TML

Whew! I am still in shock by the way the producers threw multiple curveballs in the story line during this arc that made it tricky and somewhat difficult to predict. First, there was Scar Akai appearing with Sera, Amuro, and Okiya at the same time. Next, there was the mystery woman who looked like Vermouth, was then deduced by some to be Fusae, but was neither of these: "Scar Akai" turned out to be Vermouth, while the mystery woman turned out to be Yukiko; Yukiko appeared to be held hostage by Vermouth but that turned out to be a deliberate part of the bigger plan by Ai's allies to save her from the BO. Then, there was Ai preparing herself to fall victim to the BO by running away from everyone, including Okiya, and ostensibly taking the antidote and reverting to Shiho, but it turned out that the real Ai never expanded to Shiho, but instead was taken to a room to sleep by herself, while the Shiho we saw with Amuro (who self-disclosed as Bourbon) turned out to be - surprise! - Kaito Kid. Vermouth and Bourbon initially believed they succeeded in taking Sherry out of the picture, but almost immediately after Vermouth finished talking to Gin, she realized that she was wrong. Bourbon was also interrupted by a surprise grenade as he prepared to capture Sherry, which made him reconsider Akai's death. On one hand, it has now been settled that Amuro is Bourbon, and that Akai is alive (and the evidence for Okiya being Akai is almost incontrovertible by now). On the other hand, there are a few open questions left by this arc: -Now that Amuro has self-disclosed as Bourbon, will he still show up regularly at Poirot and the Detective Agency? If not, how will he explain his departure? -Given that Akai has been revealed to be alive, Kir's life is in jeopardy if the BO confirms Akai's survival. How will the producers allow Kir to escape from the BO into protection by her allies? -Do Gin and the other key members of BO really believe Vermouth's report of Sherry's death? If I were Gin, I would start to lobby the boss to press Vermouth to disclose what she has been hiding. -Do the producers really want Kaito Kid to be drawn into the BO affair? Could there really be a connection between the BO and the Pandora Gem that Kid has been seeking? Could the BO add Kaito Kid to their list of targets?

I think the producers will decide to wind down the series when one of the following happens: -The producers run out of desire to continue the series -The series' popularity plunges to a point where the franchise is losing a substantial amount of money. When that happens, I can guarantee that the producers will: -Wind down all plot lines currently open (e.g. Kaito Kid's pursuit of the Pandora Gem) and "lock in" all established relationship pairs (e.g. Agasa & Fusae, Chiba & Naeko, Takagi & Sato, Shiratori & Kobayashi, etc.) -Have the BO taken down and its key members taken into custody -Introduce the ultimate antidote for APTX-4869 so that Shinichi can abandon his Conan persona for good -Decide the ultimate fate of each of the main characters

Whoa! So the producers threw yet another curveball to confuse us. Unbelievable! I am at a loss for words to describe what they just did.

Did Generic figure out who Conan really was, based on what he discovered about APTX-4869?

I'd say the Snowy Mountain Villa case (46), where the victim was tied up, stabbed, and left to bleed to death.

I think someone recently mentioned this issue...

From my understanding of Ai/Shiho's personality, if she were confronted by any BO member, she would rather "submit" herself to the BO instead of fighting back against them. On multiple occasions, her allies (especially Conan and Ran) had to save her from death at the BO's hands. Furthermore, her ingestion of the antidote and reversion to her adult form is part of her plan to surrender herself to the BO. Why, then, would she attempt to "fight back" against Bourbon?

I think it is highly unlikely that Conan & Ai disguised as each other, primarily since Ai's deduction skills are nowhere near that of Conan's. However...

I don't believe this!

Well, if you met a close friend/family member who you heard had allegedly died, wouldn't you react in a similar way? Vermouth's response implies that she expected this kind of response from a family member of Akai's upon seeing him alive. However, I do wonder what will subsequently become of Sera - will she be captured/killed, will she be rescued, or will she escape?

I doubt it. Although this particular Scar Akai was Vermouth, we cannot necessarily say the same for the previous Scar Akais we saw, since the previous Scar Akais apparently did not give Ai the same scent that the current one did. I also see too many problems with the theory of Okiya being Yusaku, see the analysis in this section for details.

Although she is an interesting character, I strongly believe she will end up being nothing more than an interlude.

Something still doesn't add up for me: Ai was last seen "fleeing" from Okiya. How, then, did Okiya (or some other sympathetic party) prevent her from actually fleeing or take her back?

What happened to Sera? Was she "disabled" by "Scar Akai"?

Wait a sec...

The answer to this question lies in a concept called a floating timeline (also known as a sliding timescale). This concept is used in fiction to make characters' ages stay relatively constant despite real-life changes in the background. On the US TV show The Simpsons, two of the main characters have remained in the same grade levels in school despite going through four different presidents (from Bush 41 to Obama). Applied here, the ages of the major characters in Detective Conan have been kept relatively constant, despite obvious real-life changes in the background (for example, one of Conan's gadgets, the Earring Cellphone, has been superceded because of the evolution of cell phone technology in recent years). I wonder if the producers will ever let any of the major characters age - if they had allowed them to age as in real-life since the beginning of the series, Dr. Agasa would be in his late 60s by now, Kogoro & Eri (also Yusaku & Yukiko) would be in their early 50s, while the Detective Boys would be in their early 20s and Ran, Shinichi, and Sonoko (also Heiji and Kazuha) would be in their early 30s.

I believe this thread is redundant - there is already an established thread to discuss Bourbon and his/her possible identity. Will a moderator please disable this thread?

I have a hunch that regardless of what initially happens to Ai, by the time the dust settles at the end of this arc, she will emerge as a free girl with her secret still safe from Gin, Vodka, and the other high-ranking members of the BO who do not yet know of her current situation. In other words: -If she is captured, she will (1) escape from captivity, or (2) be rescued by a sympathetic party (as when Conan rescued her from the Haido City Hotel), or (3) be released. -If she attempts to die deliberately, her attempt will be thwarted by a sympathetic party (this has happened twice, by Conan on the bus and by Ran in front of Vermouth). -If someone discovers her secret, that person will either be removed from the picture entirely (i.e. killed or captured, like Pisco) or become a confidant (like Vermouth). Does anyone else share this hunch?

I don't know whether or not he really said that, but I believe DC will end when one of the following happens (whichever one comes first): -Gosho and/or the other DC producers get tired of producing new content -Anime viewership and/or manga readership for DC crashes to unpopular levels When that happens, I can predict with absolute certainty that the producers will introduce the ultimate antidote for APTX-4869 so that Shinichi returns to normal for good.