Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru - 7 - Tea Parties recap

Umineko Chiru Episode 7 Tea Party

Lion and Ange are suddenly together in a theatre. Claire appears and tells about what happened on October 4th, 1986... Maria read aloud the letter that claimed to be from the Golden Witch Beatrice and challenged the family.

Try and solve the riddle of the epitaph. Otherwise, I will take everything.

The adults all start suspecting one another...

Beato's ceremony has begun... Kihihihihihi

Ange:

In all the games, October 4th happens in pretty much the same way.

She complains that this is just another riddle the witches are forcing them to play through.
Lion realizes that since she has learned about the culprit's heart, and can see through any of her riddles, it is her role to teach Ange about the truth of this tale.

The adults have stopped bickering about the inheritance and started working together to solve the riddle.
Battler hears about Shannon and George going out, and recalls his memories from 6 years ago, when he had a crush on Shannon... George proposes to her, and talks about how she used to like Battler...
Meanwhile, the adults have already solved the epitaph, followed the lion statues, and found the door to the gold.

On the tenth twilight, the journey shall end, and you shall reach the capital where the gold dwells.

Lion explains that all of the siblings had solved the epitaph together before the crimes occurred... Beatrice decided not to commit the crimes if the epitaph was solved. so in this game, the crime will not occur. Beatrice's roulette has already made its decision. This is the end of her game.

In the room with the gold, the adults find Beatrice hiding behind a curtain. she welcomes them with a blank expression...

Is Father behind this?

No. This is my... game.

Beatrice states plainly that if they hadn't solved the epitaph, she would taken all of their wealth... and all of their lives.

I planned to do as I please with everything that exists on this island.

She picked up one of the bullets that were sitting on the table with a bunch of rifles.

If the night ended before you managed to solve the epitaph's riddle, I planned to follow the epitaph and commit 13 murders.

I am prepared... you may do as you will with me.

I planned this game because I was prepared to bet my life.

...then suddenly she walks up to a grandfather clock...

Allow me to explain the device within this clock. For you have gained not just the gold, but the entirety of this island.

The 9th twilight, where nobody is left alive... that clock is connected to a set of explosives.

Kinzo is the one who set up the device. This device is the source of his mad magical power.

On this island, Ushiromiya Kinzo made a contract with the Golden Witch and obtained the gold. However, that was not all he gained.
Beneath this island sleep the remains of an underground Japanese military base from the time of the war. Along with 900 tons of explosives.
If that exploded, the result would be unimaginable! Forget just the mansion blowing up... it'd leave a massive crater!!

If the switch is activated, the bombs are set to explode at 24:00...
Kinzo gambled everything he had... Whenever he got stuck, he would hide in this room, and flip the switch... maybe he decided to blow everything away if he didn't think of a brilliant plan before 24:00...
Beatrice had tested the explosives herself to make sure they still work... that's why the shrine disappeared without a trace.

... Pay me no mind any longer. I am already one of the dead, who was already prepared to kill everyone and die myself.

I am one yet many. I abandoned myself to the magical roulette of endless possibilities. The result... the answer... is this. This is what the tarot cards known as the epitaph ceremony have shown me.

Beatrice is already dead. They did not kill her. I killed her myself... in accordance with fate's command. They will never understand... for all eternity.
Beatrice also hands them a cash card worth around a billion yen... part of her power as a golden witch.

The strongest magic to counter the humans' anti-magic toxin is this magic of gold.

Eva starts to get suspicious about all this...

What if she's lying about which is the "off" side of the switch?!

(... seriously? there are NO markings at all to tell which side of the switch is the on or off side?? Kinzo is fucking nuts)
It is one minute to 24:00, and they have to decide whether or not to trust a witch.
Everyone argues with Eva...

If she wanted to kill us with a bomb, she wouldn't have told us about it.

... B... Beatriiiiiiiiice...!! Don't think you can trick me.....!!!

