Lupin III/Recap/S2 E60

"A Flower of Suicide Blooms in India", with the English title "Holy Cow". Released in 2005 by Geneon on Volume 12: The Flying Sword.

On a moonlight night in India, the episode opens to reveal the impossible: Zenigata has finally captured Lupin and Jigen. The convoy of jeeps makes their way through the wilderness, but they are brought to a halt by three mysterious men sitting in the middle of the road and playing flutes to hypnotize cobras. When Zenigata orders the men to stand aside, they flip a switch on their flutes and shoot all the members of the convoy, except for Lupin and Jigen, with a purple ray. When hit, the men's skin turns purple, and they promptly kill themselves with gunshots to the head. Jigen recognizes the light as a Suicide Beam, and he and Lupin, tied up, make an attempt to escape; they are captured, knocked out by the mystery men, and carried away by hot-air balloon.

The next day, Zenigata, whose shot luckily missed, demands to know who took Lupin and Jigen from him. The local police chief declares it the work of the Basala Army, a network of thugs who have armed themselves with Suicide Beams, and refuses to get involved. Zenigata declares his intent to go after Basala anyway. Meanwhile, Lupin and Jigen have been brought into the presence of their leader and creator of the Suicide Beam, Basala Lavahna. Basala wants Lupin because the thief stole 20,000 diamonds in one of his masterful schemes and has hidden them somewhere in India. Lupin tries to get the drop on Basala with a knife hidden in his shoe, but the leader tricks Lupin and Jigen into standing on a trap door. Basala then has the two tortured by threatening to hit them Suicide Beams to force them to reveal the diamonds' location. As they avoid the trap, Lupin suddenly realizes someone had to have told Basala about the diamonds, since only he, Jigen, and Goemon knew about them. Jigen growls out the obvious answer: Fujiko. Lupin then tries to contact Goemon; however, the samurai is in a deep meditative state at a yoga temple that nothing can shake him from.

Lupin and Jigen are about to fall into the beam when it suddenly shuts off. They have been rescued by Fujiko; Lupin laughs at Jigen's previous accusation as the three thieves make a run for it. The three exit the Basala hideout under the Taj Mahal as Fujiko explains she overheard Lupin's call to Goemon. Basala's men appear just then, chasing the thieves into a field of cows. Basala orders his men to shoot the cows to find Lupin's gang, but his men naturally refuse for religious reasons. As they argue, Lupin, hidden on the back of a cow, steals a jeep to allow the gang to make their escape.

As the gang drives along, Fujiko questions Lupin about the diamonds; she heard Basala talking about them before she rescued her friends and wants a cut. Jigen warns Lupin not to tell her, but Lupin folds when Fujiko kisses him and reveals the diamonds are somewhere in Calcutta. Jigen starts a fight with Lupin, angry that his friend is about to tell the whole thing to her, and the two struggling thieves fall into a hole full of quicksand as a horrified Fujiko looks on. After the two have vanished below the surface, Basala catches up to the gang, and Fujiko begs him to help her save them. Basala instead orders her to tell him what she "rescued" Lupin and Jigen to find out: the location of the diamonds. Fujiko lies and tells Basala they are in Mumbai, then tells the man she does not want the gems anymore since they cost her Lupin's life. Suspicious, Basala leaves; Fujiko then looks at the sinkhole and tells Lupin she will come back and spread some of the diamonds in his memory before she also leaves in the stolen jeep. She is unaware a rope has been tied to the back bumper; it pulls Lupin and Jigen out from the hole, where Jigen promptly does an "I told you so." Lupin and Jigen then watch as the top tower of the Taj Mahal, actually Basara's enormous balloon, takes off in the distance. Realizing the army plans on following Fujiko to the diamonds' real location, Lupin decides to go after the both of them.

In Calcutta, Fujiko searches for the diamonds, unwittingly followed by Basala and his men. He decides to take matters into his own hands and shoots Fujiko with the Suicide Beam. She promptly drives off to find somewhere to kill herself, some of Basara's men still in pursuit. The rest of them go around the city, digging it up based on Lupin's clue that the diamonds are "hidden in plain sight." Lupin catches up, but he is stopped when Basala, who has captured the suicidal Fujiko, places her on the road with a bottle of poison. As Lupin confronts her, she drinks the poison and falls over; when Lupin dashes over in grief, she explodes. "Fujiko" was actually a Suicide Beam bomb that has caught Lupin, and he is now suicidal himself! The real Fujiko has been cured of her suicidal urges, but Basara has left her hanging from a cliff. Lupin pulls his gun out to shoot Basara, but instead aims it at his own head.

