Lupin the 3rd: Part II 17
Lupin III Part 2 17
ルパン三世 – 新シリーズ Ep. 17
Lupin Sansei Shin Series
Lupin III New Series

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Lupin brings the gang to an Arab, Middle Eastern oil country. He’s learned that unless the government pays $100M to a certain individual, the country’s oil fields will be blown up. While in their hotel, the bomber causes an explosion in a near by oil field. The country’s ministers hold a meeting, where it is revealed that an oil worker apparently had a pill-sized bomb planted in him.

Lupin shows up, disguised as the king of this nation. He tells the ministers to pay the ransom demand. After leaving, Lupin’s gang eludes Zenigata before going to the ransom site. The Minister of Oil and Minister of Intelligence drive up with the cash. They are met by a sheik and a lot of armed troops. Lupin makes his move, but the Minister of Oil gets the drop on Lupin. He reveals he’s Lawrence III, descendant of Lawrence of Arabia.

Lupin decides to get revenge on Lawrence. Having put a tracker on the cases of cash, he has Fujiko pose as a belly dancer. Lawrence has his men bring her to his tent. Lupin springs to take the cash, but again Lawrence gets the drop on him. Before they can be shot, Fujiko begs for her life. Lawrence decides he’ll use her for fun and agrees.

In Lawrence’s tent, he blabs that he’s really not Lawrence, just someone who wants babes and cash. The sheik’s men hear this and make their move. Meanwhile, Fujiko concocts something to make him pass out and have a pill bomb at the same time. The sheik sends Lupin’s gang off, where they kill “Lawrence” and discover more oil.

Thoughts/Review

Sadly, Lupin the 3rd: Part II 17 is another in a string of episodes that have an interesting concept, but poor execution. I’m not even referring to Lupin posing as the king. Obviously, such a ruse would be exposed fairly quickly. However, in the hands of better writers, people would let this slide. No, I’m talking about two other items that ruin the episode.

First is Zenigata. He has zero purpose in this episode other than “We must have Zenigata in this episode!” Had he been a consultant on the ransom threat, then that would have been different. As it is, Zenigata just happens to be in the same country as Lupin. Then he has to play the roll of a buffoon ’cause he has no purpose in the script. Therefore, Zenigata’s scenes derail the actual episode.

Second is the ending of the episode. There is zero reason for Lawrence to trust Fujiko. He’s portrayed as this very intelligent guy who outsmarts Lupin twice. I can buy him releasing her from the firing squad poll so he can bed her. However, I cannot buy that he’d just have Fujiko make him virility drinks. Further, why would someone so smart just suddenly decide to blab to Fujiko that he’s not really Lawrence of Arabia’s descendant?

Sadly, that’s what the writers had to do in order to get themselves out of the corner they were in. And conveniently, some of the sheiks men were listening in at Lawrence’s tent so that they could immediately react to the truth. Just rubbish.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part II 17 contains a gem of a story. Unfortunately, the writers failed to extract it.