Detective Conan - Episode 527

Episode 527: The Malice Hidden Behind The Masque

Actors are frightening with their faces veiled, all in this tragic masquerade.

Another one of the most interesting cases I ever watched. If in love you get something you call as a love triangle, then this case has a killing triangle. Sounds interesting right?

So the case is about the masque, a form of courtly entertainment in Europe before the Shakespearean era. This episode centers on the piece entitled The Triumph of Folly by John Benson. They say that this a cursed piece to be used in a masque because there would always be tragedy happening to the casts playing the roles. It is in this light that Shimizu Kinuko, the Troupe Company Manager requested for Mouri's assistance.

Shimizu Kinuko
Troupe Company Manager

What's something new in this case is that Conan was not seen firsthand in solving this case as he was locked somewhere in the dressing room because he was discovered by one of the culprit while hiding. But because of his unbelievable calmness and presence of mind, he was able to come out and prevented any deaths in the shadows. It was only towards the end of the episode that it was revealed on how the hell did he did those things all by himself.

Proceeding with the case, let me first introduced to you the main characters of the masque. They are also the ones involved in this episode's case:

Banno Robert
Plays the role of the prince


Komazuka Hiroshi
Plays the role of the king


Yabuki Atsushi
Plays the role of the minister

In the story, their own suffered their very own deaths except for the minister who escaped. It was the minister who killed the prince and the king. The prince was stabbed to death while the king drank the poisoned wine. Call coincidence or simply work of fate, but the three characters above tried to kill one another while playing their roles on stage. Each of them have a grudge against each other and has enough reason to kill. So here's how the triangle goes:

• Hiroshi wants to kill Robert
  
  Hiroshi replaced the rapiers they are using with a real rapier so that when the minister stabs the prince, Robert would be stabbed in the heart for real. His reason for doing this is that he wants to avenge her daughter Kyoko who went went missing. Apparently, Kyoko and Robert had a secret affair.
  
  

• Robert wants to kill Atsushi
  
  Robert initially planned to electrically shock Atsushi to death. When he will jump to the platform after the stabbing scene, he would be electrocuted until he died. But things have changed when Robert found that the rapiers were changed. He thought of using the real rapier to his advantage and stab Atsushi for real. To accomplish this, he talked to Atsushi to switch roles with him. Robert owes Atsushi big time and has no enough money to pay him back.
  
  

• Atsushi wants to kill Hiroshi
  
  Atsushi plans to poison Hiroshi. Knowing that Hiroshi is an alcoholic, he initially gave the poisoned wine saying that it's a gift from the fans. But he refused to drink it and just replaced the wine to be used in the performance with the poisoned one. His motive is because Hiroshi mocked his talent saying that he is not talented. He looked stupid in front of everybody else.
  

But their attempts to kill each other were futile to Conan. He was able to stop the three of them from killing each other. Using his wits and intelligence, he was able to lure each of them that their plans are perfect. And also, Conan was able to let the three actors reveal their planned crimes voluntarily.

Here's how he stopped the crimes:

• After escaping from being locked, he exchanged the real rapiers with the fake rapiers. But since Robert discovered the real rapier and planned to stab Atsushi, he changed plans.
  
• He modified the electric shock trap to make it less electrifying.
  
• To make Robert believed that he indeed stabbed Atsushi, he used his shoes to throw a bottle cap at Atsushi to make him unconscious.
  
• He threw a pulley to Robert so that he would fall to the platform. Of course, he would still be shocked but it would only be a mild one.
• As for Hiroshi, he used his tranquilizers to paralyze him and stop him from drinking the poisoned wine.

Even though each of them are culprits, they are also victims in one way or the other and so Conan did the right thing to save them all. Good thing, Conan was there to stop the crime or else, three people could have died that night.
My next Detective Conan episode post would be 536 which I hope I can real soon.