"Face the Midnight Sun and Fire" note with the English title of "Twins Pique".
In Stockholm, a sleep-deprived Zenigata approaches a police car and asks for a place to take a nap, as he’s been unable to sleep properly due to the Midnight Sun’s light. As he tries to sleep, he explains to the agents that he’s after Lupin, who’s been spotted in the area, looking for something, and rambles about what he could be after. Unknown to him, Lupin, Jigen and Goemon passes nearby, as the thief explains his plan: during the Midnight Sun’s season two beautiful spy ladies named Latika and Anita square off against each other in a duel to the death for the map of a secret treasure buried somewhere in the Swedish islands. As predicted by Lupin, the two girls engage in their ritual duel, first by plane, then on ground with guns and later knives. The two sisters are even, but as they clash for the last time Goemon interferes and disarms them. Lupin tries to talk some sense into the ladies, but they refuse and leave, ready to duel again another time, but they both failed to notice the tracking device Goemon planted on them both as they clashed.
Later, as Latika is enjoying an evening at the local park she’s approached by Lupin: the thief informs her that he has decided to lend her a hand since her sister has hired the infamous killer Shirage. Latika eventually accept Lupin’s help, while Anita encounters the white-haired Shirage in order to discuss the price of his service, mentioning that Latika has likely employed Lupin for the same reason. Suddenly he hears something and throws his set of knives at the door, nearly nailing Jigen, who was eavesdropping. The gunman returns to the hideout, telling Lupin that he thinks Shirage is too dangerous to face, but the thief doesn’t seem worried the least. The following night, Latika goes to a cabin in the woods where Lupin is waiting, while Anita encounters Shirage in a very similar cabin. Both men asks their respective lady to put on a special skin-tight bullet-proof suit, only to pull out a camera as they unrobe, revealing a strange mark on their backs. Lupin and Shirage take their pictures, revealing that they’re actually the same person in one room, divided in half by a special reflective membrane. With the pictures of the sisters’ backs taken, Lupin makes his getaway while Anita and Latika are powerless. However, just outside the cabin they run into Fujiko, who’s in company of a mysterious man, and offers the two help in finding the treasure and end their pointless rivalry.
Back to the hideout, Lupin explain that they’re after the treasure of the legendary Viking Blemblatte, a warrior who amassed a massive amount of gold and hid it in a cavern on a small, hard-to-reach island. Then a fisherman, Yutika and Latika’s father, found the treasure cave but decided to keep its location a secret, which he only revealed on his deathbed to his beloved daughters. He then had the two girls exposed to a special ray made by a scientist, Georg. Said ray causes a map of the island to appear on the girls’ backs, but only during the Midnight Sun’s season, and only for a brief period of time.
Thanks to the pictures Lupin took, now the trio can get his hand on Blemblatte’s treasure, reasoning that without the treasure the two sisters won’t have any reason to keep fighting. The following day the three thieves set off for the treasure island, but we also see Fujiko, along with Latika, Anita and the bearded men, sailing the sea, not to mention Zenigata in a submarine (where he’s finally able to sleep peacefully, since it’s always dark); the two girls wear backless outfit, and soon the marks appear on their backs. However, said markings soon disappear and are replaced by two different markings, with the man taking pictures of them. The old man, who’s Georg himself, explains that the first markings are fakes, and the second ones are the real maps, only appearing for a short time after the first one. Now that it has been exposed, the map will never appear again, and Georg suggests splitting the treasure equally between the four of them, with the women agreeing.Back at the location of the fake treasure, Lupin and his friends have dug the whole place up unsuccessfully, only to witness Fujiko’s group passing nearby, telling him that they have the real map. The thief stoically admits his defeat, but before he can do anything else a submarine emerges and Zenigata, riding a torpedo, launches himself at Lupin, forcing the gang to flee once again.
This Episode contains examples of:
- Artistic License: A giant reflective curtain dividing a room in half? Cool but... how come the two women aren't reflected into it?
- Blade Enthusiast: Both Anita and Latika know how to use a knife. Shirage the Psycho for Hire also has an entie bandolier of throwing knives.
- Clothing Damage: Anita and Latika during their knife fight end up slicing a bit of the former's cleavage line.
- Combat Pragmatist: Anita and Latika's only combat rule is: do not shoot each other in the back.
- Crazy-Prepared: Latika has a hidden blade in the handle of her knife. Their father also made two differen "maps" on their back, the first to appear being fake.
- Creator In-Joke: Oh! Production inserts their name a few times in the episode, particularly on the license plate of Anita's car and the cameras Lupin and Shirage use.
- Duel to the Death: Latika and Anita meet routinely to perform one using planes, then guns then knives, though so far, obviously enough, they failed to kill each other.
- Dynamic Entry: Zenigata's most boisterous attempt to capture Lupin to date, he rides a torpedo at him!
- Graceful Loser: Lupin takes the loss of the treasure in stride, giving that for once he was wrong.
- Horny Vikings: Blemblatte is shown as a stereotypical viking in flashbacks.
- Knife Outline: Shirage does this to an eavesdropping Jigen, nailing the back of his clothes to the door.
- Laser-Guided Karma: For once, Lupin's egotistical plans ends up costing him the treasure he was looking for.
- Living MacGuffin: Latika and Anita, due to the special maps drawn on their backs and visible only under certain conditions.
- Master of Disguise: In an outstandng example, Lupin manages to be himself and a completely different stranger in the same room with two different people.
- Out-of-Character Moment: While normally Fujiko does betray Lupin to get all the loot, this is probably the first time ever where she's in to genuinely help the two sisters and agrees to share the treasure equally between her, the sisters and Georg, the scientist.
- Plot Hole: It's not mentioned how Latika and Anitas's father, an old fisherman, could have found the money to afford the medical procedure to draw the maps on their backs, though it's implies that he used a small part of the treasure to afford the operation.
- Punny Name: Shirage in original Japanese is a pale assassin with white hair, a pun on Kurage, which means Jellyfish, a poisonous animal, with Shira (white) in lieu of Kura (black).
- Sibling Rivalry: Between Anita and Latika. Surprisingly enough, is Fujiko who helps them stop this feud.
- Shout-Out: Both titles are this, as the original Japanese is a riff on the Japanese title for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ("Face Tomorrow and Shoot!") while the dub title is a pun on Twin Peaks.
- "Take That!" Kiss: Anita and Latika blows several at Lupin's gang after having outsmarted them.
