Baccano!/Headscratchers

Why does Jacuzzi try to turn himself in for Chane? At the beginning of the episode, his gang says that they just made 100 grand. Considering that the reward on him was only 5k according to the poster the Ladd looks at, it seems like he could have just taken 5 grand.

• The simplest explanation seems to be that Jacuzzi is just that kind of guy.
  • The slightly more detailed possibility is time constraints. Graham's ransom note implied that he wasn't going to wait any longer than that night, and Jacuzzi's gang just sold the explosives that day (considering the time period, it'd definitely take awhile to have the money wired to him). Limited time + Panicky Martyr Without a Cause = noble but rather dumb decisions.

Why did the Goose and the other Lemures decide they had to kill Chane, what did they gain from it?

• The show says that they are less interested in freeing Huey than in becoming immortal. It's possible that they had some weird ideas about drinking his blood or something, and Chane would have interfered.
• There was a good deal of evidence that there was conflicting interests between Chane and the rest of the Lemures for a good time (Chane notes in her internal monologue that the Lemures always avoided her, and the other Lemures mention that Chane was the most vocal dissenter of the group and their means). Goose probably figured that her High Heel Face Turn was inevitable, but her established status as "Huey's most prized follower" made it difficult to do away with her and still keep his favor. The solution? Make It Look Like an Accident during an upcoming risky hijacking operation -- which is what the two Lemures in episode 11 were about to initiate before Ladd eavesdropped and decided that they'd make excellent additions to Ladd's Dead Guy Puppet Theater.

Was Eve planning on having all of the thugs with partial immortality removed from the river, or just Dallas?

• It's never established one way or the other. Most likely she's too much of a softie to just leave them down there, but since the point is rendered moot by someone else getting there first, we'll probably never know.

How is it that Ronnie can be curious? The thing it says when it's summoned, "I know all thy desires and I'm with thee everywhere," is a quote from Poemandres, book one of the Corpus Hermeticum. The line is spoken by Poemandres, Mind of All-Mastery and Teacher of Men—essentially the intellect of God. So, how can the personified intellect of an omniscient being be curious? I realize this is like complaining about the physics in a time-travel movie, but the writer put so much effort into the depiction of Hermetic alchemy, only to ignore the full implications.

• Probably for similar reasons to the decision to become human made by The Fiddlers Green from Gaiman's The Sandman. One may know things, but may not have experienced them - s why not take the opportunity to explore more of the world, through a different perspective. Besides, the Corpus Hemeticum isn't automatically exempt from hyperbole.
  • Hermeticism, and the broader Hellenistic esotericism it's a part of, explicitly says the distinction between noesis and dianoia (experience and knowledge in the sense you're using them) arises from the ignorance that Poemandres exists to dispel. He wouldn't himself be subject to it, anymore than a Bodhisattva can be greedy. But I think I just passed even my threshold for over-analyzing—it's probably just Art Major Theology (that should be a trope).
• He could have just ripped off Poemandres's Badass Boast to seem more important. Persumably, if he knew everything, he would have known when Elmer was going say hello. Unless of course, Ronnie possessed a secret desire to know what it was like to swallow a cigarette and then hack it back up.
• In the novels Ronnie specifically states that he "chooses" not to know the future. Apparently being omniscient and nigh-omnipotent allows one to ignore one's own omniscience.

Maybe this is covered in the Light novels, but I had some Fridge Logic with Firo "eating" Szilard. There's a description in respect to Czes that when you consume another alchemist, you get both their memories, and to a degree feel what they feel (thus, Czes has memories of enjoying torturing himself, since he ate the person that tortured him). So, wouldn't Firo have some mental trauma after eating someone that evil?

