JoJo’s Part 5 Episode 3

Introduction

FIGHTING GOLD! I mean, hello, dear readers. Have I mentioned yet how much I enjoy the new OP for JoJo’s Part 5? I probably have, but I’d just like to take this time to say that both the OP song and animation are the best of the season, even if I don’t think this series is.

I’d make a post breaking down the OP, but a lot of other people who know a lot more about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure than I do have already done so. So I’ll leave it to them. What I haven’t seen yet, surprisingly, is the same amount of love for the ED, which is great in its own right.

Part of me wishes that the ED song was only used for the first episode as a joke though, because I don’t think its novelty is going to last that much longer. I’d link to videos of the OP/ED, but since they’re continuously being taken down, anything I link to probably wouldn’t last long.

Meet the Gangster Behind the Wall

With that out of the way, let’s get into this week’s episode in which we meet one of the mid-level gang bosses of Passione, Polpo. After deciding to join the gang, Giorno is given an explanation of how the gang works, albeit a vague one, by Buccellati.

Buccellati, along with the rest of the members, have never actually met the top boss of the gang. Instead, mid-level bosses seem to receive their orders from the top, and then pass them on to the low-level members like Buccellati.

The mid-level boss is also the one who determines who can join the gang. In this case, the boss in Naples is a man named Polpo, who runs the gang from within a prison where he’s currently serving a 15-year sentence (I think that’s the amount of time he has left).

Although Giorno must pass through high-level security to enter the prison, both Buccellati and Polpo himself mention that Polpo is able to leave the prison at any time, but simply chooses not to. Upon meeting him, Giorno believes he understands why.

Polpo is a massive man who’s not only just fat, but also immensely tall. If he were to stand up, it doesn’t look like he would actually fit in his cell. However, Polpo doesn’t really have a need to ever leave his cell, or even stand up for that matter. Everything he could ever need, including weapons, is just within his reach.

There’s also a scene in which Giorno sees Polpo eat part of his fingers, but then they appear to be back to normal shortly afterwards. It’s unclear if this has anything to do with his stand-ability at this point, but I don’t think this would have been included without reason.

While Giorno impresses Polpo with his ability to pickpocket the guard who had searched him upon entry, he tells Giorno that being capable isn’t the most important thing for a member of the gang. Instead, the most important thing is that members can trust each other, and specifically that Polpo can trust his subordinates.

Polpo then gives Giorno a challenge to prove his trustworthiness. He gives him a lit lighter and tells him that he must keep the flame going for 24 hours and then return it to Polpo, still lit. While this may seem like a simple enough challenge, at least to understand, I think there’s more going on than meets the eye.

Due to the fact that Buccellati and Polpo mentioned that Polpo could leave the prison any time he wanted, and that Polpo has weapons and other contraband in his cell, Giorno figured that he had all of the guards paid off. However, this isn’t the case, and this is where the challenge truly starts.

Giorno must get back through prison security while keeping the lighter lit, despite being forbidden by the guards to either give or receive anything from Polpo. To get around this, Giorno uses a little trick I like to call, the magic of plot holes.

He uses his stand, Gold Experience, to turn the lighter into a flower. Clearly this should have snuffed out the flame, but through the magic of plot holes, Giorno reveals that he tucked the flame inside the flower to keep it from going out, because that’s how both flowers and flames work.

It would be one thing if Giorno had Buccellati’s stand, Sticky Fingers, but Gold Experience shouldn’t have the ability to hide a flame inside of a living thing, much less a flower. If only he had continued to protect the flame in a way similar to this for the next 24 hours, but I guess plot holes can only be used once each.

Throughout the next few hours, Giorno defends his flame from a variety of people and situations, including Koichi who shows up at his dorm looking for the passport and other belongings Giorno stole from him back in episode 1. However, in the end the flame gets put out after a janitor “accidentally” splashes some water on Giorno.

I say “accidentally” because although the man acts like it was an accident, we all know he really did it on purpose because Giorno refused to help him carry his cleaning supplies up the stairs later in the day.

What that man didn’t realize though, was that splashing some water on a 15-year-old kid was going to be the last thing he did. Once the flame was put out, the man tells Giorno that he can simply re-light it, and does exactly that, much to Giorno’s surprise.

However, after doing so, Polpo’s stand appears and physically rips the soul out of the man who re-lit the lighter, and tells him that either he’ll become a chosen one, or die. The stand then proceeds to pierce the man’s soul’s forehead with a stand arrow, at which point the man dies.

