4

For some reason, the genius L only said not to report that information to the media. But in the previous episode he had already concluded that Kira had to have access to police information.

Episode 3: L concludes that Kira can control the time of death and is flaunting it, concluding to himself that Kira must have access to police information (they were suspecting he was a student and he previously accessed this internally reported information).

L: But something's not right. As soon as we began to suspect that Kira might be a student, the pacing of the killings changed. As if to contradict that theory. Coincidence? No. Too convenient. This can only mean that Kira has access to police information. It's obvious now. This is a direct challenge to me.

Episode 4: Hacking into the notes for the ongoing investigation, Light discovers that L suspects they were tests and doesn't want this information reported to the media.

L: We can't release details of these men's deaths to the media [...] I have reason to believe that Kira was performing some kind of "test" using these criminals. And if that's the case, we'd only be giving him the results of this information if we put it public.

I missed this on my previous rewatches. Small inconsistency, isn't it?

quan2m
  • 41
  • 1
  • I think you should rewatch episode 10 of the death note for your answer. – Ch.Siva Ram Kishore Jul 02 '20 at 03:10
  • @kishore I see what you mean, but if you think about it, the scam pulled by L at the coffee shop would have worked either way. I mean that Light would not have thought of the possibility of a fourth note, still. Furthermore, I might add that L would have increased the chances of Light having an evident reaction to this new information. – quan2m Jul 03 '20 at 09:32
  • Cross-posted from SciFi.SE: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/233786/36437 – Aki Tanaka Nov 26 '22 at 12:37

1 Answers1

0

Probably because a public statement is different than a closed one. Preventing these informations from leaking into medias would avoid "indirect bragging" from Kira (by the intermediate of the police), and avoid depreciating the police's image as well.

Then, maybe L knew that Kira would see this note, and be provoked by L contradicting his image. Since ep2, we know that Light is really aware of his image as Kira.

Wise Man
  • 1
  • 1
  • Entirely agreeing with you @Wise, any public statement would have been a mistake, no argument about it. Regarding your last sentence, if you refer to the coffee shop scam of ep.10, don't you think it would have worked either way? Where's the difference in showing him the notes directly or indirectly? – quan2m Jul 03 '20 at 09:39