• The suggestion seems to be that Firo compartmentalizes really well, and at least at the time is too dense to really process the worst of what he absorbs from Szilard thanks to being an Idiot Hero. How much of that is genuine and how much of it is Firo being deeper than he chooses to let on is open to interpretation.
  • Alternately, it could be Czes being really bad at compartmentalizing. He's just a kid (well, sort of--depending on how long he was in that situation he probably didn't have much more life experiences to draw on at the time than a kid his age, except in a few choice areas), and those memories related directly to him, there were years worth of them, and they were tinged with an obsessive level of emotion. Also, I didn't get the impression that Czes himself now thought back fondly on those times or anything; instead, he simply saw that the previous owner of those memories had been enjoying it the whole time and thus had been lying to him for years; since he thought the guy was a friend and the experiences were pretty traumatic, that enough should be enough to royally screw him up in the head. More confusing is Szilard lusting after the girlfriend of the first guy he ate, though I'm gonna chock that one up to him being crazy and ignore it since it wasn't an important plot point.
    • He could just be a Dirty Old Man who wants to Squick Sylvie out. Or he's crazy, like the other ninety percent of the cast.
    • He'd just eaten 13 people, and given his deranged state he may not have been trying to compartmentalize. He was reveling in the memories he was absorbing, and the memories were getting to him.
    • In the novels, Firo is shown worrying that Szilard's memories and personality might end up taking over him, or at least affecting him negatively. The tantrum he throws over it inadvertently leads to the climax of books six and seven. In the end, though, he seems to be able to pick and choose what to remember, and doesn't seem all that affected by Szilard's quirks.

Why is Szilard Immune to Bullets? All the other immortals are hurt just as badly by physical trauma as a normal human, and have to heal up afterwards. Szilard just ignores dozens of rounds at close range. This wouldn't bother me if it was just a minor inconsistency, but the scene (and his plan) relies on this happening, else Maiza would just tie him up or devour him while he was incapacitated.

• Unlike most of the immortals, he seems to have been experimenting on and modifying his body over the last few centuries. I seem to recall the novel says something about him removing his ability to feel pain.
• This just raises further questions. For one, how the heck did those modifications stick? I mean, wouldn't his body have changed back to the way it was before?
  • Possibly only "damage" to their bodies incites the healing factor, and whatever he did didn't register as damage. Or possibly his experiments led him to find a way to temporarily suppress the thing. The idea of doing experimental research on your immortality is that there's a lot of "potential" ways of cheating it, and you keep trying until you find one that actually works.
  • Only things that cause cell damage trigger the healing factor, so, yes, it's possible to make non-injury related modifications. In the light novels, for an example, there's an immortal who became a drug addict and still hasn't recovered even decades after being admitted to the hospital; the changes in his brain must not have registered as damage.
• It's one of those All There in the Manual things - the books mention that A) Szilard did quite a bit of training in learning how to ignore pain and wounds that would otherwise incapacitate him and b) none of those bullets hit his spinal cord or brain. Also one of the book's rules for immortality is that immortals will bounce back more quickly from types of injuries they've received before (which is why Ennis revived much more quickly than Firo and the Gandors despite being killed at the same time), so it could be guessed that the aforementioned "training" involved getting shot up enough until he could recover almost instantaneously

So apparently if an immortal is held underwater forever they'll just feel like they're drowning forever and they're capable of Pulling Themselves Together even if the pieces have miles put between. What would happen if something was continually ripping them apart, like getting stuck inside of a furnace or a volcano?

• Hurl It Into the Sun is always an option.
• Presumably they would be unable to fully regenerate due to the ongoing damage, but they wouldn't properly die either.
• But one must not ignore the comedic potential of seeing a come rocketing out of a furnace. Or an eyeball shooting out of a volcano. Or a foot descending from the sky.
• According to a monologue from Czes regarding molten steel, it's safe to assume that the immortal would stay "dead" until his or her body could come back together, at which point they would revive.

What's the deal with Ennis? She was created from the imperfect version of the immortality formula, yet she doesn't decay or age after Szilard gets eaten by Firo. Was she modified in some way, or is her homonculus nature keeping her young?

