WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Shadows House Episode 4, "Watchers in the Night," now streaming on Funimation.
Episode 4 of Shadows House picks up the morning after the events of Episode 3, where Emilico's cleaning squad fought a terrifying phantom made up of hundreds of soot scorches that almost killed their group leader, Rosemary. Barbie, the Star Bearer who led the charge, is looking for a scapegoat among the children. Phantoms only appear if soot gathers in enough quantities -- which, in her mind, means one of the Living Dolls has not been doing their job correctly. She immediately fixates on Rum, a very timid girl, putting the weight of the incident on her shoulders.
Mia, Emilico and Shaun speak up in Rum's defense, but Barbie kicks Mia in the stomach and a boy called Rick punches Shaun, so all the other dolls remain silent. As punishment, Barbie dictates that Rum, Shaun and Emilico will stay up at night and patrol Noble House to find the gathering soot that created the phantom -- or else. The first few nights pass without incident, but on the fifth night, the children get separated. Emilico and Shaun, trying to find Rum, step into the long corridor that leads to the front door and discover that it's rigged with deadly traps.
The corridor had first appeared in Episode 2, during Emilico's first tour of the Great Hall. Mia joked that the long, dark hallway went on forever. Rosemary quickly added that it does not literally go on forever, but that Emilico should never step inside unless someone directly orders her to do so. Almost every conversation Emilico has with Rosemary is peppered with strange restrictions and the reminder that she shouldn't be thinking too hard about the reasons behind them. Her only concern is how to best serve the Noble family, and everything else is trivial.
Still, the environmental storytelling is weaving a prison tale. The Living Dolls access their rooms through crawl spaces, which are locked from the outside when night falls. Their "beds" are iron coffins with a barred window and a very heavy lid. Access to the kitchen and basement is restricted, and they can only eat if taller, veiled Dolls deliver food to their cells -- or if their masters are feeling generous. The few windows only show the inner courtyards of the mansion, and even the younger Shadows are supposed to stay in their rooms. Even "debuting" won't grant them access to the outside world, only to a different building. And now, the hallway leading to the front door is brimming with traps.
However, the traps' existence implies the brainwashing program must have failed in the past -- or that whoever is behind Noble House's oppressive system is anticipating its failure in the future. After all, if all the Dolls and Shadows were perfectly compliant, no one would try to escape. Alternatively, the traps might be there not to keep the Dolls in, but to keep something else out of the house at any cost. But if that is the case, what could scare the Shadows so much?
Shadows House, based on the manga by Somato, was created by CloverWorks, directed by Kazuki Ōhashi, written by Toshiya Ōno, with character design by Chizuko Kusakabe and music by Kenichiro Suehiro and is currently streaming on Funimation.