Back to the ElamenSTAR Episode Guide

<< Previous Episode Next Episode >>

The Hand That Transchants the Cradle (ゆりかごをトランチャンツ手)

Super ElamenSTAR Episode 418

Aired 22nd January, 2000

Summary

The final installment in a five-part story arc exploring Furniliars, good and evil, bond and free, and their role at the nearly-completed Cerulean Citadel.

Fenn the Stool is worried. After the incident with Gendoman's hatracks, some of the Citadel's Furniliar residents have grown suspicious of their colleagues. Furnish whispers fill the halls; whispers of spies and infiltrators, transchanted by Char Reyarteb or the Elemenstrix Kapybara and sent to undermine the Cerulean Citadel from within. But Fenn can't take anything to the Grand Elemenstors, not without proof...

A newborn baby, the illegitimate child of a once-downtrodden girl turned aspiring student, is found brutally murdered and the apparent perpetrator is the child's cradle, an allegedly Furni-Pated cradle named Catherine. Catherine insists that she is innocent, but her account of the child's death fails to exonerate her--all she saw was "shadows and knives, shadows and knives."

With the help of the Ecreek Master Chef and a motley crew of Furniliar allies, Fenn the Stool attempts to prove Cat's innocence to Razumifa Bulinma. But that means finding the real killer...

Spoiler Alert

In the end, Fenn's crew saves the Citadel and its fleshy, meat inhabitants (who are all convinced that Cat is a liar) by finding and incapacitating a large number of Furniliar Gestalts consisting of various kitchen utensils. These have been transchanted by a disciple of Char Reyarteb who has infiltrated the kitchen staff. The child was not their intended target, but Char's disciple, jealous of the mother's success, sought an evil and twisted revenge.

Rather than punishing Char's minion directly, the Four turn her out, knowing that Char Reyarteb's displeasure will be great when he learns that she sacrificed the planned assassination for a minor personal vendetta. The Furniliars are thanked and rewarded for their valor, and an apology is issued to Catherine the Cradle. The mother of the dead child is met with comfort and support and the scene fades.

Notes

The child's death is considered one of the most grisly and disturbing events in all of ElamenSTAR (hypertemporal sexuality, botched suicides, mastication of live kittens, and Agash notwithstanding). As such, however, the subject is handled with more tact and care than typically demonstrated by the writers.

It is rumored that the crime scene investigation conducted by the Furniliars actually inspired the hit American show, CSI.

Comments