• Somehow Szilard managed to somehow modify his cells enough that they were able to integrate into a new entity instead of being automatically reabsorbed into his own body, effectively giving Ennis her own immortality, albeit dependent on Szilard. Once Firo ate Szilard, that control passed to him, as he demonstrates when he saves her from dying.
• I don't know if this helps, but it's maybe All There in the Manual. When Szilard was creating Ennis in a culture dish of some type (Nightmare Fuel), he used his incomplete elixir instead of whatever you normally put in culture dishes. So maybe it's the equivalent of drinking the incomplete thing....
• Szilard used his own immortal cells in the making of Ennis, and when Firo ate him and inherited all his memories, he used Szilard's knowledge of alchemy to replace all those cells with his own. So Ennis is actually pretty much half Firo.
• I've chalked it up to homunculi being weird, but separate entities from immortals. In Children of Bottle, there's a little homunculi girl who's single consciousness was spread throughout multiple near-identical bodies. Which ups the Squick factor when Czes appears to develop a crush on her. I'm still waiting to hear how they explain that one... but at any rate, the rules of immortals might not apply to them.
  • The homunculi in 2001 are made as a part of Szilard's many researches into creating a homunculus that can absorb all knowledge in the world. Aside from Ennis, two types of homunculi were created - a male type and a female type. Unlike Ennis, they both aren't immortal because they aren't made of Szilard's immortal cells. The male type grows old like a normal human, the female type - that is, Fil - does not grow old, but they have a much shorter lifespan in exchange. That's why she constantly keeps 5 bodies. When one of them is close to dying, she'll go to the research center and get herself 'recycled'. Huey also has homunculi - but they're merely the opposite of incomplete immortals and not truly immortal. Can't age, but will die. Ennis just seems to be the exception, not the rule.

What exactly happened to Dallas? Is he still missing by the end of the story?

• I don't think he's ever shown after (in-world timeline) being shoved in the river, at least not in the anime. Maybe the novels would have something about that, I don't know.
• In the novels, he's retrieved by Lamia, an organization that answers to Huey. They then use him to demonstrate immortal regeneration to Jacuzzi so that they can offer him immortality in exchange for helping them bust Huey out of jail. Or something.
• He manages to run for it, gets caught up in things again, gets intimidated by Claire, dies a lot, and ends up with Eve, having somewhat repented.
  • The epilogue of Drugs & Dominoes mentions that he became a well-liked philanthropist in his later years, so apparently his experiences and Eve's influence do eventually manage to turn him into a decent human being.

How accurate is Firo's designation as an Idiot Hero? I don't recall any scenes in the anime where Firo does something particularly stupid, and from what I've read of the novels the same holds true there. AFAIK, the only person who ever refers to him as stupid is himself. He quickly figured out how to keep Ennis alive with the knowledge he acquired from Szilard, yet he says at one point that he can't understand that knowledge, which seems to me like classic obfuscation. Are there genuine moments of stupidity I missed, or is this a combination of self-deprecation and an unwarranted reputation?

• I don't think he's stupid... just simple-minded. It's not too hard to confuse him.
• Firo's Idiot Hero status is actually debated by the Gandor Brothers in one of the books. Luck considers him Book Dumb and a little bit naive, but not stupid per se. Berga, on the other hand, thinks he's just dumb and Keith thinks he's Too Dumb to Live.

Spoiler-tagging each and every reference to Claire. It's not like the name is synonymous with The Young Conductor or Rail Tracer, so why isn't the name 'Claire' enough to make a given point without giving away the Reveal?

• Claire's name (as well as the implication that he's an assassin for the Gandors) was mentioned as early as first episode. The real spoiler is in finding out just what that name is linked to.

Where is Chane's mother? It was never mentioned in the anime, or manga. Did Huey divorce her? Did she die?

