Episode 4: Temptation

**"Enticement -ask-"** *Transcription:* "Yūwaku -ask-" (Japanese: 誘惑 -ask-) is the forth episode of *Madlax*. It debuted on April 26, 2004 in Japan.

## Synopsis

The episode opens with a strange crime case. Veiderica Morey of Nafrece is a middle aged man living with his high school daughter Anne. He is talking on the phone with someone and saying that Galza might change as a result of "sending that boy." Just then, Anne approaches and speaks the following words, "What should I do, Papa? I hated you. I have been told... Elda taluta." As she speaks these incomprehensible words, Anne charges forward and strangles her father to death. Later, police find Anne's body dead along with her father, and assume she killed him and then herself.

Carossur Don is meeting with a big man at a desk and telling him to choose a new military commander to replace Gwen McNicole. Presumably, this is a government office in Gazth-Sonika. The big man at the desk asks if the assassin who killed Gwen had been found. Don replies that they know who it is (Madlax), but arresting her would be difficult because she's Gazth-Sonika's best agent/mercenary.

In the Bookwald Industries office in Nafrece, Vanessa's partner Charlie asks why their company is involved with a dangerous country like Gazth-Sonika. Vanessa replies that many hotels, casinos, and other facilities in the unarmed district of the country make up a third of Bookwald's capital. Vanessa and her coworker work on increasing their company's security levels.

Detective Macray Mareny becomes highly interested in the deaths of Viederica and Anne Morey. According to reports, Anne was a cheerful, kind girl with good grades and a good relationship with her father. Why did she kill him, then? Macray goes to Anne's school to try to interview girls who knew more about her. Of course, he ends up questioning none other than Margaret Burton. She tells the detective that Anne was an incredibly kind and gentle person.

While Macray rakes his brain for ideas about the case, Margaret relives a memory of Anne in the form of a dream. In the dream-memory, Anne seemed was Margaret's beautiful senpai who went out of her way to return a handkerchief that Margaret had dropped. When Anne said she wasn't sure if she was a good person or not, Margaret assured her that she was kind and good. While the girls stand there looking at each other, it becomes clear that they shared some unspoken connection during their brief encounter. In Margaret's mind, her memories of Anne are strongly associated with the motif of yellow helianthus flowers. Just before waking up, Margaret sees a dream-memory of a vehicle exploding and then one of a plane falling from the sky.

Later, Margaret visits a flower stall and purchases some yellow helianthus flowers. She intended to take them into to the Morey house as a sign of mourning. Meanwhile, Macray is called by a colleague who says there is new evidence about the case. Apparently, all the data on Anne's computer had been destroyed. Macray joins his colleague in accessing the computer and investigating. They find that all the data has been overwritten with junk data: just pages of repetitions of the words "Elda Taluta." The colleague says that those words had some connection with Enfant. The kind colleague then advises Macray to stop investigating, since this was clearly a warning from Enfant. Macray argues back that it's his job to arrest the criminal.

At that point, Margaret appears with her bouquet of helianthus flowers. Macray tells her that she can't put the flowers in the house because it's still an active crime scene. Margaret is satisfied with Macray taking the flowers and saying he will put them in the Morey house himself. Randomly, Macray asks if Anne liked yellow helianthus flowers, and Margaret says, "I'm not sure; but I felt like it would be great if she did happen to like them."

The next day, Macray continues investigating. All he learns that day is that Viederica Morey had been a politician, but hadn't accomplished much. All he did was give financial aid to children in Gazth-Sonika who had lost their parents in that country's ongoing civil war. Next Macray goes to the home of someone who supposedly knew the Morey family, but nobody is home and the door is unlocked. Just as Macray enters the home, the landline phone starts ringing. When he answers it, Macray is given a warning to stop his investigation. He is told, "If you do not wish to be 'awakened,' drop out of the case." Naturally, Macray ignores the warning and tells his boss that Enfant is on the move and something needs to be done. His boss tells him enough is enough and to pack his bags.

Then everything goes to hell for the poor righteous detective Macray Mareny. He tries to use his credit/debit card, which he just got the other day, but the person at the register tells him it's an expired card. When the detective tries to withdraw some cash from an ATM, again his card doesn't work. At home, the electricity to his house has been cut off, and the phone won't work. Macray goes to a payphone and calls his mother, but she claims to not know who he is and hangs up. As Macray's sense of identity crumbles, the viewers are shown quick scenes of the gray-haired man with the mask covering half his face. He is laughing. It's unclear exactly what happens next, but it looks like all the computers in the computer shop next to the payphone are all hacked at the same time. They all begin to display the repeating words, "Elda Taluta." The masked man says they are the words of awakening, the words of Firstary, while looking at an ancient page of Elies Characters.

Macray says, "Elda Taluta" out loud, and suddenly starts experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations. He sees his daughter at her computer, while all different voices say: "Yellow flowers." "It's awakening. It's going to wake up." "Why is it waking up? Why am I not running away?" "I'm not happy. Happiness is elsewhere." "I desire it." "I can still do this." "I was violated." "Get in touch with a boy called Chris." Leticia is seen and she says, "Someone is trying to touch me." Macray hears gunshots and finds a gun in front of his face. The voices continue: "Why does this happen to me?" "You're the criminal." "My wife died in her office 12 years ago." "I can hear it, that voice." "Get me the best agent." "You are not who you think you are." Different voices continue saying seemingly unconnected things, and Macray sees a vision of Anne getting ready to kill her father. Then he sees a vision of himself shooting a young girl. It might be a flashback. Macray loses his mind.

When Margaret is out shopping with Eleanor the following day, she sees Detective Macray walking along like he's in a trance. She says hello, but Macray no longer recognizes her. Margaret tries reminding him that she brought the yellow flowers, but he can't remember, and he even denies that his name is Macray. Next, we see the empty-eyed Macray in the back seat of Carossur Don's car. Don tells him, "You will now live as an Enfant agent," and Macray says, "Yes sir."

All of this suggests that Enfant is an organization that uses something like brainwashing with the mechanism being the supernatural powers of the words of awakening. We can also gather from this episode that the mysterious masked man. Friday Monday, is the leader of Enfant, and that one of Enfant's agents is Carossur Don. We know Don is also involved in the Gazth-Sonika government, and in Bookwald Industries in Nafrece.

The episode provides one final insight, unrelated to the unfortunate case of Macray. While on the phone with Three-Speed or SSS, Madlax plays with a helianthus flower and brings up its symbolic message. In the Japanese tradition of Hanakotoba, the language of flowers, every flower has a symbolic meaning. According to Madlax, the meaning of helianthus is "temptation or "allurement." Remember that Margaret associated helianthus flowers with Anne. Think back on how Margaret seemed so dead-set on believing that Anne was a kind and good person, even when Anne wasn't sure. If we assume that Margaret was in love with her beautiful senpai, it makes sense. She probably felt the temptation/allurement to be together with Anne in a romantic way. Another interpretation is that Anne is associated with temptation because she may have been tempted to kill her father even before she was given the words of awakening.

## Trivia

* On Anne's PC, her last login took place on Wed. July 12, 2011, 23:48:47. However, July 12, 2011 took place on a Tuesday.
	+ On a lunar calendar, this would mean the moon was waxing until it was full on July 15th.

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Episode 5

*"When a person's past consists of a single memory, it becomes their obsession and allows them to become foolish. Foolish you. Foolish me."* – Limelda Jorg