Constance will have to infiltrate yet another location, and this time, we’re attending an invitations-only, masked ball. It will be a decadent, immoral party full of guests with secrets — secrets that our girl can leverage to pay off her family’s debts. But first, she will need Scarlett’s old mask, because this will encourage people to come up and talk to Constance. I just find the whole thing a bit silly, because Scarlett’s mask is so indistinct. There’s nothing about it that stands out. You’re telling me that there are still people who would recognize such a plain-looking mask, and connect to Scarlett, a woman who died years ago? Sure.
But the whole mask thing is just a metaphor for Constance’s personal growth. She does not live in a just society, so her family’s righteous, sincere philosophy can only take her so far. If she truly wants to succeed, she’s going to need to become like Scarlett in more ways than one. Sometimes, Scarlett literally possesses Constance. Sometimes, like for this upcoming party, our girl will simply need to don Scarlett’s old mask. Sometimes, she even pretends to be a maid in the Castiel household. I can imagine our girl wearing many disguises throughout the course of this series. But what’s important is that no matter how far down the rabbit hole she goes, Constance remembers to stay true to herself.
After all, Scarlett got herself killed, so it wouldn’t be wise to become her completely. Constance will need to find a happy middle ground between her old, timid personality and her new, aggressive personality. This is best demonstrated halfway through the episode. When the party gets raided, a woman, whom we know only as Jane, bumps into Constance and falls to the ground. All of a sudden, her wrist starts bleeding. How the fuck? But putting aside the realism of the scene, we now have a woman in need of medical assistance. Scarlett’s primary instinct tells her that Constance needs to run, but the girl doesn’t heed the pragmatic advice. Instead, she lingers, because she’s clearly a good soul who can’t find it in herself to abandon a random stranger in need.
In the end, Constance gets “caught,” but this allows her to bump into Randolph yet again. All of a sudden, he proposes an engagement. Ah, I knew there would be some romantic component to this story. It is a villainess anime, after all. I don’t know how old Randolph is, but I have to imagine that’s he a bit more mature than Constance. After all, this will be his second marriage. I’m sure the society being portrayed by this show wouldn’t be bothered by large age gaps between couples, but it certainly bothers me. Nevertheless, even if this is only a fake engagement that both sides can eventually annul, Randolph’s family is apparently a big deal. In other words, this will pay off her family’s debt. And of course, this fake relationship will somehow turn into a real one. I can already imagine it: over time, Constance will get to know Randolph and see that there’s a sweet, caring man beneath his gruff exterior. She thus fall in love with him. See? Her being a good person pays off in the end. Not only does she save both a woman and her family, she finds herself a man.
It’s just funny how Scarlett thinks Constance will now abandon her, because the latter’s debt problem has more or less been resolved. Scarlett comes from a world full of self-interested individuals, so she can’t imagine putting anyone putting themselves in danger for the sake of others. She thought Constance only helped her out of guilt. But no, it’s not about guilt. It’s simply about helping others in need. Scarlett helped her, so she’s paying it forward in multiple ways. Constance literally just saved a complete stranger at the ball, so why wouldn’t she continue helping Scarlett? Thanks to Constance’s influence, Scarlett will have plenty of opportunities to learn to how to become a better person. Death is no end to personal growth, it seems.
Constance’s engagement also opens up new avenues of investigation, because she now gets to exploit Randolph’s connections. Right off the bat, their sudden union leads to her coming face-to-face with the crown prince, Scarlett’s former fiancé, and Cecilia, the woman who stole him. The latter is so outwardly friendly that it feels like a facade. Sure enough, Scarlett reveals that Cecilia used to have quite a nasty disposition. I mean, you gotta have one if you’re going to steal another person’s fiancé. But there isn’t much to read into a person’s character from such a brief encounter, so that’s all I can really say about Cecilia for now.
Right before the episode ends, both Constance and Scarlett have an encounter with the king. What is with all that talk about a flower sprite and saving the dead? Is Scarlett (as Constance) implying her own innocence? That’s what it feels like to me, but she also adds that the “affairs of wildflowers are no concerns of [hers].” Who are the wildflowers now? All this double-speak, man. I’m getting dumber and lazier in my old age. I don’t have the patience to pore over every clue and decipher every line of dialogue. I’ll just wait ’til next week’s episode.
Stray thoughts & observations:
- Hm, lots of exposition in this series. This week, we get a history lesson that delves into Scarlett’s ties to Faris’s imperial lineage. I hope I can remember all these details. It’d be no problem if I could simply marathon this show from start to finish. But watching it weekly, while also digesting 10+ other shows, it can be a bit difficult to keep all of the relevant details organized in my head. This is a mystery, and as such, it has a lot of moving parts.
- What a self-deprecating man.
- Oh, it’s that tattoo again. We learn latter that this ties you to the Daeg Gallus organization… whatever that means. On the surface, they seem to be guilty of human trafficking, but it probably goes deeper than that.
- Huh, Scarlett can somehow manifest an electric shock when Constance is in danger. I wonder how… and why. Just magic ghost powers, I suppose? Kinda like being haunted by a stun gun.
- Under Scarlett’s advice, Constance keeps Lily’s mysterious letter and key a secret from Randolph. He knows she’s lying, but he doesn’t press the issue. Constance seems like the sort of person who would eventually spill her secrets once you earn her trust, so maybe this is his angle.
- Welp, you can’t fault this guy for his diligence. That’s why I can never become an investigator. I never would have thought to check there.