The second hand of the clock... ticked past 24:00. October 4th ended... and the curtain rose on October 5th, 1986... The switch was still pointing to the left.
The witch's words had been proven correct.

Gold is the only physical embodiment of magic that can appear in the human world. In that case, how much magic power would dwell in it... if it was piled up in a mountain so high you'd have to look up to see the top?

Now Eva and Krauss have started arguing about how to split up the gold. The four guns the witch had placed in this room were now in the hands of the relatives.
During the scuffle... Eva "accidentally" shot Natsuhi, and Hideyoshi accidentally shot Krauss... Rosa and the others stood there stunned... the witch was completely disinterested in this scene.
Eva decides that a massive accident needs to happen to cover up these murders.. she starts going mad and playing with the clock... If everyone except Krauss and Natsuhi went to stay over at the hidden mansion, where there were no explosives, it would look like those 2 died from an accidental explosion. Except... the other siblings don't like this plan, because it means the gold will vanish along with the island. Rosa suggests that Eva turn herself in.

Of course, we don't want to say that the crime happened here. The police would find the gold... yes, what about the rose garden?

It's not so bad, right? After all, it's not like they'll keep you in jail for several decades. It'll just be a few years for accidental murders, and then you'll have your 5 billion yen share to do whatever you want with.

Rosa wasn't backing down at all...

Calm down, nee-san. If you calm down, you'll see that my plan is the best one.

Even if they put you in for ten years, there will be 5 billion yen waiting for you when you get out. That's like working for a 500 million yen salary, right?

bam... Eva shot... no... Kyrie shot Rosa... She realized that Rosa's plan was faulty. None of them could exchange that gold for cash... especially after the successor and his wife died mysterious deaths.

We don't want to get the police involved. We'll blow up this island and destroy all the evidence. If it's tough parting with the gold, feel free to grab a few ingots.

No matter what happened on October 5th, everything would be erased at midnight... a true catbox.
Kyrie:

I needed to shoot her. After all, Rosa-san's the only one who didn't fire her gun.
...
Rosa had the only gun that could still fire, so I shot her first.

Kyrie then shot Hideyoshi... then shot Eva while she was still trying to figure out how to reload.
...so wait, this isn't the scenario where Eva is the only one left alive? (actually...)

Thank you miss Golden Witch. Kraus nii-san promised to treat you in a gentlemanly fashion. But I haven't made any such promise.

Kyrie realized that her gun could carry 5 rounds, and that gave her and advantage... Then she warns Rudolf that if he can't convince Battler of a good excuse for why the other siblings are missing, she won't take any chances with him. Rudolf tells all the cousins that Kinzo is testing them to choose the next successor.

He wants Jessica to go to the parlor in the mansion. George is supposed to go out by the chapel.

George was immediately suspicious about this. Why would two people be called to different places at the same time? and at this time of night? However, it was a well-known fact that Kinzo didn't have very long to live.
Kyrie wanted Rudolph to get his hands dirty as well, to show his resolve...

Meanwhile... Eva was still alive in the room with the gold... the bullet had actually scraped against the side of her head... and missed. she was crying for Hideyoshi. Then she realizes George is in danger. she's about to turn the switch back to the left, then stops... That's right. As long as this switch points to the right, everything that happens will disappear in this night of illusions.

Ange is pissed off by seeing all this...

Ha! Show whatever terrible game you like! You're trying to say that this is one of the endless possibilities inside the cat box, right?!
Just do whatever you want...! I won't let something like this get to me!! Someday, I'll find out the truth of what happened on October 5th, 1986!!

Kyrie tells Rudolph to go and try and fool Battler, but she's suspicious... she might try to kill Battler in secret before Rudolph gets to him. As Rudolph waits for Battler to arrive in front of the chapel, he meets Eva instead, with a gun pointed straight at him. He tries to fool Eva by saying that George is right behind her.
Gunfire....

