Lupin III/Recap/S2 E111

Shin Lupin III: "Is the Invader Safe Open?"

Lupin and Jigen are wandering around Jigen's old stomping grounds in New York City when Zenigata springs out with a few members of the NYPD, attempting to trap them. The thieves easily distract Zenigata and his men by shooting down some clotheslines, bringing laundry down on the authorities and allowing the two to make a run for it. An expensive car blocks the other end of the alley, though, and the two are forced to enter the vehicle to escape. There, Jigen comes across a beautiful woman who apparently knows him; she calls him a "third-rate thief" and challenges him to steal a precious diamond before ejecting Lupin and him from the car and into a nearby newsstand. There, Jigen spots a picture in the paper of the same woman, holding the largest diamond in the world. The caption identifies her as president of the Moleau Diamond Company, Catherine Moleau.

Later, on the road and after picking up Goemon, Lupin teases Jigen about having a "rich girlfriend." Jigen tells him that he and Catherine were only friends; she was a dancer living in his rough neighborhood, dreaming of Broadway. She later married a rich man, and inherited his company after he died. Jigen and Lupin are also more than willing to take her up on her challenge to steal the giant diamond. Just then, Lupin's car is surrounded and boxed in by four eighteen-wheelers, which corral the thieves to Catherine's mansion.

There, Catherine explains the challenge: the diamond is locked in a special safe hidden somewhere in her house. All Lupin and his gang have to do is find and open the safe for the diamond to be theirs. In their way are at least fifty guards, a state-of-the-art security system, and the custom safe itself. She even hands them a map, which Jigen promptly snatches away and tears up. Insulted that she thinks he needs her help, he leaves, taking his friends with him. As soon as they are out of sight, Catherine passes out from a massive headache.

That night, the gang returns. Jigen fires a cable into one wall of the mansion, and the three attempt to use it to glide over the wall and lasers littering the grounds. Catherine, watching on security monitors, raises the lasers on special poles, causing the thieves to stop short of the mansion and land in the grounds, where they are promptly fired upon by her guards. The three manage to escape the grounds, but two special missiles fire and pursue the gang, now driving away in Lupin's car. Their effort fails, and the car is promptly blown up by the bombs; luckily, the gang is only slightly worse for the wear.

Luckily, Fujiko, annoyed that Lupin has left her out of the heist, flies overhead in a hot air balloon. She takes the boys back to the mansion, where they disembark, this time successfully infiltrating the grounds. Lupin's specially made "diamond detector" leads them into the mansion, down a hall, and into an amazing greenhouse, where the steel door locks behind them. The room begins to flood from one of the ponds, and a special ventilation system brings the temperature down to below freezing fast. With the room flooded, Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon find their feet frozen to the floor, and themselves about to freeze to death. Goemon summons up the strength to pull Zantetsuken and quickly cuts the ice off of the gang before freeing their feet from the floor. He then opens one of the greenhouse walls so the gang can retreat, feet still encased in ice and failing in their second bid.

Zenigata shows up the next day, sent to protect the diamond. The gang also returns. This time, Jigen attempts to find the control room through a sniper scope and fire to take out the equipment. He succeeds in finding the room, but he also spots something unexpected there: a framed picture of himself in younger days. He flashes back to that younger self and a younger Catherine running from the cops one rainy day. Hiding in an alley, he urges her to run for safety and find her dreams, but she refuses to leave his side. Jigen informs her then he'll do the running and suddenly darts out to draw the cops' fire. Catherine tries to follows him, but can't.

Back in the present, Lupin comments on how Jigen suddenly looks pale. Jigen suddenly refuses to fire into the control room and on Catherine. Lupin protests, but sighs and follows both Jigen and Goemon into another plan. A bit later, Zenigata reviews the police at his disposal. Three latecomers join the line before Zenigata has them count off. As each policeman sounds off, they pick up their foot, revealing a number painted on the bottom! Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon quickly realize they are trapped, but have no choice to pick up their feet and show they have no numbers. The three run for it, cops and Pops in pursuit. However, before they can jump out of a window at the end of a hall, a trap door opens beneath their feet. They fall down without being seen by their followers, who assume they've jumped out the window and are escaping across the grounds yet again.

Meanwhile, a nurse has arrived in the security room to perform a blood transfusion on Catherine. The nurse pauses when she spots the picture of the young Jigen, and Catherine identifies her as Fujiko. She then pushes a button, lowering the security room into a different section of the house, and turns on the security monitors so Fujiko can watch the boys in action.

Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon have landed in a room, three walls decorated with the aliens from Space Invaders. On the fourth wall is a monitor and video game control attached to a door, one that Lupin's diamond detector indicates the gem is behind. Catherine informs them, via loudspeaker, that if they win three rounds of the game, the safe door will open; however, if they lose all of their ships, they will lose their lives. Lupin confidently begins the game. He passes the first round, but as he shoots the last alien, his ship is also hit. Suddenly, the pictures spring from the wall; they are actually shaped metall beams, impervious to Goemon's blade, and they clobber the gang. Distracted, Lupin immediately loses a second ship, causing the beams to close together further.

With the beams almost shut, Jigen grabs the controls and plays. He fires on the bonus spaceship, but instead of giving him points, it restarts the level and zaps him in the butt. He loses one more ship while distracted. The gang are on their last life. Frustrated, Lupin slams his diamond detector on one of the beams, where it sticks. He carefully pulls it apart, revealing a magnet on the inside. Taking the magnet, he places it on the game's screen, causing it to short out. It works; the door opens and the gang leaps out of the room just before the last beams slam together. The diamond is theirs.

The exit to the diamond's room opens into the moved security room. There, Catherine congratulates them on their victory. Fujiko herds Lupin and Goemon out of the room so Jigen and Catherine can visit. Alone, Catherine reveals she's got a terminal blood disorder; transfusions prolonged her life, but they've stopped working, and she has very little time left to live. Catherine challenged him to get the diamond since she can't take it with her when she dies. She also wanted to see Jigen one last time. He heads for the door, but suddenly he turns and fires his gun at her, angry. He misses, only wanting to scare her, but then laments about why she has to die so young, reminding her of when they were poor and had no money or food, but never gave up on life then. He then fires on the picture of his younger self and tells her he will never see her again, because she is going to heaven, while he is bound for hell. He then tears out the door as Catherine cries.

He returns to the gang, giving them their prize, but as they leave, Jigen can only look back at Catherine's mansion regretfully.

This episode features examples of:

 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: Averted; Goemon can't cut through the beams in Catherine's trap.
 * Bittersweet Ending: For Jigen and Catherine.
 * Flash Back: To Jigen's past, of all things!
 * Harmless Freezing: None of the gang suffers ill effects from being frozen nearly solid.
 * Ill Girl: Catherine.
 * Implausible Fencing Powers: Goemon cuts the gang free from thick ice without harming them otherwise.
 * Incurable Cough of Death: Replace "cough" with "headache".
 * Monochrome Past: The sepia version for Jigen's flashback.
 * Mood Whiplash: The episode is fairly goofy and light-hearted in scope until the last few minutes, where Catherine reveals the truth.
 * No Inner Fourth Wall: One of the guards appears to be watching Lupin on a TV. Not on a security monitor, either...he's watching Shin Lupin III!