[Enchilada645]

Feel like I could see a case for what you wanted to happen if the episode wasn't structured the way it was. Like if we had that scene at the office at the start and Shotaro and Philip were a cutaway gag, alongside Terui getting a call or something then yeah I could see it. But we focus on Shotaro and Philip's situation instantly.

I suppose what doesn't help (or maybe helps for you) is they cut a lot of preamble out from the Manga for the Anime that focused on the two more heavily so as to not have this potential confusion. And that's not counting what other dialogue they cut out to slim down on things.

-So first off, Terui explaining Murder's well, murder, was handled in the mini-case that was Manga exclusive, so we had to put it in here.

-The biggest and major change is how long we see Shotaro and Philip in the snowstorm. The two manage to find a cave and some broken branches to start a fire and plan a bit. There's some bickering, and Philip suggests he use Xtreme to fly and get the tools necessary to get them out, though Shotaro points out he'd be waiting for hours and doesn't want to be alone. There's even the suggestion to use Sokichi's cabin as a place to stay but the two had already long passed it and it'd be too dangerous to get back there so their only hope was an village.

Anyway this was a surprisingly fun start for the episode for me, especially back when this first aired and I had no idea of what went on in the Manga. The idea of our two in one Kamen Sing-er Detectives getting to deal with a classic Mystery Murder Mansion case? Sign me up!