Bungo Stray Dogs – Season 4 Episode 8 Recap & Review

Alliances

Episode 8 of Bungo Stray Dogs season 4 titled ‘We Are Both Sinners’ begins with Chuuya attacking the Hunting Dogs and rescuing the Detectives in a helicopter. He tells them that Fukuzawa has made a deal with Mori – help in exchange for one of the Detectives joining the Port Mafia. While Kunikida spirals as his ideals were questioned by Jono, Tetcho’s sword reaches the helicopter and stabs Kenji.

He uses it to land on the helicopter and is about to cut the blades when Kunikida steps out. He tells Tanizaki to solve the case and jumps out with Tetcho. He proves Jono wrong by claiming that he will still follow his lofty and righteous ideals and using a torn page from his notebook, he detonates a hand grenade while holding onto Tetcho.

It has been two days and Kyoka and Atsushi come out of their hiding place in Gogol’s hideout. The streets are abuzz with rumours of the Armed Detective Agency being corrupt and Kyoka tells him to hide his face and escape on a train. She is unsure what to do next but Atsushi refuses to let Fyodor win. He suddenly has a vision of Dazai who encourages him to keep fighting and he decides to contact Oguri in clearing the Agency’s name.

He plans to ask Francis Fitzgerald about Oguri’s whereabouts with his Eyes of God identification technology but Kyoka doesn’t trust him. However, as they reach his office, they see that Louisa is injured while Hawthorne is attacking Francis. Hawthorne escapes after failing to kill Francis and Atsushi wonders why the former Guild leader is being targeted.

Meanwhile, Mori visits the remaining Detectives on his turf and tells them that he has no news on whether Kunikida survived or not. However, Dazai has been arrested and was last seen with Public Security before he disappeared. At the Eyes of God headquarters, Atsushi tries to convince Francis to help him but he says there is no way to beat Fyodor if they are truly framed.

He tells him that while Fyodor is being held at a European prison for ability users, he has been giving his orders from there. While talking, Francis touches the bloody pen left by Hawthorne which was infused with his ability and both he and Atsushi realise that he is going to die. At the prison, Fyodor laughs as now no one can use the Eyes of God since Francis who was the only one who could operate it is dead.

However, at the Eyes of God HQ, Kyoka turns on the sprinklers in time which dilute Hawthorne’s blood and stop the pen from killing Francis. She tells him that someone sent her a message to turn on the sprinklers and it turns out to be Dazai who is the new prisoner opposite Fyodor’s cell. 

At the hospital, Ango predicts that it may take 40 hours for Taneda to wake up and reveal the truth if his surgery is successful. However, he decides to leave before the chief wakes up as he did not agree with Taneda’s plan of killing the Angels instead of putting them on trial. He realises that Taneda would do anything for peace including sacrificing himself and decides to kill whoever hurt him.

In prison, Fyodor and Dazai banter and give ridiculous answers before trying to figure out how the other is contacting the outside world. Dazai looks determined as he says he came to the prison to find out and disable Fyodor’s connection. Meanwhile, Atsushi fills in Francis about Oguri’s case. Francis agrees to help in return for Yosano reviving Margaret who is in a coma.

He says she is the only one who can kill Hawthorne as he and Margaret have a special connection. Atsushi is disgusted that Francis would turn old lovers against each other but Kyoka reminds him that they need the Eyes of God. Francis shows them Margaret’s condition and points out that her family has gone bankrupt. Atsushi is conflicted and decides to help as he can’t let Margaret or anyone suffer.

They decide to take her to the Agency and hope Yosano can help. However, at that moment Yosano is berating Mori as she claims that he made the deal to help the Agency only because he wanted her. He doesn’t deny it and says that Fukuzawa wouldn’t mind if he chose her. However, in reality, Fukuzawa had agreed to the deal on the condition that Mori does not choose Yosano as she would not be able to bear being his assistant a second time.

Yosano falls for Mori’s lie and is shocked. At that moment, Francis calls Mori and tells him about his deal with Atsushi. But Mori claims that it is a trap as the money-hungry Francis would make more money if he made a deal with whoever is more powerful and in this case, it is the Bloodhounds rather than Atsushi.

The Episode Review

Looks like the Demon Fyodor has finally met his match. If anyone can take him down, it’s Dazai who is on the same wavelength as him. This was seen with the way he used Fyodor’s tactic to warn Kyoka and banter with him in trying to get him to put his guard down. 

And okay, while Mori is despicable and would go back on his word with Fukuzawa despite being peers, he does have a point. If viewers remember Francis and the Guild from the previous seasons, they were the villains and pretty ruthless ones at that. But then with Mori also being less than trustworthy, the confused Detectives have no choice but to at least pretend to listen to him as he is the one who rescued them.