Rudolf... I've always been able to see through your tricks!

...Rudolph's bullet missed, and Eva shot him in the chest.

Bern and Lambda appear and tell Ange/Lion to be quiet and watch the game.. neither of them are the game masters this time.

Kyrie and Eva confront each other... Kyrie says that she has no need for Ange now that Rudolph is dead... Eva argues with her and calls her a monster. they both shoot each other... Kyrie's bullet missed.
Eva:

Die there... for Ange-chan's sake... you'll be killed in the explosion accident. Until the moment of your death, you worried about the daughter you left behind... Yes. I'll write that into the lid of the cat box...

Lion:

Ange, please, calm down...! This is just a witch's game! That couldn't possibly be what your mother truly feels...! It's just something that the game master made Kyrie oba-san's piece say!!

Bern:

Ange. You made a wish, hoping that you could take your family back. However, you made one more wish. Remember? You wanted to know what happened on that day.

There is... no game master. That could only mean one thing... This is the truth. The insides of the cat box of October 4th and 5th, 1986.
Afterwards, Eva survived the explosion by escaping to Kuwadorian. And, since she never spoke of the inside of the cat box no matter how much you wanted to know, that truth was shut within the cat box for all eternity.

Then, a strange message bottle was picked up... it contained a bizarre story, one which told of a mysterious serial murder related to the gold on Rokkenjima. Everyone rejected the explosion accident theory and started to think up conspiracy theories. But Eva kept the cat box locked up... So, no human would ever reach the truth inside the cat box. Not unless the witches who crossed the sea of Fragments opened the lock...
Bern even declares it with the red truth...

This tale is the truth.

Those message bottles were written by Beatrice/Clair.

Bern then shows Lion the future of her world, the night after the funeral on October 4th... Kinzo presents the riddle of the epitaph to the family, and everything else happens the exact same way as it did in Clair's world. Kyrie shoots Lion in the parlor right before killing all the other cousins.

I'm a witch who can find any miracle, no matter how unlikely it is. But I can't find things that don't exist. If the Witch of Certainty really guarantees that something is certain, even I can't win against her.

Beatrice. Trapped in that inescapable, certain, locked-away pair of days, you became a witch who could give birth to endless possibilities within that two-day cat box... in exchange, it was absolutely certain that you would not be saved or rewarded. However, you dreamed of Lion's world, where none of that ever happened. As Beato dreamed, Lion's existence is a true miracle. And, at the end of your funeral, I wanted to show you... To show you that even with that miracle, you couldn't have escaped this tragedy!!

...I'm even kinda doubting the legitimacy of Bern's red truth now... This sounds way too improbable. How could Lion still become Beatrice and kill everybody even in the alternate reality where she was accepted as the head of the family and never fell in love with Battler?

Just before Lion is about to die from Kyrie's gunshot.. Will comes back and pulls out his black sword at Bernkastel. He says that this truth that Bern has told is a fantasy.

Rule #1. It is forbidden to have a crime without all clues presented.
I won't accept your 'mystery' with Kyrie and Rudolf as the culprits.

Of course you won't find any clues. The whole island blew up.

Which means this is no mystery. It's fantasy.

It is impossible for an unprovable truth to become truth in the human world.

Lion and Will were both injured, and trying to escape from the queen of cats who permitted no miracles.

This... this is some insane plot development here, even for this game.

Umineko Chiru Episode 7 ????

Bernkastel no longer has any need for the game board... but she creates one last tale to finish it off. She declares in red that this game will not have a happy ending.
Then it transitions to a completely different tone... Battler approaches 6 year old Ange and tells her not to believe the people saying mom and dad were the culprits, and starts telling her the truth of October 5th.
He gives Ange a key, and says that a miracle has allowed her to finally visit the island on that day. she will have to make the decision to stay on the island or not, and that's what the key is for. She doesn't want to wake up from this dream, she wants to stay on the island forever...