Spoilers: the ending of Kogoro in the Bar, Bourbon’s disguise, Shuichi Akai’s staged death, and the later Scarlet arc.
Conan panics because he realizes that Tohei Benzaki was Bourbon in disguise. The apparently ordinary man who approached Jodie in the preceding cherry-blossom case had placed himself close to a conversation about Shuichi Akai and Rikumichi Kusuda. A detail that seemed harmless could now help someone investigate Akai’s supposed death.
The bar murder has been solved. Conan’s larger problem has just become more dangerous. That abrupt change is what gives the ending its sting: while Conan was working out one crime, another investigator had been working on him and his allies.
What was Amuro doing?
The important reveal concerns the earlier appearance of Benzaki, not a secret role in the poisoning at the bar. Tooru Amuro, operating as Bourbon, used Benzaki’s appearance to approach Jodie and raise the subject of a scarred man resembling Akai.
The disguise let him test a reaction without openly announcing his interest. Jodie could respond to an apparent witness much more freely than she would to someone she recognized as an organization operative.
Conan learns something from Detective Takagi after the bar case and connects the impersonation to that earlier encounter. The danger is retrospective: information may already have escaped before anyone knew there was a reason to guard it.
At this stage, Conan does not have the later reassurance that Amuro’s real identity is Rei Furuya of the Public Security Bureau. He has to read the approach as a move by Bourbon, an exceptionally capable person with a reason to challenge Akai’s death.
The bar mystery and the larger mystery
Kogoro in the Bar takes place at the Blue Parrot pool bar, where Kogoro and Conan become involved in a poisoning after a request from the bartender. Its manga chapters are Files 853-855 in Volume 81, chapters 3-5 within that volume. The anime adaptation is Episodes 791-792 (Japanese episodes 738-739).
A popping sound, a citrus-like scent, an oddity near the ceiling, and evidence on Kogoro’s shoe belong to the immediate murder. They help Conan reconstruct the crime in front of him.
Benzaki’s disguise belongs to a different investigation. It concerns the FBI, Akai, and the secret Conan is helping protect. The poisoning does not need Bourbon to explain its solution, but its closing scene lets the main storyline enter at precisely the moment the audience expects relief.
Kogoro at a bar provides a relaxed, slightly different setting for a familiar deduction. That makes the final intrusion especially effective. The case can end neatly while the episode itself leaves us uneasy.
Why the mention of Kusuda matters
Rikumichi Kusuda is connected to the deception at Raiha Pass. His name is therefore more dangerous than a passing reference to an unrelated organization member. Someone questioning Akai’s death could use it to look for a weakness in the account of what happened.
Conan’s alarm is not simply embarrassment at failing to detect a disguise. He is considering what Bourbon might now be able to infer: whether Akai is alive, whether the evidence of his death can be trusted, and who helped arrange the deception.
Those are separate questions. Hearing a useful lead does not mean Amuro already knows the complete plan, Akai’s location, or every part of Conan’s involvement. The ending establishes a serious risk of exposure, not proof that all their secrets have been discovered.
That uncertainty is enough. Conan has spent the case reading tiny inconsistencies with confidence. Now he has to imagine what another sharp mind might do with one of his own unguarded conversations.
Was Bourbon also testing Conan?
Investigating Akai’s survival is the clearest purpose of the approach. The Mystery Train storyline had given Amuro reason to question whether Akai was really gone, and Jodie was an obvious person through whom to test that suspicion.
Watching Conan is a plausible second purpose. If a threatened Conan contacts Jodie or moves to protect someone else, the reaction could expose a relationship without a confession. An investigator can learn from what a person does after a question as well as from the answer.
However, the scene does not confirm that every part of Conan’s later response was a planned test by Bourbon. The possibility explains why the disguise is so effective without requiring Amuro to have predicted every move.
Nor does it establish that Amuro knew Conan was Shinichi Kudo. Recognizing an unusually intelligent child as an important ally of Akai is a narrower conclusion than discovering the child’s real identity.
This is a satisfying reversal of Conan’s usual role. The observer becomes someone whose behavior might be evidence. Bourbon barely needs to show his hand for the balance of the encounter to change.
Why the preceding Jodie case matters
Jodie’s Memories and the Cherry Blossom Viewing Trap sets up the encounter that Kogoro in the Bar reinterprets. It spans Files 850-852, from Volume 80 into Volume 81, and Episodes 786-787 (Japanese episode 734).
Benzaki approaches Jodie while the question of Akai’s fate is already emotionally charged. Mentioning the scarred man places pressure on precisely the subject Amuro wants to investigate.
When the impersonation is exposed, those earlier words stop looking like an incidental contribution from a case witness. The reveal does not need to replay the whole conversation; knowing who was speaking changes its meaning.
The bar story creates a useful interval between the approach and the realization. For a while, attention shifts toward a new murder. Then the larger investigation returns, and the apparent distance from the FBI storyline vanishes.
How the ending leads toward the Scarlet arc
The Scarlet arc turns Amuro’s questions about Akai’s death into a more direct confrontation. The Benzaki episode is an earlier step in that process: approach someone close to Akai, introduce a revealing subject, and gather material for a theory.
The later explanation of Amuro’s identity complicates the threat rather than making the earlier fear foolish. He is an undercover Public Security Bureau operative, but that does not mean Conan could safely assume he was a trusted partner at the time of the bar case.
Amuro’s overlapping roles also explain why this part of the story relies so heavily on performance. Café Poirot employee, private detective, Bourbon, and the man disguised as Benzaki can all be the same person while presenting very different reasons for being nearby.
The tension comes from who is allowed to recognize which role. Conan’s final realization arrives after the access has already been granted.
A useful order for following the reveal
- The Mystery Train storyline supplies the background to Amuro’s renewed doubts about Akai.
- Jodie’s Memories and the Cherry Blossom Viewing Trap shows the approach in disguise: Episodes 786-787 (Japanese episode 734).
- Kogoro in the Bar reveals why that encounter was dangerous: Episodes 791-792 (Japanese episodes 738-739).
- The Scarlet arc develops the investigation and the explanation of Akai’s staged death, with major revelations in The Scarlet Return and The Scarlet Truth, Episodes 835-836 (Japanese episodes 782-783).
Seen together, the sequence makes Amuro’s pressure feel cumulative. There is no need for one miraculous leap to the truth; he gets closer through disguises, conversations, and other people’s reactions.
That is why the ending stays memorable even after the disguise is no longer a surprise. The murder is over, yet Conan has to reconsider something he thought was safely in the past. The most threatening clue in the episode is a clue that may now belong to someone else.
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