The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2

Episode 20

This arc was firing on all cylinders, blasting a lot of emotionally complicated, brutal familial flashbacks. Chise's trip into her past in season one was the devastating emotional climax of her entire arc to that point; a difficult but necessary experience that gave her perspective on not only her trauma but the circumstances that led her mother to hurt her the way she did. It offered no easy answers but allowed Chise to finally start rebuilding her life with her new family. Alcyone's trip down memory lane is less climactic, naturally, but it brings a similar mix of complicated, conflicting, and difficult feelings. There are no easy answers in the past for any of our characters, because the past is exactly what is dragging them down into the depths of hell.

It doesn't start that way. At first, Adam and Iris' family life is about as idyllic as this series has ever gotten. They care for their daughter and share in her smiles. They take joy in her happiness and welcome their pseudo-fairy nursemaid into the fold with plenty of warmth. They whip up some clever magic to help soothe her through a cold. There are some darker aspects, like how Iris was sold to the Sargants by her family to be Adam's magical guinea pig, but even that seems at first like a dramatic opening to their love story. This whole show is predicated on somebody selling herself to a mage so finding happiness in horrible circumstances is baked into its DNA. Even with the knowledge that things will turn south for them, Philomela's childhood and family seemed happy.

Only in the couple's final moments that we learn just how much of that was a cover. If they shared any true happiness, it was complicated, compromised, and existed under the shadow of how they first met. Whatever their relationship was, it wasn't founded purely on love, but on vengeful rebellion. Adam didn't merely fall for Iris's determination but saw her as a perfect co-conspirator for breaking out of his own home. The hex they both ingested was, by his admission, never about protection, but retribution for whoever ultimately killed them. Neither he nor Iris ever planned to truly escape alive, and they ended up getting exactly what they wanted.

It's a stark way to conclude that flashback and speaks to just how deeply the poison of the Sargants has seeped into the root bed of their family tree. Lizbeth raised her son to kill, lie, and destroy. Even after he escaped and made a family for himself, those lessons stayed with him. He seemed to know he'd never be free of her influence, and he'd rather die than ever return to that life. Iris' death is at least a bit more of an immediate sacrifice, taking a stand in the hopes of her daughter escaping the monstrous home that they never could, but it's clear she was always waiting for this ending alongside her husband.

That is the one bit of light in all of this. Even if Adam and Iris never fully escaped from the Sargants, even if their relationship was built on a foundation of anger and futile revenge, their love for their daughter was real. Whatever else they might have felt about their fate, they genuinely believed raising Philomela was “the most important task in the world”. They also desperately wanted to save her from the harm they both suffered. Yet thanks to Lizbeth's machinations, that love is now driving Philomela to destroy herself and leaving her only remaining guardian unsure of what to do. Philomela's transformation was always a tragedy, but now that tragedy bites harder, and truly sinks its teeth into flesh as she falls apart.

That's enough to fill an episode all on its own, but AMB is stomping on the accelerator, so we return to the present to (partially) resolve Chise's sudden confrontation with Morrigan. I had to go back and watch the pertinent scenes from season one since it's been so long, and it was there I realized we'd somehow constructed a pivotal plot twist in this episode around a joke. This interpretation of Morrigan is a goddess who dies and gives birth to herself each year at the winter solstice. This version of Morrigan first met Ruth as a child in the previous winter and helped him find Chise during a bit of drama with Elias. She then casually asked him for a mistletoe offering in return. Our loyal doggo forgot to forward that memo, and now a Celtic god of war is breathing down Chise's neck for her promised sacrifice. If this is an awkward time to collect a debt, well, far be it for an ancient Goddess to care about the time constraints of mortals.

It's certainly a daring move to set up a punchline 5 years earlier and pay it off in the middle of the season's climax, but I suppose that pernicious chaos is just as much a part of the world of wild magic. I'm also inclined to roll with it because Morrigan's arrival is fantastic. Chise thought she was storming the castle with a handful of teenagers, and suddenly found a spear-wielding, pregnant Goddess of battle tearing their enemies to shreds. It also brings Chise back to her season-long internal conflict, having to reconcile her non-violent nature with the fact that her adversaries are happy to spill blood. Morrigan is a being that thrives in – and is defined by – unrepentant violence. While siding with her is necessary, it's far from comforting. Chise chose her literal path of thorns, made it the symbol of protection to keep her loved ones safe, and she'll have to live with the blood those thorns draw.

Rating:

The Ancient Magus' Bride is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.