OK, WOW! Norman is a damm legend for having planned this two months in advance, it’s unreal. THE PROMISED NEVERLAND Episode 11 has to be one of the top tier episode of this season.I knew that both Ray and Emma weren’t about to give up that easily, not after everything they’ve been through in order to escape. While Emma was grooming the other kids in preparation for the escape, Ray was also working behind the scene. the fact that they plain dead to fool Mom while using the other kids to move along the plan was ingenious.
However, Ray’s plan was something more dark that he had planned way longer, and that is to light himself on fire to not only cause a distraction to Mom but to also act as the ultimate fuck you to the monster who have been waiting 12 years to eat him. It was at that moment that Ray became my favorite character. Despite his kamikaze attempt to self-destruct, Emma once again stepped in to foil his plan.
As it turns out Norman knew from the very beginning that this man was going to set himself on fire, and conjured up a counter-plan to not only stop him, but to use his plan to further their chances of escape. Norman had planned all of this while walking to his deathbed. He left instructions and even gave Emma two keys, these keys were the item that Sister Krone left Norman to use as a means to escape. Man, I was in awe at how far Norman was able to think ahead and how Emma used his plans and furthered it. She even went to the extreme and cut off her’s and Ray’s ears off to fool Mom into believing that Ray had burned himself to death. Now that’s dedication to the cause.
Now, there’s a rumor or a hypothesis out there that Ray is the child of Mom, since both of them sang the same song, a song that only these two characters have sang in this anime.
I was keen to see how she’d react to seeing Ray all up in flames but nope, she didn’t care about him at all. Man, she only cared about this man’s brain, so that kinda didn’t prove the theory or give it weight but there’s still a chance of that being confirmed at some point.
Now here’s the part that kicked me in the feels. While Don was explaining how the other kids learned about the monsters, it dawned on me that the little one’s weren’t with them, and that included the babies. It wasn’t until at the very end when Ray asked the question that I knew that they may have left some of the kids behind. The biggest shock was seeing Phil being left behind too. I had suspected Phil since episode 2, but this throws me for a loop. Now I can’t figure him out anymore. Did something happen? Had Emma learned something about Phil and led to her leaving him behind, proving my hypothesis that he’s a traitor? Or is he acting as a undercover to learn what Mom is doing while they escape? Or did they really just make the ultimate decision in only saving as many as they can?
For me, the last part seems unlikely, given the mood that Don was when he explained the plan. He’s the emotional type so I’d at least see some strain to his face. And, Emma went to all that trouble since episode 2 trying to save everyone, so for her to pull a 180 now seems odd to me.
Dammit, I have so many questions because of this episode. Just what the hell is going on here? I’m sticking to what I said in my previous review, that there’s has to be a tunnel of some kind that will lead them out into the open world but for now we’ll have to wait until next week’s episode. I’m mad!