Damn, things are already moving quite fast! I’m not sure if I’d describe it as ‘rushed’ at the moment, but there were definitely some scenes that came off as bizarre to me because of the way it unfolded. Needless to say, they aren’t wasting any time.
In the beginning of the episode, Constance was still reeling from everything that had just transpired the night before, along with the fact she’s speaking to the ghost of none other than Scarlet Castiel.. She isn’t really given much of a choice to say no to serving as Scarlet’s agent to uncover the culprit, and anyone else who is complicit with framing her for a crime she did not commit. She reluctantly agrees to do because it wouldn’t be like her to not return a huge favour to Scarlet, who gotten her out of a very bad situation.
That said, it does speaks a lot about Scarlet’s true character over the fact she’d choose to leverage Constance being in her debt and her family’s motto of “Grail sincerity” against her as opposed to threatening to simply possess her without her consent. All Scarlet is looking for is cooperation on figuring out who was behind framing her with a crime she did not commit.
They begin with looking to gain intel from people who know Scarlet back then. The first person that came to mind was to consult Scarlet’s supposed childhood friend, Lily Orlamunde. But unfortunately for them, she had died to years ago. It was said she had committed suicide by drinking poison in her family’s chapel. However Scarlet knows for a fact that she’s far too prideful to do something like that unless things gotten out of her control. So now their first mission of their investigation is to investigate why Lady Lily (by their current belief) had been murdered.
The plan of getting into the chapel where Lily had allegedly killed herself was actually fairly simple. Constance was able to pass off as a maid, and thanks to “accidentally” falling into the fountain, she was able to obtain the nun’s uniform to pass to enter the chapel in disguise. And since it has already been two years since Lily’s death, their main objective was to look for something Lily would have left behind. Sure enough, Scarlet was able to perfectly pin-point an envelope hidden behind the picture frame in the chapel. Inside it, contained a golden key and a ripped piece of paper from a tourist pamphlet with the following printed on it: “Destroy the Holy Grail of Eris”.
Right now, they don’t know where or what the key is for. The only thing they do know is the knowledge of the about Eris, the goddess of discord and strife in the Myth of Faris (Adelbide’s neighbouring region), said to be a wicked deity that’s said to have driven a nation to ruin.
Well, a lot of things can come to mind when you think about that. The first thing it makes me wonder if the legend is referring to Lady Cecilia being “Eris”, who’s now the Prince’s lover. Is she from the Faris region, and is she a plant or her character responsible for stirring up trouble in Adelbide to the point she could potential have a hand in leading it into ruins?
Then there’s also part about the Holy Grail. Is this an object or a plan? Needless to say it is interesting that we have a ‘Holy Grail’ and then Constance Grail’s family name to bear in mind. It’d be interesting to see whether or not her family has any skeletons in the closet, or something they are protecting related to such.
Anyhow, it might be a while before they make progress on this matter, until the ‘Holy Grail of Eris’ pops up again during their investigation.
But there was also one more clue that wasn’t included in the envelope Lily left behind, but rather something she passed onto the children of the orphanage. It’s the spell “Kiriki Kirikuku”. Lily had taught them before she died, if anything happened to her and people come asking about her, they must recite the spell. If they have a reaction to it, then that’s their red flag to know they are dealing with very dangerous people and they need to gather everyone and flee.
And sure enough, by the end of the episode we do see a woman speaking the spell,“Kiriki Kirikuku”, following a secret rendez-vous in the Godwin’s garden between Aisha Spencer’s “special someone” and a woman with a suspicious sun tattoo on her breast, handing him a vital which is probably safe to assume is poison.
Now if I had to take any guess, it looks like the guy might be looking to kill off– or heck, may already well be in the process of killing Aisha. I mean that woman looked incredibly sickly with that gaunt face and blue bags under her eyes. He had even left her shortly after they arrived at the party as just after Constance finished greeting Emilia, we saw Aisha on her own looking for him.
While finding clues had been coming along rather swimmingly this episode, they have found themselves noticed by someone Scarlet refers to as ‘her nemesis’. That is none other than Lady Lily’s husband, Earl Randolph Ulster, also known as ‘The Lord of Death’.
Unfortunately for them, Randolph is super sharp. Almost nothing gets past this guy. He’s good at noticing the slightest changes, people’s face and every detail about them. He didn’t waste any time trying to trip Constance up with a test about the boys at the orphanage, deliberately mixing up Tony’s and George’s hair colour to expose that she’s not nun. Constance almost did walk right into it, but Scarlet was quick on the uptake to remind her who’s who. Although she manage to overcome that hurdle, Randolph’s suspicion remained because she ended up exposing herself due to in-grained habits. He’d later confront her again at Lady Emilia Godwin’s party to call her out on that claim, where yet again Scarlet has to come to her rescue. Yet even with Scarlet in control, had it not been for a sudden incident where one woman attacked another for having an affair with her husband, I doubt he would’ve let them go as easily.
Speaking of Emily Godwin’s party, while they weren’t able to achieve everything they had set out to do in this event, they did get one thing. Emilia told them the following: The seventh division of inmest Mars. At the old Montrose residence. The invitation is in Earl John Doe’s hat. Along with it, she warned them that only the ones who survive are the winners. So it seems to suggest whoever sticks their hand into whatever this invitation in Earl John Doe’s hat is, it means getting involve in something very dangerous.
Overall, while there were some things I enjoyed this week, it didn’t didn’t wow me as much as the first episode. Some of these things they are finding at the moment feels a bit too convenient. Like, with how easily they managed to find the envelope taped behind the painting, and then getting that clue from Emilia without any real suspicion as to why is Constance Grail of all people suddenly asking about Scarlet? I just found it so bizarre because realistically, to outsiders: why would Constance suddenly asking about why Scarlet was executed? Isn’t it strange for her to mention that out of the blue? Or are we supposed to believe she has learned from the inner circles of who was close to who ten years ago? I don’t know, but the way this scene unfolded with Emilia just going along with the flow of it felt very weird to me. Perhaps there will be a better explanation/set-up for this in the coming episodes, who knows. I’ll wait and see.
Either way, as I’m covering five shows at the moment, and then there’s still Love through the Prism I need to take a look at (which I’ll look at later if I have time, or in the upcoming days considering all twenty episodes are already released), I will give this show one or two more episodes and see whether or not it I want to continue covering this. As much as I’d love to, I can’t cover six shows, and five may already be pushing it. So we’ll see which ones will be on the chopping block within the next week or two.
