Blue Exorcist Episode Seventeen “Temptation”–Review

This episode opens with the swordsmith attempting to repair Rin’s sword. The scene then cuts to Rin who has been imprisoned inside some kind of crystal. It does not look like he’s going to be able to defend himself at his own hearing. Though he’s unconscious, he twitches slightly, which causes some alarm from the council members, who demand that Mephisto do something. Mephisto however states that he can’t, since he is simply a defendant in this case. His big plan for dealing with this case seems to be centered on the council giving him permission to go ahead with his plans. The council is tempted, but other parties object strongly to the proposal.

Meanwhile, various members of the Order are fighting Amaimon’s forces. Shura and Arthur Angel try to hold him off, but he eventually manages to make it to the courtroom where Rin is being tried. Amaimon attacks the barrier, which destroys the crystal holding Rin. Mephisto is of course completely calm and tells the council that the “polls will be closing soon.” Angel is not happy about this development and tries to argue against letting Mephisto have his way. A council member however overrules him, telling Mephisto to do whatever it takes to get rid of Amaimon.

Just as Mephisto gets ready to wake Rin up, Ryuji turns up with the sword, and yells at Rin for being asleep at a time like this. Amaimon makes a grab for Ryuji and the sword, but Ryuji is able to toss the sword to Shima who in turn tosses it to Izumo. She is not happy about having been included in this game of keep-away, but tosses the sword to Yukio who is able to get the sword to Rin, and wake him up.

Rin is able to get rid of Amaimon with almost no effort, then collapses. Before anyone can reach Rin, Arthur Angel holds his sword over Rin and declares that he’s going to kill Rin. The Grigori however state that they’ve decided to go along with Mephisto’s plans for Rin. Arthur Angel is not happy about this.

The next scene after the opening credits is Mephisto holding an emergency faculty meeting. The teachers are understandably worried about Rin going berserk again, but Mephisto states that if he does go berserk, then they have orders to go ahead and exterminate him. The teachers are really not reassured by this, and continue to object. After the meeting, Yukio questions Mephisto about Rin possibly becoming the “savior of Assiah.” Mephisto fails to give anything resembling a straight answer, which does not inspire Yukio’s trust. We learn that Rin’s continued existence hinges on two conditions. The first is that Rin passes the Exorcist Authorization Exam six months from now. The second condition is that Rin be put under constant 24-hour surveillance. (Condition one alone could be a lost cause given Rin’s hyperactivity and inability to apply himself.)

Meanwhile, Rin is having to deal with everyone else being Extremely Alarmed now that they know he’s the son of Satan. Rin is not happy about this change of attitude, but there isn’t a lot he can do about it. After a frustrating encounter with his classmates, Yukio takes Rin aside for extra lessons in controlling his powers. Rin does not do very well.

Yukio attempts to impress upon Rin the importance of learning how to control his powers, and the reason for why he has to do a lot of extra work now. Yukio is frustrated, both because of the deadline, and because to him, it seems as if Rin doesn’t try hard enough. (Rin does in fact understand what’s at stake, he is just easily distracted and overly optimistic.) Rin tries to reassure Yukio, but it doesn’t work very well. (It’s hard to be confident in someone else’s ability when they’ve just gotten beaned by a baseball from a baseball pitching machine set at the beginner’s level.)

Yukio points out that Rin needs to produce results consistently in order to prove himself, which so far, Rin has been unable to do. Rin is of course outraged, but Shura turns up, stating that Yukio is right. (She also calls Yukio a four-eyed chicken. Shura and Yukio it’s revealed, have had an adversarial relationship since they were both kids.)

Shura gives Rin an exercise involving lighting candles. Unfortunately, Rin’s lowest power setting appears to be “blowtorch.” (It’s a good thing that Shura brought a huge stack of candles for him to practice with.) Rin spends the next few minutes trying to light just the outer two simultaneously, while Shura makes sarcastic comments about his aim. Rin is not happy to learn that this is going to be his sole training exercise for a while. Shura points out that she had no intention of letting him train with his sword, since he can’t even light candles correctly.

Yukio is extremely worried because of Rin’s inability to control his powers, but Shura has a lighter hearted attitude. She challenges him to a baseball hitting contest, which he eventually agrees to. (The wager is that if he wins, she has to stop calling Yukio “four eyed chicken.”) Rin is of course distracted by this contest, but gets yelled at by Shura to continue his exercise with the candles.

It turns out that Shura had an ulterior motive to arranging this contest. It seems that she’s noticed that someone has been watching them for quite some time now. Considering that Yukio and Shura are the ones who are supposed to be keeping an eye on Rin, and they haven’t been told about there being a third person, this points toward potential trouble in the future. Shura states that the guy watching has been assigned to watch not only Rin but Yukio. Yukio does not want to believe this information, but Shura points out that even if Yukio does not have the powers Rin does, he is still Rin’s brother, which means he might eventually also have powers. Yukio objects to this theory strongly, but Shura keeps up the pressure (in an effort to make him lose his temper so she can win the contest).

Later, we see Ryuji studying by himself. He’s interrupted by Konekomaru who is feeling extremely unhappy about Rin still being around. They talk for a while about Rin. (Ryuji still seems to be in rivalry mode against Rin.) Konekomaru goes off by himself, clearly suffering an extreme lack of confidence in his own abilities because of his fear of Rin. This turns out to be just the opening a demon needs to break through the barriers surrounding the school.

The next scene is Rin, still not able to light the candles. Izumo turns up and they have a conversation where Izumo is somewhat reassuring. Rin asks why she is going out of her way to help him, and she continues to be reassuring, which prompts Rin to tell her that she is nice and that she’s inspired him to try harder. (This of course exasperates Izumo who denies that she had intended to give him a pep talk.) Their conversation is interrupted by the demon that Konekomaru accidentally let in.


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