Jigen steps forward and shoots the gun from Lupin's hand. Lupin then throws himself off a nearby cliff, and Jigen barely catches him. As the gunman struggles to get his friend to safety, Basara is notified the diamonds have been found where Goemon is meditating. Basara heads off, leaving the thieves behind. At the yoga temple, however, Basara and his men run into a problem. Goemon is sitting directly on top of the treasure chest they uncovered, and in his meditative state has somehow managed to anchor himself to the box. Shooting him with the Suicide Beam proves equally useless due to his state of perfect serenity, so in the end, Basara loads the chest, samurai and all, on to his balloon.

Back at the cliff, the branch Jigen has been clinging to finally gives way. Luckily, a barge passing on the river below catches both of them safely. Lupin is disappointed to find himself not dead. Zenigata also happens to be on the barge, and when he threatens to tie up Lupin with a rope, Lupin takes the rope from the confused detective and tries to hang himself. Zenigata tries to stop him, but the thief bites him and passes the suicide effect on to the detective. Zenigata again attempts to shoot himself in the head and miss. Lupin then gets hold of a dagger and goes after Jigen, deciding they should both go out together.

As Lupin chases Jigen off the boat, Goemon comes out of his meditative state. He eludes Basara's Suicide Beam and leaps from the balloon, safely landing thanks to a hidden parachute. Basara and his men eagerly open the trunk, only to find it full of cow manure. Disgusted, they throw it overboard. Goemon, meanwhile, lands near Jigen, who has tied Lupin up to prevent him from harming himself further, but Lupin now threatens to bite his own tongue off and bleed to death. The dung Basara tossed overboard lands nearby, and Goemon offers some to Jigen to gleefully stuff in Lupin's mouth. When Lupin swallows the manure, however, he returns to normal. The gang has stumbled upon a cure!

A furious Basara catches up to the gang and goes after them with his hot-air balloon and suicide beams. Lupin rigs up a massive crossbow out of some stones and sticks, and launches a flaming bolt at Basara's balloon, which appears to be full of hydrogen as it explodes in a fiery ball, crashing to the ground and taking Basara with it.

Back at Calcutta, Lupin, Jigen and Goemon watch cows being loaded onto a ship. Fujiko arrives and accuses Lupin of lying to her. When Lupin reminds her they are hidden in plain view, she storms off, determined to find them. Little does she realize the 20,000 holy cows being loaded on to the ship have been fed a diamond each, which Lupin plans to recover once the bovines are "done" with them. He wishes the cows a safe trip to Japan as the ship sets off.

This episode features examples of:
"Lupin: I just ate something, but I can't remember exactly what it was...
 * Artistic License Biology: An elephant commits suicide by a single blow to the head after running into a stone wall. Elephants have air pockets in their skulls so they can ram into each other during mating season or knock down trees without harming themselves.
 * Bloodless Carnage: Thank goodness, as there is no Discretion Shot for those targets who kill themselves with guns!
 * Bungled Suicide: Zenigata, twice, thanks to poor aim.
 * Cool Airship: Basara's balloon doubles as the main onion tower of the Taj Mahal.
 * Driven to Suicide: The effect of anyone who gets hit by the Suicide Beam, usually by gun or throwing themselves from a great height.
 * Foreign Queasine: The cure for the suicide beam:

Goemon: Um, it was from a cow...

Lupin: Ah, yeah...some kind of local burger, huh? It was great!"


 * Interrupted Suicide: Jigen has to constantly keep Lupin from killing himself after the master thief is hit with the Suicide Beam.
 * Lotus Position: Goemon can't be budged from one while he's meditating.
 * Mad Scientist: Basala Lavahna. Lupin outright calls him one when they first meet.
 * Shameful Strip: Lupin and Jigen undergo this after they are captured by the Basala Army. It's also to keep the thief from getting to his tools, but Basara forgot to take Lupin's shoes as well...
 * Shoe Phone: Actually a Shoe Knife.
 * Suicide as Comedy: The main characters hit by the ray who attempt suicide are handled in a comedic fashion. No one seems to care about the people who do manage to kill themselves.
 * Tap on the Head: How Lupin and Jigen are captured by the Basala Army at the beginning of the episode.
 * 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain: Zenigata seems to have this happen at first. Turns out he's just a really bad shot.
 * Trap Door: Basala gets the drop on Lupin and Jigen with one.