Warning: The following contains spoilers for Blue Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati Saga, Episode 2, "Where Secrets Are," now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Similarly to the season premiere, the second episode of Blue Exorcist Shimane Illuminati Saga seeks to set up the rest of the season. This time, the secrets run deeper through hidden motives and powerful enemies in the shadows.

The long-anticipated third season of Blue Exorcist is officially underway. The Shimane Illuminati Saga is a favorite among those who have read the manga, and the intrigue throughout the first two episodes illustrates why. The season's second episode mixes another less serious assignment for the main crew while following bigger secrets and events through the show's other more senior characters.

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Secrets and The Illuminati

The episode starts with Yukio Okumura reporting to the Directors of all the branches of the True Cross Order. Before they ask Yukio anything, they make it clear that he is not to ask questions and that he is not to say anything about the meeting to anyone. In order to ensure that he meets the terms of the agreement, they make him sign a Morinath contract. A Morinath contract is backed by a demon, meaning that if the target breaks the contract, the demon will hunt and kill them. Yukio agrees by sealing the contract with his blood, and the questioning begins. Following this, Lewin Light simply asks him about Saburota Todo and what he thinks about him personally. Once he answers the questions, he is allowed to leave.

After Yukio leaves, the directors talk about his situation briefly. Shura asks if it was really necessary to bind Yukio to a Morinath contract since he passed his physical, to which Arthur A. Angel replies that it was all Lewin Light's idea. Balthasar, one of the supreme advisors of the True Cross Order, says they must investigate further for the demons that Lewin Light mentioned in his briefing about his and Arthur's trip to Yemen. Meanwhile, Yukio is left wondering how he passed his physical, despite the fact Satan's blue flames appeared in his eye last season.

The episode then shifts focus to the main crew and the cram school. Yukio and Shiemi reflect on the old days of tutoring back when she was in junior high, and Yukio delivers the gang's next mission to get rid of another demon haunting the school grounds. Unlike the last demon they took out, the new demon only reveals themselves only to women and resides in the women's bathroom.

As a result, Izumo and Shiemi have to take the lead in the fight. Izumo then reveals how she hates that she feels she owes Shiemi for saving her because she doesn't intend to get close to anyone but Noriko Paku because of her goals. When Izumo and Shiemi confront the demon, Izumo feels this is her opportunity to pay Shiemi back. However, that plan goes awry when her familiars, Mike and Uke, refuse to help her after she interrupts their offering for the mission. Shiemi ends up getting Mike and Uke to change their minds by offering them rice created by Nee. Mike and Uke quickly dispel the demon to save Shiemi from danger.

Meanwhile, Arthur A. Angel, Lewin Light, and other members of the True Cross Order are battling their way through a compound when they see a portal open. Lewin Light reveals that it is the gate to the demon realm and that whoever is behind it has figured out a way to open it without Satan himself. Mephisto then freezes time and space over the gate, halting the breach for another four to five months, according to his estimations. When the group wonders who could have opened the gate, Lewin states that the gate was opened by none other than the Illuminati. The scene then shifts to Saburota Todo congratulating the Commander-in-Chief of the Illuminati for managing to open Gehenna's gate.

The first two episodes have raised a ton of mysteries surrounding this season. What is Mephisto's end game? What do the Illuminati and Todo want by creating their own gate to the demon realm? Why was Yukio put under a Morinath contract? These are the kinds of intrigue-provoking questions that fans desire out of any show, and the Shimane Illuminati Saga is delivering them.

Blue Exorcist is available to stream on Crunchyroll.

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