Episode 2, Bonus Scene 1 : Tea Party in Purgatory
Rosa wakes up in the same parlor-like "Purgatory" we saw last time. She's very groggy and can barely move. Beatrice shows up and thanks her for her tenacity in denying her. What could the witch offer her for this ?
Flashbacks to Rosa's childhood. Basically, each of her siblings treated her like shit : Krauss abused her physically, Eva verbally, and Rudolf did both. Which explains a lot about her psychological problems.
Beatrice offers Rosa a superb meal. In Rosa's state, this is more like force-feeding, actually. Especially once the witch lets the penny drop : the wine is actually Krauss's blood, the "salad of tongues" is made from Eva, the main course is Rudolf, and the dessert is Maria. Rosa hated them all, right ? So there's no problem...
Rosa is completely horrified, and tries to spit out. After a while of this cruel torture, Rosa breaks down and finally acknowledges the witch Beatrice. Has the Golden Witch finally won ?
No ! She's kicked by Battler : Rosa's struggle has helped him regain his spirit, and he's ready for another round.
Episode 2, Bonus Scene 2 : The Witches' Tea Party
Beatrice notifies Bernkastel that she's noticed her meddling, and gloats that it was useless. She's now brought in Lambdadelta, Bernkastel's arch-rival, to better counter her moves now that she's getting serious in fighting Beatrice.
Alone, Berknastel gives a motivational speech to Battler (I presume : the scene actually looks like she breaks the fourth wall and addresses the player). She's been in his position before (the toy of a cruel witch), and empathizes with him.
Then, it's Lambdadelta's turn to encourage Battler against Beatrice (!). After all, Lambdadelta's goal is to get back the position of "most powerful witch" taken by Bernkastel. If Beatrice wins against Bernkastel, LD won't gain anything. Or will she ? Her powers are more suited to fighting Beatrice than Bernkastel (a "rock-paper-scissors" analogy is made). Anyway, Lambdadelta warns Battler that Beatrice is currently torturing Rosa, which presumably leads to the end of the previous scene.
My thoughts on Episode 2
Well, this was certainly different from Episode 1. While the former could still be argued to have a rational explanation despite all the mysteries, it's all out of the window for this one. It makes Battler's position all the more uncomfortable, of course. In the previous episode, Beatrice's existence could easily be denied. Here, she's everywhere, and the supernatural elements are completely undeniable. One may take the position that all the death scenes are some sort of hallucinations, and the culprits are really human (which implies that at least Rosa would be an accomplice for the last few ones). But it would completely gut the plot and the meaning of the story. If you can't take Kanon and Shannon's heroic struggles at face value, what's the point ?
Conversely, it would be too easy to fall in witch's trap where she tries to fool us into thinking she controls everything. That's obviously what she wants and needs us to believe, so it must be false. If you pay attention, there's something very screwy with the order of the last few ritual murders. It looks like this : Kumasawa & Dr Nanjo, Gohda, George & Shannon. But the ritual knives are in a completely different order in the prophecy : Shannon, Gohda, George, Dr Nanjo & Kumasawa. There's absolutely no reason for this discrepancy, so it must hide something.
Another interesting thing : we have yet again no idea of the context for the first six deaths. Given the amount of detail we get for the other ones, this also must mean something. My current opinion is that there's an human factor for the first six murders (which, again, points to Rosa), and the identity of these people forces the remainder of the plot. But this is mainly speculation.
There's also something slightly strange with Beatrice. She has two forms : the otherworldly, "witch" one (with a dress), and the "mysterious guest" one (with a suit). I first thought the "guest" Beatrice could be an impostor, but both Shannon and Kanon recognize her as the same person. Still, there must be a special meaning to this (the "guest" Beatrice only appears in casual scenes, while the "witch" Beatrice only appears when something supernatural is going on).
Finally, Beatrice states clearly that she noticed Bernkastel's meddling. Well, good for her, because I haven't seen Bernkastel's touch anywhere. What did she do ? Who did she influence ?
On the whole, I'm completely nonplussed, and have no idea where the story can go now. Battler is stuck in his denial posture, and I cannot see how he could get out of it. Let's hope Bernkastel and Lambdadelta's open interference will spice things up...
Don't take me wrong : I tremendously enjoyed this episode. The opening scenes were a lot less boring (the Shannon/George romance is goofy, but in a good way). Beatrice steals any scene she appears in (I just love her cackle sound effect and her various leitmotivs : they're delightfully smug and creepy at the same time). All the supernatural scenes are completely made of win, despite their silliness (arc blades ? WTF ?). There's just a slight ending fatigue (it gets very depressing once Battler appears to give up), but that's it. Also, Rosa's characterization was impressive : she's put in a situation similar to Natsuhi in the original, but her behaviour is a lot less sympathetic. The woman has serious psychological issues.
Next part : I don't know. I've finally caught up to the present, and won't make much progress in Episode 3 for several days. Maybe I'll comment on the first anime episode.
