Netherworld
The episode begins with Weather Report and Anastasia arriving at the hospital.
Weather senses three people and declares that two of them are Pucci and Jolyne. Meanwhile, Jolyne gives Ermes a piece of her thread to hold onto as she plans to knock out Versus. Jolyne leaps out of the plane but gets trapped inside a fighter jet with someone. Ermes tries pulling Jolyne up, but her thread rips. Jolyne uses Stone Ocean to create a new thread.
Meanwhile, two police officers enter Versus’s patient room and report to their superiors that they found a strange hole in the ground. Jolyne’s thread swipes their walkie-talkie. Pucci tells Versus that he’s failing miserably. He knows Jolyne will use the walkie-talkie to contact Anastasia and Weather since the device’s frequency can be adjusted to dial cell phones. This angers, Versus greatly.
Versus is a character who has had a difficult life. He was born to a mother who was abusive and his father who was an alcoholic. He ran away from home when he was 13, and some shoes landed on his face and he claimed ownership. A few minutes later, cops arrested him for stealing those shoes. Versus learned about Ichiro, the famed baseball player, and donated them to children with disabilities.
A judge sentenced a young man to juvenile detention because she didn’t believe him. Although the thief would confess to the crimes four months later, the damage had been done to Versus. He fell onto a knife in the prison’s courtyard, got beat up by a fellow prisoner, and almost died from a terrifying disease. Since then, Versus hid from society and lived a tiring life. ..
After encountering a strange skull that peered from the wall, he realized that the bizarre things that happened in his life were his Stand Netherworld’s fault. Versus starts doubting Pucci’s leadership and wonders what would happen if he presented himself in front of the new moon instead of Pucci. Versus notices a copy of Pucci’s body lying around and nabs Weather Report’s memory disc.
Meanwhile, Jolyne asks the fighter jet pilot how she can escape. He tells her she can try pulling the lever, but it’d be useless to deny destiny. Jolyne calls via the walkie-talkie Emporio and explains the situation to him, but Emporio thinks she’s acting silly. At the same time, Versus approaches Pucci and asks if he has any use for Jolyne’s body.
Jolyne and Emporio are discussing the situation with two survivors of the crash. They have found out that two people survived and they need to find their seats so they can live.
Versus tries to stop the girls from removing the passengers, but Emporio uses Stone Ocean to push him back. The girls reach the seats and remove the passengers.
However, they run into a dilemma. Three children have been teleported from the hospital to the plane. Now Jolyne and Ermes must figure out a way to save themselves and the children from dying. Versus taunts them as he knows the guilt would eat them if they chose to save themselves instead of the kids. The plane explodes, but Pucci asks Versus if he feels guilty for putting three innocent kids in harm’s way. ..
He argues that it is more Jolyne’s fault than his own and that he did this for Pucci. However, the man that originally survived the plane crash walks out, startling Versus. Pucci confirms that the old man survived the plane crash no matter what, so Ermes cloned his body with her stickers and put the children inside the man’s body. Then the woman who originally survived the plane crash walks out.
Jolyne’s body was cloned with a sticker and hidden inside Ermes’s body. Versus remarks that Jolyne’s still dead, but realizes she survived too as she uses her thread to make his trip. Ermes explains that Jolyne unraveled her body into threads and hid inside Ermes’s body to survive. Once she’s restored, she unleashes a barrage of punches toward Versus and his Stand.
Jolyne finishes the job and Versus throws Weather’s memory disc, making everyone startled. Pucci tells Versus he’s making a big mistake giving Weather his memory disc back. Ermes tells Jolyne to finish Versus, but he says it’s too late. He informs the girls that he read Weather’s memory disc and that he knows they made a mistake trusting him. That when Pucci sealed away Weather Report’s demonic powers for a good reason, he was doing what was best for all of them.
Pucci attempts to attack Versus, but Weather Report’s clouds and rainbows enter the hole. Anastasia calls out to Weather Report as he inserts his memory disc into his head. The episode concludes with Weather Report threatening to kill a man for irritating him as electricity sparks from his eyes. ..
The Episode Review
This chapter was an intense thrill ride full of suspense and grief. Although lacking brute strength, Versus proved to be a worthy obstacle to Jolyne and her friends. He not only has a backstory worth the viewer’s empathy, but he pulls all the stops to prevent Jolyne and Ermes from succeeding.
After Weather Report’s memory was restored, many questions remain. Episode 12 builds up the suspense by having everyone, including our series’ main antagonist Pucci, trembling at the thought of Weather Report’s full powers. ..
Despite being Pucci’s younger brother, Emporio Weather Report is a force to be reckoned with when he’s at his best. Weather Report aside, I’m thrilled to see Emporio doing more for the team. Although it was baffling seeing him pull out a ghost computer from thin air, many fans will be happy to see him provide some support toward Jolyne. Like Versus, what he lacks in strength he makes up for with sharp intellect. ..
Overall, I enjoyed this chapter of Stone Ocean. It gave us a cunning villain with an empathetic backstory who wasn’t afraid to anger the series’ main villain. Even if the series decides to push him aside to focus on Weather Report and Pucci, Versus is a noteworthy antagonist that pulled his weight. Let’s hope Jolyne and her friends can revert Weather Report back to their side.
