

Today was some awards ceremony and Bandai was to receive some kind of award…so everyone was gathered at some hotel or conference room (I presume).

Hoshino told Yuma about Asumi’s real identity and why she approached him.

“It’s not because she loves you or anything like that.”

At the same time, the confrontation between Bandai and Asumi!

Asumi showed him the proof.

She gave him two choices – whether she would report this herself or he turns himself in.

I love that twitch on Bandai’s face! Evil!

Bandai’s finally going down?

THINK AGAIN.

The TWIST IS HERE>

Arima sensei!!!! WHY WHY WHY….

The mail turned out to be fake. Arima sensei made it just to lure Asumi into this trap.

Their motive was to get Asumi to confess to be the one behind Date, Chihara and Hyuga’s downfall.

Bandai a while ago asked Asumi whether she was behind it all. Thinking she had won this battle she answered

“Your turn is next.”

That alone meant she confessed to the previous cases.

Nishikado tried to find Date at the ceremony but to no avail. He had an inkling she was going to harm Asumi.

Yuma began to wonder if his father had anything to with Asumi’s father’s death. He recalled how Nishikado told her “you’re going to a killer’s house?!”

Date’s comeback as a psycho killer?

So she still held grudges against Asumi…

Nishikado saw her from a distant and shouted for Asumi but he couldn’t get there in time.

Yuma…

Yuma covered Asumi and took the stab. He was in pain but still gave that smile as he looked at Asumi.

Asumi…if Yuma doesn’t survive this…….

NEXT WEEK PREVIEW

Thoughts:

This is one hell of an episode!!!

Alice team is doing what they’re best at. Suspense and tugging at people’s heartstrings at the same time. This drama had not slowed down even a bit. It started strong in the 1st episode and it just gets better and better. This episode is the BEST so far.

I had so many emotions going on throughout the episode. It’s been a while since I felt like that from a J-drama to be honest. You know how some shows are just one dimentional and even if they tried to pull you in to feel for certain characters, you just don’t get it?

However, this show managed to make me feel so bad and sorry for a character who appears a few minutes throughout the show in each episode. Yuma is not a very important character and he’s not lead but he owned this episode. The breakup scene was especially sad. I knew Asumi would have to find a way to dump Yuma, just a matter of time but that timing…yes, it was perfect since Asumi could use Yuma’s dream to belittle him and such. But what made it even more heartbreaking was that if he doesn’t survive, Asumi would never had the chance to explain herself and make things right. He’d just die without knowing the truth. He promised Asumi to protect her no matter what happened previously and he proved it here. Even though he was supposed to be crushed by Asumi’s cold words, he still believed in her and without a second thought, jumped in between her and a psycho killer.

I’m sure Nishikado would’ve done the same if he was closer to Asumi but it’s really not about who protected Asumi. It’s about Yuma’s unwavering love for her. I can now only hope Yuma pulls through and survives because if not, Asumi will be guilt-ridden for the rest of her life. I knew things won’t be easy for her to take revenge but when somebody innocent is involved, it’s never a good thing. Especially when that someone had absolutely nothing to do with her revenge and had no idea why he was stabbed.

Next we also got to see Arima’s true face. So he’s the same as Bandai, as evil as him. Maybe even more. It definitely had something to do with his daughter’s sickness. There are so many layers in the plot. Every episode revealed a little bit and each layer gets peeled. I like how in the first few episodes, they made it look so easy for Asumi to bring the minions down. Episode 4 onwards, it’s such a steep hill to climb.

Asumi is not a good role model of a heroine, hence a dark heroine. But as the show continues, you can’t help but root for her. Each and every episode, her aim is the same but the battles are different. I think it was really frustrating whenever it felt like she had finally won and yet, her enemies managed to defeat her and she’s back to zero phase.

This is going to be one very tough battle. The thing is, only Asumi and Nishikado against the whole world. I mean, even Hanzawa in Hanzawa Naoki had two best friends and a few colleagues to help him. Sorry to bring Hanzawa Naoki up (it’s afterall also a revenge drama, just different setting and mood).

Anyways, this is an awesome episode. I’m afraid whether the screenwriters can top this in the final climax?