EPISODE 2 : Turn of the Golden Witch
We open with a series of out-of-order setup scenes about the Shannon/George romance. I'm not going to bother following the original order, and will just do a summary in chronological order. It'll be shorter that way.
- George and his parents come to visit Rokkenjima (the parents want to discuss some business or other). For the first time, she notices how kind George is to her, and begins developping feelings from him. Eva nearly immediately intervenes to discreetly discourage her (she's only a lowly servant, "furniture"). Depressed, Shannon gets clumsier, is scolded, and becomes even more depressed. Kanon (who views her has a sister) tries to comfort her, but to no avail.
- Shannon, in punishment for her clumsiness, has to clean the room where there's Beatrice big portrait. There, Beatrice appears in front of her. She thanks her for the care with which Shannon cleans her portraits, and offers to give her George's love. Just one condition : destroy the mirror in the island's old shrine. Kanon barges in, and is very defiant of Beatrice. She offers him the same deal with Beatrice, but he refuses. The witch disappears.
- Later, Shannon indeed destroys the mirror. We're later told that the shrine is destroyed by a freak lightning bolt soon after. Her relationship with George progresses, and she has regular meetings with Beatrice. The witch has given her a love-helping talisman, and she offers it to Kanon.
- It's made clear that only a few people can see Beatrice in her current "phantom" state, especially before the mirror is broken. It's explicitly stated that Grampa cannot see her even when she's standing right in front of him. (She affects to find him pitiable for this reason.)
- We jump to Shannon and George in an overnight trip at Okinawa (actually, this is the first scene in the chapter). They're wearing some very awful casual clothes : George looks really stupid in a T-shirt, and I won't even comment on Shannon's outfit
◊. Anyway, they tread a fine line between lovey-dovey and embarrassed. At the end, George announces he'll propose an engagement to her at the annual family conference.
- Later, Shannon discusses the trip with Jessica, who's a bit jealous of their love. She pretended to her schoolmates she'd bring her boyfriend to the school festival, but she has none. Shannon suggests for Kanon to pose as one, and so he does.
- Jessica has been secretly taking guitar courses, and fronts one of the bands at the school festival (she sings Tsuru Pettan, which is an awesome sight). Kanon discovers his feelings for her. Anyway, thankfully her parents haven't heard about this.
- Jessica starts flirting with Kanon, but he turns her down. Hard. He's very self-conscious of his position as "furniture".
- Kanon is furious against Beatrice for encouraging the Shannon/George couple, as well as a Kanon/Jessica relationship. He destroys her talisman in front of her. She's very open about her intentions : she's screwing around with them because those doomed relationships are fun to watch.
Thinking about it, all these flashbacks are much more about Kanon than Shannon. Oh, well. Also, a good reminder of how evil Beatrice is.
Anyway, we finally come to the day of the family conference. We get an explanation of why Rosa and Maria were late for the plane : Maria was being difficult, Rosa beat her up, they made up, and Rosa went around town to buy her some candy (and so they missed a train correspondence).
This scene is a very good examination of how broken the Rosa/Maria relationship is. In the past, Rosa used to cede to every of her daughter's whims, which obviously spoiled her. Now Maria's completely unbearable, which of course annoys Rosa and makes her resort to physical violence in desperation. But it doesn't work at all : Maria thinks an evil witch has possessed her caring mother, and just waits for the storm to pass. She never learns anything. Then Rosa feels remorse, and spoils Maria more than ever to assuage her guilty conscience. And then the cycle continues.
Though her flaws are understandable, Rosa is a terrible mother. And she knows it.
And now we're back to the opening sequence of the first episode. Actually, we skip a large portion of it, and it's made clear that it's a different scenario through careful dialogue alterations (this time, Maria is obsessed with Halloween).
The "Maria obsesses over a random rose" scene goes slightly differently. She starts blathering about Halloween again, which leads to another beating by Rosa. She chases everybody else, and goes back to the mansion's "adult discussion" after that. It starts raining a lot sooner (it's not lunchtime yet), and this time Rosa remembers she left Maria alone outside immediately. She runs to her daughter, which means that overall she completely misses the siblings' argument about the inheritance.
Rosa finds Maria still in the garden... and then they both meet Beatrice. In flesh and blood, apparently : she even has a different costume (something that barely resembles a cross between a business suit and a western schoolgirl uniform, instead of her usual fancy dress). Anyway, she does a magic trick in front of them, and gives them a sealed enveloppe each. And then goes into the mansion through the front door.
Genji greats her as an honored guest, and leads her to a special guest room. They meet Kyrie on their way, and they exchange a couple of words. Beatrice's especially arrogant, and Kyrie is left nonplussed. She warns Rudolf, Eva and Hideyoshi about the new guest, and they can't decide whether this is a trick by Krauss or Grampa.
Kanon confronts the witch while bringing her lunch. She threatens to kill Shannon & George as part of the "couple of deaths", but accepts not to do it if Kanon licks her shoes and convinces Shannon to refuse George's engagement ring.
Nothing much happens during the afternoon.
Shannon brings the witch dinner. She completely refuses the deal, and states that Kanon was foolish to accept. I agree : there's nothing in the deal preventing Beatrice from killing Shannon & George at any other point in the ceremony.
In the main dining room, it finally comes to light to all that there's someone calling herself Beatrice in the guest room. (At this point, only Rosa, Maria, Genji, Kyrie, Kanon and Shannon have seen her.) Krauss and Natsuhi were obviously not aware of it, and everyone starts wondering if this is a ploy for the inheritance. The discussion is getting quickly ugly, so the children are chased to the guesthouse.
Later, in an isolated room, George gives an engagement ring to Shannon, who accepts immediately.
(ellipsis)
Late in the night, Beatrice has somehow gathered Krauss, Natsuhi, Eva, Hideyoshi, Rudolf and Kyrie (but NOT Rosa) in the small chapel beside the mansion. She's apparently shown them something that makes them acknowledge her as the Golden Witch.
edit:Rosa IS present in that scene, and even in the "where's everybody at midnight" montage later she's still in the chapel with the others (but not Beatrice, who's back in her room). Hum...
Next part : The second day of episode 2, and things go completely insane.
