Sushi Pack - Where No Truth Lies

A lovely Tako/Maguro-shippy episode, slightly marred by a lame villain. Sorry, but it had to be said. I'll get more into detail about that after I write up the episode, though.

Where No Truth Lies - "I'm a Mayor, not a Librarian."

At a ski lodge out somewhere, Mayor Martin loudly laments the loss of his "priceless collection." Chief Flume arrives on the scene with some of her muscle officers, and the Mayor shows her the note left by The Prevaricator, which basically substitutes the opposite word for what is meant at random intervals. Rather strange, but more on that later. Regardless, the Mayor throws himself on Flume's mercy, and she promises to get everyone possible working on the case, although the Mayor points out that she really just needs the Sushi Pack.

Apparently it snows in Wharf City, too, as the scene cuts to a snowcovered Green Donut (so I guess that means it's not in California). Having heard about the Mayor's predicament, the Pack is hurrying to get out the door in B.O.B. (from No Clowning Around, which I'll be blogging soon) to track down the Prevaricator. As the rest of the Pack heads out, Tako grabs Maguro's knapsack, accidentally dumping all its contents on the floor. As he leaps from the table he was standing on, he lands on Maguro's lucky crystal necklace, breaking the crystal in two. Tako hastily cleans up the evidence, stashing the necklace in his pocket (thoroughly confusing me. Isn't that his skin?) in the hopes that Maguro won't notice it's missing. Unfortunately for him, once they're out in the frozen wastelands, she notices pretty quickly. And since Tako brought her knapsack to B.O.B., she figures that he must have something to do with it's disappearance. Tako plays it cool, but Maguro continues to needle him. Kani tells her to get back to working B.O.B.'s foot, but without her crystal, Maguro is not a happy camper.

Ikura suggests she look around for it, so she does, somehow managing to look all the way over to Tako's foot, and notices the chain of her necklace peeking out of his pocket (I still don't get how he has one in his skin...). She pulls it out (without leaving her foot? I'm confused again) and Tako flails to cover his tracks, even going so far as to tell her "it was just a little lie." This incenses Maguro more than the necklace being broken. She tells Tako that she can't trust him anymore and forces Ikura to trade seats with her. Ikura reassures Tako that Maguro will get over it eventually, but Maguro promises to hang onto her anger for ages to come.

Waiting for the Pack in the snow gave Chief Flume a bit of a headcold, so she doesn't recognize the Pack when they show up (granted, they are in B.O.B.). She fills them in on The Prevaricator's plot: turns out he's been after the Mayor's collection for years. She neither knows what "prevaricate" means ("These bad guys keep coming up with weird names.") nor what the Mayor's collection entails, but it's important to get it back, since the Mayor can't stop crying about it. After a brief chat with the Mayor, the Pack is on the move! Kani spots some footprints in the snow, but since Ikura's not used to working a foot, B.O.B. ends up crashing into a tree repeatedly, and Kani calls for Maguro to take her original position. As Maguro returns to the foot, Tako tells her that he knows she's still angry, but they have to work together on the case. Maguro knows that he's right, but in her anger, she can't help but snipe at him. Tako knows he deserves it and that he should be the bigger man, but taunts her right back regardless. Kani tells them both to knock it off and get a move on. As the feet get going, Maguro hears a squeaking sound and asks Tako if he lubed the joints before the trip. Tako says he did, but both Maguro and Kani doubt him, thanks to his lie about the crystal.

Following the trail gets more difficult as a storm blows in, so the Pack takes a pit stop at a nearby cafe. The proprietress pours B.O.B. a cup of tea and fills them in a little on The Prevaricator. Seems he is a master liar (which Maguro uses to snipe at Tako once again). Kani asks how she knows so much about him, but the proprietress refuses to say, just telling them, "it's a long story." She also warns them not to trust anything the Prevaricator says. And with that, the Pack is off again.

Still hearing squeaking from the knee joints, Maguro leaves her position to check them herself. Turns out Tako did oil them, but with her missing in action, B.O.B. takes a tumble, slides across the ice, and lands facefirst in a snowbank. The Pack pops out, only to be faced with some kind of abominable snowman. No, wait, it's really the Prevaricator. Seriously, he is one unattractive dude, and that is saying something on this show. The Pack chases him on foot, listening to him contradict everything they say. Seeing that they're getting nowhere, Tako theorizes that they have to make the Prevaricator lie about lying in order to stop him. After a bit of bantering with him, Tako asks him to tell a lie. The Prevaricator is caught in this logic trap, and forfeits the Mayor's collection just so he won't have to think anymore. With the Mayor's collection in tow, Tako apologizes to Maguro properly, and they patch things up, both so happy that they make B.O.B. skip all the rest of the way back. The Mayor, of course, is overjoyed to have his collection of prized bottle caps back, but the Pack is not impressed, and leave him to geek out alone.

So, yeah, the resolution to this one was really lame. I mean, honestly, there's a difference between lying and just contradicting everything point blank. But, I have a theory about this: the Prevaricator that the Pack went up against was not the actual Prevaricator, but an imposter. When I first saw this episode, (and before the Prevaricator showed up on screen) there was no doubt in my mind that the Prevaricator was actually the proprietress of the cafe the Pack went to. Basically, once she clammed up on how she knew the Prevaricator, I knew it was her. Watching the episode again only confirmed it in my mind. It even fits with the whole "the Prevaricator can only lie" bit. She says "it's a long story" because it's actually a short story: she is the Prevaricator. Thus, if she's telling the truth about the Prevaricator being a liar, it's because she's lying about being the Prevaricator in the first place (plus, she, like everyone else, refers to the Prevaricator as a "he," which is a lie if she is indeed the Prevaricator). So what's up with the male Prevaricator having the Mayor's collection? My theory is that the female Prevaricator hired a random thug to get the Mayor's collection, since she'd been after it for years with no luck, and told him how to be the Prevaricator (that is, lie all the time). But he took her instructions a little too literally, which is how he got trapped in Tako's logic puzzle. After all, the real Prevaricator knows that there's more than one way to tell a lie, and wouldn't have gotten trapped by Tako. Also, is it not true that she told the Pack they'd find the Prevaricator at the top of the hill, yet he was really at the bottom? Obviously, she was throwing them off the trail, since she knew that he would be coming to meet up with her at a location in that bottom-of-the-hill town. Conveniently sending the heroes off in the wrong direction while she makes off with the goods? Now that's what the Prevaricator should be.