unOrdinary "Investigation Arc" (Episode 18 through Episodes 28) Webtoon Review
Major Spoilers are included in this Webtoon Review. Please read with caution.
This arc had started making the mystery of John Doe a part of the series’ plot. In the aftermath of the “Turf War Arc”, Arlo—jerk boy—started growing curious about John Doe’s past and what he may be hiding from the rest of the school. The background news and activities of EMBER—evil group that targets vigilantes—were also creeping toward the surface, as more and more vigilantes were getting serially killed for being heroes.
Seraphina’s past and connection with John Doe were also explored through flashback scenes in episodes 19 and 20. I loved how ura-chan—the author—peeled back Seraphina’s past, and how she managed to stop caring about the “high-tier” expectations that were imposed on her at the school in the present day. Seraphina is easily becoming one of my favorite characters in the Webtoon.
Episodes 21 and 22 explored Seraphina’s reading of Unordinary and her roommate Elaine finding out about it. Elaine struggled on what to do with this information, texting Arlo about it. Remember, Unordinary was a banned book to stop the rise of vigilantes. The friendship between Elaine and Seraphina had been interesting one to read so far. Elaine clearly cares about Seraphina, but her close-mindedness about John creates a social barrier between the girls. John’s father made a cameo—through a phone call—to warn his son about staying safe during the EMBER serial killing pandemic.
An old character from the Prologue episode—Remi—returned in episode 23 and revealed her older brother was X-Static, the murdered vigilante mentioned in the “Beginning Arc”. The series had started to connect the dots for us regarding this recurring criminal activity and how the characters were affected, likely setting-up this EMBER threat to have lasting consequences on our main characters. unOrdinary’s definitely playing the long game.
Remi and John had explosive responses to the “Death Pool”—a list of vigilantes that the students thought would die next—being passed around the school. John’s dialogue bubbles turned black, and he started beating a high-tier student relentlessly. This led to Remi meeting with Seraphina and telling her to be careful out there, and Isen—Arlo’s lackey—investigating John further after witnessing what the cripple did to the high-tier student.
Episode 26 gave us more hints to John’s traumatic memory of the past. The current theory—even the characters Isen and Arlo were thinking it—is that John might have an ability. As a result, Arlo decided to take over the investigation personally by the end of episode 27. The build-up to Arlo and John’s eventual confrontation had been suspenseful, as their only interactions had been bumping into each other walking the hallway. Arlo had been playing nice in front of John Doe, but that may change soon enough.
Episode 28—the ending to the arc—showed Elaine had snitched to the Headmaster about Seraphina’s possession of the Unordinary book. Seraphina showed how loyal she was to John by making sure he didn’t get in trouble, using half-truths and deductions to pass the questions being asked of her regarding the book.
However, Seraphina was suspended for a month. This meant she had to go home and said her goodbye to John. I loved how the colors of the school turned gloom when Seraphina left, showing how John saw the school so bright and beautiful merely because she went there. With Seraphina temporarily gone, John’s perspective had turned dark for the worse. The ending to the “Investigation Arc” had ended on a very sad note.
Overall, the fourth story arc started moving the plot slightly while still giving us solid character moments from John, Seraphina, Elaine, Remi, Isen, Blyke, and Arlo. I’m excited and terrified at the same time to read what happens next to John without his best friend Seraphina there to protect him from Arlo. Like always, I’ll keep it reading and let y’all know my thoughts on the “Suspension Arc”, the fifth story arc.