Summary:

The episode starts out with a young lady on a boat shredding up a piece of paper. Most likely a letter. She then pulls out what looks to be some photos, and tears them apart too. All of which is released into the breeze into the ocean. All this time, Kyon and Itsuki are talking to each other about the trip they’re taking to an island. A flashback to the clubroom shows how the trip came about. Itsuki explains his distant, wealthy relatives bought an island and built a house there. Of course, Haruhi believes that something interesting is to await them as she gives herself the title of “Ultra Detective”.

Back on the boat, Kyon and Itsuki discuss the dynamics of fictional detective stories and such over the top scenarios found in those stories don’t exactly exist in the real world, but Itsuki warns that Haruhi intends to bring such scenarios to the real world. As the club plays cards, Kyon’s sister is with the club. A flashback shows his sister trying to tag along by hiding in Kyon’s bag. Kyon finds her, but is forced to take her along anyway.

A good amount of time is used for Some relatively boring conversations between the characters to create the setting for the episode. Most of it included Haruhi fully expecting a mysterious island with trouble abound. Kyon on the other hand is wishing in his thoughts that nothing bad comes out of this trip. The boat, which is a ferry, reaches a dock and the crew get off to meet up with some of Itsuki’s long time acquaintances, a butler and a maid, who will take them to the island. Haruhi even considers the two mysterious to go along with her theme.

As the servants are taking the club to the island, Haruhi asks them a bunch of questions about the house and the owners, such as a room where someone ends up dying, the architect dying of unnatural causes, or the owner wearing a mask. All of which are rejected. At the island they meet up with the owner and his younger brother. After selecting their rooms, Haruhi points out that the lack of anything suspicious makes things suspicious. She immediately points out the owner as the culprit whose first victim will be Mikuru. The camera cuts to a trembling, teary-eyed Mikuru.

The club goes and hangs out at the beach — playing in the water, swimming, relaxing, etc. Then they’re back at the manor eating dinner. Yuki is shown eating the food systematically like a machine. After dinner, they’re back at the beach playing with fireworks. Kyon aws relieved that nothing bad happened that day. The next day, however, started off with a heavy storm. Kyon already fears that someone brewed up the storm to create the mystery setting. Most likely Haruhi.

The day after, the butler informs the crew that the owner has gone missing. They checked everywhere except for the master bedroom, which is locked. Everyone decides to go check. At the door, there is no answer so they agree to knock it down. After several rams at the door, they are finally successful, but they find the owner on the floor with a knife in his chest.

Review:

The fact that they were going to a remote island and the fact that this anime falls in the realm of science fiction, there was no doubt that something was going to happen while they were there. Otherwise, there would be no entertainment value. Overall, this episode didn’t have anything interesting on the surface level. This episode, which is the first of the two-part story arc, sets the stage for a detective story; laying out clues for the viewers to pick up and use later on.

When I first watched the episode, I didn’t know what to expect and so I didn’t take it upon myself to be concerned too much about the details. Though not knowing the details also works too as one is led to amazement as how the mystery is solved. There’s really nothing to go into detail here since everything is better explained when the two-part series is completed.