• It's likely that she's Renee Parmadeus Brinvilliers, Huey's clumsy former alchemy teacher, based on info from Japanese fansites. From what this troper can tell, Another Junk Railroad seems to hint at this as well; it seems Huey believes Chane's mother is too accident-prone to successfully raise a child. Huey ostensibly prevents her from raising or having a great deal of contact with Chane for this reason, though it's more likely that he raised her alone so that she'd be completely loyal to him. So Chane might be one of the few characters in the 1930's storyline with two living parents.

Maiza's got glasses, but what's the point of having them since he never opens his eyes?

• • Now that that's in here, it's simple enough to answer: diegetically, he does open his eyes.

Who the fuck is driving the train?

• Just some train engineer who doesn't have any direct connection to the carriages behind him, and thus is either ignorant of the bloodbath, or invested in getting to New York as soon as possible to get to the authorities.
• It's a train. Doesn't it just run by itself?
  • IIRC, the Flying Pussyfoot was a steam locomotive, which would need someone to run it and provide fuel to the engine, and also to make sure that it eventually stops (without crashing and killing everyone on board, anyway.)
• In the novel, the train's run by a pair of elderly engineers. Claire goes back and forth between the carriages during his killing spree to keep them in the dark as to what's actually going on in the train. They were probably cut from the anime for pacing issues.
  • Yeah they never noticed anything was wrong because Claire was keeping up the scheduled signals from the Conductor's compartment in the back. He didn't want to be delayed getting to New York. So that's why in the Anime we keep seeing the Rail Tracer back by the Conductor's compartment after people have just left it.

How does everyone identify Jacuzzi's tattoo as a sword? It doesn't look anything like one. Is this a countrywide case of Strange Minds Think Alike or what?

• In my opinion, it looks like a sword. A very curved and stylized sword. The hilt goes across his lower jaw and cheek. The blade goes straight up the side of his face and curves into his forehead.

Anyone know what is taking the fan translation so long to translate the second book?

• They are busy.

Why is a transcontinental train going from Chicago to New York City? Unless I'm just stupid and simply don't understand geography, aren't Chicago and New York City too close to warrant a transcontinental train? Also, didn't Isaac and Miria start their share of the story in California? Did they take a train to Chicago, rob the Russo's, then get on another train to go to New York City?

• This map ^{[dead link]} suggests that there is (or was. It's a pretty old map), in fact, a transcontinental railroad that connected California, Illinois and New York. As for Isaac and Miria: going by Isaac's misinterpretation of a train robbery in ep. 2 (ride train to someplace, commit robbery, ride train somewhere else), that's exactly what they did.

Why did Barnes know that he'd discovered the complete formula by killing that rat? The incomplete elixir healed you, but still allowed aging - wouldn't it have been better to give it to something very short lived and see if it lasts longer than it ought to?

• The novel indicates that the rats Barnes was using were specifically bred to have very short lifespans, and this particular one had lived way past the average lifespan.

In the first episode, there's a short scene where Adele cuts Isaac's ear with a spear, and you can see Maria and other novel-only characters in the background. This is the only scene shown that isn't later expanded upon or explained in any way, and upon rewatching the series, it seems really random. Was that storyline originally planned to be part of the anime?

• Probably, but low ratings unfortunately killed any possibility of a second season.

If Dallas was put into the Hudson in November of 1930, how could he finger Gustavo for murders that took place in 1931?

• Most likely, Don Bartolo Runorata made up the story that Dallas fingered Gustavo. The last episode establishes Runorata and Senator Beriam were in alliance in order to study immortality. Gustavo was tracking down Dallas for Old Man Runorata without even realizing it.
• Bingo. The storyline is heavily adapted from the novels, in which the MacGuffin is a parcel of drugs rather than Dallas, but in any case, it's made obvious by the ending that Don Bartolo wants Dallas for his immortality; the story he tells Gustavo is simply a lie to get Gustavo looking for Dallas without having to share the secret with him.

