Bungo Stray Dogs – Season 4 Episode 13 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Foolproof Clause

Episode 13 of Bungo Stray Dogs season 4 titled ‘Skyfall’ begins with the guests targeting Tachihara and Teruko. As police officers, they refuse to attack the guests and hide in a room. Teruko uses her ageing ability to disguise herself as an old woman and Tachihara as a baby. While the guests search for the two, she heads to the comms room.

She tricks the guards and beats them up till one reveals that the comms terminal can only be taken over by a key that Sigma has. She decides to take down Sigma while Tachihara stands guard.

Who is Sigma?

At the prison, Dazai doesn’t believe Fyodor’s spiel that Sigma is the strongest because he is desperate. The demon ends up revealing that Sigma is the strongest since he only has the Sky Casino. Fyodor also reveals that Sigma doesn’t have anything because he was born out of the reality-altering book 3 years ago which shocks Dazai as he wonders if he is human. 

Does Teruko defeat Sigma?

Teruko confronts Sigma who tries to distract by her giving her the key. Just as she catches it, he fires at her with his high-powered weapons. Atsushi hears the fighting and is worried that Dazai’s plan may go wrong. Kyoka holds off the guards while telling Atsushi to help the Hunting Dogs.

However, Teruko holds her own as she disarms the weapons. Sigma then shoots her with his dissonance gun which can damage anyone’s brain with sound waves. She still withstands it and he realises that she damaged her eardrums to stop the sound waves. She reveals that Hunting Dogs go through several painful surgeries to become invincible.

She says this is why she won’t mind sacrificing herself and she holds him off the edge while telling him to surrender. She says desperation is a powerful tool echoing Fyodor’s words. Sigma however jumps with Teruko to save the casino. She is unable to save them both and drops him to hold on to a ledge. 

What does the Agency want from Sigma?

At that moment, she sees Atsushi saving Sigma. Sigma too is surprised and Atsushi says he needs him to be alive to get the page. Ango video calls him and says they will torture Sigma to get the page and for revenge as he is the one who stabbed Taneda. Sigma gives up as he says he never meant to hurt anyone and he doesn’t know his purpose in life.

As Atsushi is about to transport Sigma to Ango, Hawthorne shows up. Ango thinks he is about to attack Atsushi but instead he attacks Sigma who falls. Atsushi tries to hold him but Hawthorne attacks him with his blood bullet. With both injured, Sigma tells him to let him go but Atsushi says he doesn’t want anyone to die without knowing their purpose in life. Sigma calls him kind and lets go of Atsushi’s hand, falling to his death. 

How does Dazai’s plan go wrong?

Ango alerts Lucy of the situation and she jumps and grabs Atsushi and transports themselves to Anne’s Chamber. However, Hawthorne who had tied a blood thread to Atsushi is also able to follow and injures Lucy. Furious, Anne takes Hawthorne and locks him in the Chamber’s cell. Lucy cheers that they have won but Ango reveals they have failed and have fallen into Fyodor’s trap.

He points out that they have lost Sigma and the location of the page. On top of that, Teruko saw Atsushi save Sigma which just strengthens their argument that the Agency is a terrorist group. Dazai realises this too while Fyodor mocks him. He wonders why Fyodor wanted the Detectives and Hunting Dogs to cross paths at the casino. 

Why doesn’t anyone believe that the Agency is innocent?

At that moment, Tachihara is busy gathering intel on the terrorists from the comms terminal. He sees a flash drive left by Atsushi explaining the Decay of the Angels’ plan but he breaks it as he tells Teruko it’s probably fake. Fyodor says God favours perfection just like his plan and reveals that he added a clause on the page that no law enforcement officer will ever believe any evidence proving the Agency’s innocence.

Why does Tachihara have an identity crisis?

Meanwhile, Teruko tells Tachihara to infiltrate Port Mafia again to find the remaining two Detectives, Tanizaki and Kenji. He feels odd but Teruko goads him by saying he was born to be a spy as evidenced by the ease he killed Hirotsu and Gin.

He recalls going to the hospital to visit Hirotsu and Gin as it turns out he never killed them but just lightly wounded them to throw off the Hunting Dogs. The mafia members don’t know his real identity and wonder who attacked them. Tachihara asks them if he belongs to the Port Mafia and they laugh. 

At that moment, Dazai laughs and says God doesn’t want perfection. Perfectionists like him and Fyodor sit at the fringe while those who take action like Gogol, the Hunting Dogs and the Detectives are busy causing chaos and disharmony as they do not fit in their perfect plans. 

What is the loophole in Fyodor’s plan?

Hirotsu tells Tachihara that he is the perfect mafia member (making him ineligible for Fyodor’s clause for law enforcement officers). He says the Port Mafia can learn from him and Tachihara realises while he thought he joined it to avenge his brother, he joined the organisation to become someone. In a flashback, we see that he never actually shot Yosano as she apologises for his brother’s death. 

He then recalls Mori’s orders to help the Agency because they are righteousness personified and they can never be terrorists. He understands that Mori never takes sides based on a hunch and that there must be some truth to it. He then asks Hirotsu and Gin their opinion and they say that it’s quite obvious that the Detectives are innocent.

They point out that as a Port Mafia member, he should know this as the Agency is often the one trying to stop the Port Mafia from doing something wrong. He remembers this and the reality-altering page loses control over him. He decides to go against Teruko’s wishes and prove to the government that they are suspecting the wrong people.

Meanwhile, as Sigma is falling to his death, he sees Gogol. The clown laughs as he says it is time for him to use his reanimation ability.

The Episode Review

We knew Tachihara would come through in this episode. And as usual, Bungo Stray Dogs tends to get philosophical and the finale did not disappoint either as Dazai ponders over harmony and disharmony. Human beings are meant to be imperfect and that is what influences the direction that they take. How much ever Fyodor tries to control everyone’s actions, there is always one imperfection thread that can unravel it. 

In this case, it happens to be Tachihara who has an identity crisis and doesn’t fall neatly in Fyodor’s category of law enforcement officers not believing the Detectives. As a mafia member, this does not apply to him, allowing him to break through Fyodor’s spell.

As for that ending, we knew it was too simple for Gogol to just kill himself after such an iconic introduction. It looks like he has a similar ability to Yosano and can bring back people from the dead like himself and Sigma.