Hunter x Hunter Episode Ten

Leorio, when you're arguing for someone to murder a person in their sleep,
you might want to reevaluate your stance on the matter.

The majority of today's episode was spent confirming the result of the third fight. It seems that Kurapika's punch only knocked out his opponent, which becomes an issue when it was supposed to be a fight to the death. So, after Leorio tries and fails to convince Kurapika to murder his unconscious opponent, he starts the fourth fight with a woman named Leroute. It is a series of gambles, and after a couple of gambles confirms that Kurapika did in fact win his fight to officially give the Candidates a 2-1 lead. Meanwhile, there is a scene where a former Examiner tries to get revenge on Hisoka, and in the process loses his head. Hisoka then becomes the first Candidate to clear the third trial. Yeah, he's still creepy.

As for what I thought about this episode, for the first time I really felt like Hunter x Hunter was spinning its wheels. The first half was just an argument where we learn that Kurapika has some moral code that doesn't allow him to kill someone if he's not actively fighting back. Which is all well and good, but Leorio points out that it doesn't really help them out as far as getting past this challenge. Killua pipes in that he's willing to do it, like the good little psychopath that he is, while Gon agrees with Kurapika. Tonpa, as usual, is just sitting back and watching the fireworks between them. Thankfully the wheel spinning only lasted for half an episode, as the action picked up with the gambling. I'm looking forward to seeing how this mini-arc resolves itself. And I'm still picking the Candidates in 5.