How in the blazes did Denkuro think he was going to walk to Japan from North America?

When Szilard devoured Barnes to figure out the location of the finished product of the elixir, why didn't he just know how to make it himself? He should of gained the knowledge of how to make the complete version so there really was no reason for him to get the two bottles that was stolen.

• I think it takes a really long time to distill it properly. Remember Szilard also seemed to know the product was done before Barnes told anyone. Presumably, it takes twenty years, and that's why he came back at that point. They weren't really willing to wait another twenty years.
• Szilard doesn't just want those bottles back because he's impatient for the finished elixir - he wants them back because now the one thing that can get him killed is out on the street, and he has no idea who might have taken it. It's damage control.

How on EARTH did Fermet come back from being FREAKIN' EATEN!?

• • I think the question really is: Did he ever got eaten? Only Czes says for sure that he did eat Fermet, but take account that the boy was slipping into insanity and terror at that point; maybe Czes thought of some way to escape, or worse, Fermet let him escape. It was part of his Masterplan, really, if Czes really had eaten such a sick bastard like Fermed, don't you think Czes would feel new emotions, line of thought flowing through his mind? Like when Firo ate Szilard, Firo was slightly scared of the old man's thoughts in his mind; if Czes really did something of that effect, he surely would start thinking something different of his usual self.
    • But Czes had Fermet's memories, meaning that he had to have eaten him. And while I would understand Fermet being able to find a way out, I don't see how he couldn't do it without Czes finding out. Czeslaw would probably have noticed a familiar, possibly naked lunatic emerging from his right hand. He might have done it while Czes was sleeping, but the boy would still have probably felt something.
    • Maybe Fermet indeed did fake getting "eaten". Czes was blind at that moment if this troper recalls correctly, and with the complex rules governing the immortals, it's not entirely impossible to think that Fermet could have figured out a way to transfer a fake copy of his memories into Czes.
• Maybe I just missed something, or maybe it's something that's covered in the novels, but what on Earth possessed Lua to go clambering up onto the roof of the carriage after Ladd at the vital moment of his conflict with Claire? Did she have any reason at all to be there?

In the novels, Lua has something like a sixth sense. She glimpses the Rail Tracer on the train, and realizes that Ladd won't be able to beat him--so she goes up to warn Ladd to get away.

I know there's probably an answer for these, but I've been confused and could use some clearing up:

• 1.) Why did the conductor with the mustache hold Claire at gunpoint, and what was the meaning of that little speech he gave?
• 2.) How many innocent people did Claire really kill? If he's an assassin, why kill any? And if he's just bloodthirsty, why was he so selective in who he killed?
  • 1) The conductor with the mustache is a member of the Lemures. His "story" is basically an explanation of the Lemures' plan to hold the train hostage and demand Huey Laforet's release from prison, with the added implication ("there's no way to be spared") that they're going to kill the passengers regardless.
  • 2) We have no way of knowing whether or not Claire has even been contracted to kill an innocent during his career, but he doesn't kill any innocents during the course of the Flying Pussyfoot story (at least, not in the anime, and as far as I know not in the novel either). Everyone he kills is a member of the Lemures or a member of Ladd's gang - he kills them because they are either participating in the Lemures' plan (which is likely to end with the deaths of the hostages) or are otherwise harming or endangering the train's passengers For the Evulz. Claire feels responsible for the train since he's a conductor, so he's personally offended by any attacks against it, and responds with lethal force. Note that he specifically saves Isaac and Miria because they've been "good customers".

Does anyone know who this "Bress Splot" person I've heard about is? I've heard he comes from the DS game, but does anyone have details?

• From the information I can gather, Bress Splot is a character from one of the DS game's joke endings, and is basically Jacuzzi's long-lost evil twin brother. It's probably safe to say he doesn't exist in the canon proper (unless Isaac secretly being Frankenstein's monster is also canon)

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