Welcome to the second-to-last episode of Shiki and the latest installment of the human-on-vampire bloodbath. They’re dropping like flies!

I’ll be honest, the opening scene with all the villagers stacking bloody bodies and re-staking the ones that aren’t quite dead and then taking a break to drink tea and chit-chat gives me the creeps. It’s a bit frightening to see how quickly people adapt to killing their (former) friends and neighbors. It’s a good touch, for sure, but still creepy. Guys, promise if I get vamp’d you’ll at least spare a moment to feel bad before staking me?

Oh, poop. Bad news. My favorite butch nurse got eaten by wild dogs and/or werewolves in wolf form. Shoot. What an undiginifed way to go for such a classy broad.

Still in the basement, Sunako continues carrying on about her impending death. She takes a break to talk to the Monk about his suicide attempt…and he answers in terms of SPOILER ALERTS for his unfinished novel. Which is how I answer questions, too. It’s a writer thing. No big deal.

Masao is still alive, but probably not for long (how do they not hear this fool splashing around in the river and talking to himself?). He goes to see his sister and begs for her help. I hope she stakes him. All that stuff I said before about the ease of killing be creepy, I totally take back.

As dawn approaches, the vampires decide to start fighting back instead of just being killed off. I dunno, I feel like that would have been my first strategy, you know? Why wait so long? The plan isn’t foolproof, though. Seishirou shows up, all moody and upset, and shoots Yoshie the Werewolf just as she’s off to wreak havoc. I might have missed the scene where he had a change of heart. Though he does have bite marks on his arm. Why would a vampire want him to kill werewolves? Unless Yuuki bit him? Or whoever bit him doesn’t care which werewolves get killed as long as Yuuki is one of them? Shiki, you make my brain all twisty.

Oh! Great news! My favorite nurse climbed up a tree and she’s (relatively) safe. Whew!!

She brings news that the vamps are holed up in Yamairi, so the Doc leads a team of killers to go do some killing. Papa Monk died as a vampire, sadface. Toru and Ritsuko are also among those killed. Then someone remembers that the manse has a basement and they head there for yet more killing. It’s sort of a crappy day to be undead.

Cat Ear Hair Dude puts Sunako in a suitcase (oh, anime…always putting girls in boxes) and insists that the Monk flee with her down some super secret path while CEHD distracts the mob. Monk asks why he’s so dedicated to Sunako and I find CEHD’s answer silly and unsatisfying, but whatever. Monk seems to like it.

The distraction works (humans are so dumb) and Monk takes the super secret open road to safety – which, shock of shocks, is not so secret nor very safe. He takes a different route and passes the Doc and his killin’ team…who promptly decide to chase after him. No really?

Monk heads for the temple and hides in a cupboard. When the killers show up and demand to know where he is, Monk’s family and friends plead ignorance – which is the truth, they haven’t seen him. But the killers don’t care for that answer so they declare them traitors and kill them. Monk comes out of hiding to find his loved ones slaughtered and decides to get moving again. Some guy attacks him with a cleaver, but he’s no match for our boy Monk, who escapes once again with the suitcase.

It’s not much of an escape, as he leaves an easy to follow blood trail, but he does manage to prolong the inevitable, so. He also abandons Sunako, presumably to the fury of the mob – though with night falling, maybe she’ll wake up and save herself.

One episode left!!! I imagine Shiki will end with more killing (and a forest fire, according to the preview) and all the vampires will be disposed of. That’s kind of a boring ending, but it seems to be what the series is building towards. Anything interesting will have to come from the way the characters face death (or not) and each other.

Who do you think will make it out alive? Who are we still going to lose?