Let’s read Umineko: episode 2: part 10

originally posted at https://canmom.tumblr.com/post/163153...

So where we left off, narrative!Battler (as opposed to meta!Battler) was arguing with Maria. Now, a scene with Sayo [Shannon] and George in the gazebo where, in the previous episode, George gave Shannon the wedding ring. They’re talking about… who else, Beatrice?

Interestingly, Sayo lies to George about her history with Beatrice. She’s a surprisingly skilled liar, not letting anything on about the magic deal or the argument she had with Beatrice. She makes it out as if Beatrice was a ghost story that she believes in, not someone she’s dealt with before. She pretends she didn’t talk to Beatrice when bringing her dinner.

Beatrice, the narration says, has in fact sown seeds of doubt in Shannon over whether there’s any hope of things lasting with George. George witters on about not yet having his ‘castle’ to take Shannon back to. He wants her to wait three years before moving in with him. (Surprisingly specific.) In any case, his discussion reassures Shannon that he’s serious about marrying her.

Shannon saying to George in a gazebo, “So it’s like a sales contract, saying 'This woman is mine, nobody toucher’.”

Sayo seems surprisingly happy with making this ‘sales’/’ownership’ metaphor? straight people are weird. George straight-up agrees - the narration calls it a ‘little rough’. Shannon is… into it? Yeah. Straight people, what gives. [2022 note: lol. I really thought gay people wouldn’t enjoy this kind of play?]

Anyway, they kind of conclude engagement is basically equivalent to actual marriage for them. OK. I respect that they say God, parents and the law are secondary to that. George says some sappy stuff about growing old together.

Presenting the ring gets a CGI.

Closeup CGI of Shannon crying, saying “……Show me………that future, ………please.”

So yeah, she says yes. Soundtrack turns up maximum Romanticness. None of that ‘til death do us part’ shit either: they want to be together forever.

Kanon is still pushing the ‘no we’re still furniture you idiot, only going to the Golden Land makes us human’ line :(

Sayo presses Kanon on the ‘why do you want to become human’ line and of course, Kanon wanted to fall in love as well and has been told by Beatrice that that requires becoming human in the GL.

Sayo standing in an indoor corridor. “…That’s where you’re wrong. ………We may be furniture. We may be less than human. …But I learned that doesn’t mean we aren’t qualified to love.”

Kanon comes to an epiphany.

“I was just frightened!! I…… was just afraid, and thought that if love could not be eternal, I was better off not knowing it!!”

Sayo affirms the value of temporary, ephemeral things. Kanon cries

I want to give Kanon a huge hug. The hugest hug :(

Cut to Beatrice, who’s out in the rose garden for some reason. She takes the chance to mock Kanon. She talks a bit about the situation: it’s not a ‘chess problem’ but a game on ‘equal footing’. If the players metaphorically run from her advances, all that will happen is repetition.

She also says the rules for her loss have been established. As before, it means solving the portrait riddle. She elaborates that, when solved, this can be used to ‘destroy the ritual and overthrow’ her.

I guess that’s the end of Beatrice’s move?

Now we’re in the chapel. This is the first time we’ve seen it. It is, typically for Ushiromiya stuff, far larger than it needs to be.

The adults are here, for some reason. They’re all agreeing to something in relation to Beatrice. Possibly whatever was written in Rosa’s letter? They’re all telling someone they respect them, and have to accept it. Rudolf says whoever it is has ‘proven devils’. Metaphorically, perhaps.

Sure enough, it’s Beatrice herself. She’s shown herself before the entire group. And what they’re agreeing to is Beatrice’s existence.

The narrator is certainly on Beatrice’s side.

Beatrice and Kyrie in the chapel. Kyrie looks nonplussed, Beatrice vindictive. The narration says ‘The reality—the being—that was before her eyes…couldn’t be denied. Devils had already been proven…!’

We still haven’t seen Beatrice’s proof that she’s a witch, not merely an actor. And we don’t get to. We just know that Kyrie, who’s almost as defiant and skeptical as Battler, was persuaded.

The chapter ends with a montage of almost all the characters, showing their locations in the house. They are:

The clock advances to 6am, also known as discovering-bodies o’clock, probably. Tomorrow, we’ll find out who didn’t make it.

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