User blog comment:Jkphantom9/Volume 3 Episode 9 Preview/@comment-5426254-20160114004156

So it's really Mercury. Sigh, this is kinda dumb for Cinder and Mercury to do the exact opposite of what they did in the previous matchup.

If the end really means a day or two, why on earth should Cinder give the order in the first place?

And since up until now, Mercury has yet to be seen as stupid, why would he disobey orders like that?

And Emerald could just easily let Ruby pass to talk to her, unless the villains are incompetent at hiding their match fixing too.