Bungo Stray Dogs – Season 4 Episode 4 Recap & Review

The Specialist

Episode 4 of Bungo Stray Dogs season 4 ‘The Perfect Murder and Murderer (Part 1)’ starts off with a man murdering an unconscious man on a roof.

In prison, Ranpo dressed as a teddy bear comes to save Kunikida who is arrested on suspicion of a girl’s murder. The girl had detonated a bomb which had killed her. Ranpo tells him that he is being framed by Fyodor and feels guilty for not having seen through his trap. 

Ranpo then bumps into Poe who is reading a murder mystery and is waiting for the prize that he won at an auction. Poe asks why Ranpo is dressed as a teddy bear and he tells him his punishment for the cannibalistic incident (from season 3) is to be the mascot of a restaurant. He enlists Poe’s help to look for Fyodor’s specialist who framed Kunikida as Ranpo’s face is known by all of Fyodor’s men and would ruin the mission.

Poe is busy with his auction but decides to help Ranpo. While waiting for the specialist, they banter on call and Poe hooks in Ranpo by asking him to solve the murder mystery he is reading. Extremely curious, Ranpo almost jeopardises the mission by going to Poe and taking the murder mystery magazine. The magazine states that the author was killed before the last chapter’s release and the killer took it.

The author had known about his impending death and written it in the chapter. As usual, Ranpo immediately solves it by stating that the killer was close to the author and killed him to sell the last chapter to the highest bidder which just so happens to be Poe. They spot a red envelope that the murderer has left for Poe and at that moment see the murdered man fall from the building who has the same face as the specialist they are looking for.

They believe that he is the specialist and Fyodor’s Rats killed him to keep him quiet. Poe and Ranpo quickly gather that the dead body is not of the specialist and that it is a fake to make them believe that he is dead. Meanwhile, the real specialist, the murderer from the roof overhears their deduction and is annoyed that his plan failed.

But as he leaves, he laughs like a maniac as he unleashes his ability which erases all of the evidence and points out that his plan went exactly as he had hoped. He laughs to himself, revealing that he is Oguri and he was recruited by Fyodor who freed him from a gang’s clutches two months ago.

Oguri has his own demands like he will never be on the front lines and that he will leave in a week to kill someone after helping Fyodor and Fyodor agrees. He is also gleeful that he’s gotten plastic surgery done so no one can recognize him. He also suggests that Fyodor let himself get arrested and now the Detective Agency will never know why.

At the crime scene, Poe is worried about Ranpo as this is the first time he has been stumped. However, Ranpo is not deterred and he simply gives up and leaves. While Oguri laughs out aloud that no one will catch him for killing the writer, Ranpo approaches him and asks for his help hailing a taxi.

Oguri first finds it hilarious that Ranpo has run into the culprit but doesn’t know it. But as Ranpo refuses to leave Oguri is irritated. At that moment, the Rats’ driver comes to pick up Oguri and Ranpo gets in and orders them to drop him to the Agency. Both the driver and Oguri are nervous while Ranpo tells him everything he has accurately deduced about the murder.

The Episode Review

We can finally see why the majority of fans ship Ranpo and Poe. Their friendship is absolutely adorable as Ranpo who usually annoys everyone with his self-obsessed attitude lets Poe get close to him. Meanwhile, Poe looks up to him and is in constant awe. When Ranpo is unable to deduce a murder for the first time, Poe isn’t worried about catching the culprit but about Ranpo who must be shocked at the loss of his ‘ability’.

As for Oguri who happens to be confident in his skills, it seems that only someone like Ranpo can unnerve him. Their whole interaction while waiting for his car and the car ride was hilarious as Ranpo kept hitting the bull’s eye while taking Oguri through the murder. But for someone as smart as Ranpo who doesn’t rely on anyone’s abilities, it seems that he probably knows Oguri is the murderer or will find out soon enough.