Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Season 2

Episode 21

It's redemption time, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Admittedly, the writing has been on the wall for much of this season – among other things, Lafalle Fenn Lafalle's arrival was a pretty clear catalyst for Bridget to change her ways. Her stubbornness, which prompted her to buy “Gladus” to replace Challe, backfired on her spectacularly, and he turned out to be a classic way to show her what happens when she reaps what she sows. And awful as she was, she certainly didn't deserve to be abused by him. Now that his true colors have been exposed to all and sundry, Bridget is being forced to reckon with her own behavior. It's hard to blame her for refusing to take Anne's hand in friendship (or at least forgiveness) because by most markers she doesn't deserve it. By recognizing that and acknowledging how terrible her own behavior has been, Bridget is making a real step towards growing up, and her speech to the wounded Orland does more to show that she's heading towards change than almost anything else would have. That he doesn't speak words of forgiveness, which it would have been easy for her to brush off, but instead shows her by grasping her hand is a good sign. Bridget can't change in a vacuum, but Anne's not the right person to help her do that – and Orland just might be.

Anne is, however, well-placed to help bring Jonas back into the light. Does he deserve it? I'm not sure. He did get punished for doing the right thing back at the Radcliffe Workshop, which may have been his just dessert, but where he is now is looking an awful lot like rock bottom. It's also something that lacks a bit of impact because of what was cut in the adaptation of volume two of the light novel; Jonas' relationship with alcohol was covered there and makes his return to it in the face of personal disaster hit harder. But little as I like him or Cathy, it still is striking to see him filthy and living on the street while she tries desperately to save him. The fact that she latches onto Anne immediately (well, almost immediately) says a lot about how distraught she is, although, at the end of the day, Cathy is willing to do anything to save Jonas from himself.

The whole thing is orchestrated to make Anne look like a better, more compassionate person than anyone else in the series. Assuming you don't find her offers to Jonas and overtures to Bridget to be hopelessly naïve, it does more or less work. And the Paige Workshop is a good place for Jonas because its paucity of artisans means that he has space to shine. Even Kat acknowledges that his skills are solid, even if his personality sucks. And with Orland down for the count and Lafalle doing his best to garotte Elliot and kidnap Anne, they're going to need the extra hands.

This is a particularly tense storyline. I still think that the church may have set Paige up to fail by sticking them in Holly Leaf Castle and I'm not buying their face-saving offer to buy out the workshop to give the commission to their preferred artisans. But Elliot's complete faith in Anne does a lot to soothe that whole mess (that smirk on his face!), and quite frankly we do need the tension to help ramp up the Lafalle situation. Why Lafalle is so keen on Anne isn't clear yet, although I'm not discounting that he simply wants to antagonize his brother. There's still hope for the Paige Workshop because Noah's back on his feet and surely Bridget could be taught to grind sugar without her father's knowledge, but the Anne/Lafalle/Challe situation is much more dangerous. I'm a little worried that next week will delve back into the sort of lame attempts to discuss slavery again, but this was still an excellent episode that shows what Sugar Apple Fairy Tale can do when it wants to.

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Sugar Apple Fairy Tale is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.