The stand then mentions that he wasn’t meant to become one of the chosen ones after all, and starts to leave. But, before it does, Giorno steps on a shadow while trying to sneak away, which causes the stand to notice him as well, accusing Giorno of trying to re-ignite the lighter as well.

This is where the episode leaves off. Will Giorno fight his way out of this situation? Will he be pierced by the stand arrow as well even though he already has a stand? We’ll just have to find out next week (or read the manga), but until then, let’s theorize!

Next Episode

There isn’t an actual next episode preview, but I think there was enough information in this episode for me to make some assumptions about what’s going to happen in either the next episode, or the next couple of episodes. First of all, let’s talk about Polpo and his stand.

Polpo isn’t one of our main Jo-Bros for this part, so we can assume it’s not going to end well for him. What I don’t know, however, is just when Polpo is going to meet his demise. But, judging from the situation Giorno is put in at the end of this week’s episode, I’m going to assume it’s going to be sooner rather than later.

I’m assuming that Giorno is going to do whatever possible in order to not be pierced by the stand arrow, mainly because he doesn’t know what it is, and he saw that it killed the janitor. We know what it is from Part 4, but at the same time, we don’t know how it will affect someone who’s already a stand-user.

With this in mind, I think it’s likely that Giorno is going to fight for his life against Polpo’s stand, and this will probably prevent him from being pierced by the arrow. However, this would also reveal to Polpo the fact that Giorno already has a stand, which is probably going to be the catalyst for their fatal encounter.

As for Polpo’s stand itself, we don’t know what its name is or even what its abilities really are yet, but that doesn’t mean there’s no information on it. For one, we know that it has a stand arrow, but I don’t think this is its actual ability, more like something Polpo gave it.

Instead it’s more likely that its abilities have to do with pulling the souls out of its opponents, as well as something to do with shadows. Since we see the stand pull out the janitor’s soul, and this isn’t something stands can normally do, we can assume that at the very least, that’s its ability.

But, like I said, it would seem that another one of its abilities has to do with shadows. The most conclusive piece of evidence for this is the fact that it doesn’t notice Giorno until he steps into a shadow on the ground. However, this may also be the reason for the flame challenge issued by Polpo.

It may be that the lighter itself isn’t anything special, although Giorno originally thought it was. Instead, I think that Polpo’s stand is able to sense when shadows are cast on people, and the shadow cast on the holder of the lighter is what’s really notifying the stand of what’s happening to the lighter.

It’s not necessarily that the stand knows that the lighter was re-lit, but that it knows the shadow from the lighter was re-cast on someone. Hopefully we learn more about Polpo’s stand before he meets his likely end.

The other thing I want to discuss before concluding the post is the challenge itself. We’re told that only those who are trustworthy are allowed to join the gang, but there appears to be more going on than what first meets the eye.

For one, the line from Polpo’s stand implies that if you survive the stand arrow’s pierce and develop a stand that you’ll be welcomed into the gang. If this wasn’t the case, then the stand arrow wouldn’t be used in the first place, because it’s unlikely that Polpo doesn’t know its true power.

The fact that Buccellati and Polpo have and know a decent amount about stands implies that they’re not the only ones in the gang who have them, and we know this to be true from the OP, ED, and the fact that this is JoJo’s. However, it’s unclear if this is a prerequisite for joining the gang since we never saw if Leaky Eye Luca had a stand before he died.

What I think is more likely is that being pierced by the stand arrow is merely one way to pass the challenge. The other being to admit defeat. That’s right, I don’t think that completing the challenge is actually possible, and it was probably designed this way.

Assuming the participant doesn’t die or fail otherwise, they’ll either end up with a stand, something the gang likely wants, or will prove their trustworthiness by admitting defeat to Polpo when they go to return the lighter. Either way, they’ll probably be allowed into the gang.

What likely keeps many potential members from being initiated is either death from the stand arrow, or the fear of what Polpo will do to them if they return with the lighter not lit. So, in a sense, the real challenge isn’t to protect the flame, it’s how you react once the flame goes out.

Conclusion

So what do you think about the challenge given to Giorno by Polpo? Do you think he was set up to fail from the start? Do you think the gang only wants stand-users, or will it also allow members who prove their trustworthiness? Let me know in the comment section.

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My review of the next episode is available here.