The Ministry of the Occult is performing a play about Coco Rose the previous Queen of Sauvill. At the same time Kazuya is shopping in the city for a Christmas/birthday present for Victorique she is being summoned to the theater to solve the countries’ greatest mystery that is presented in the show. While watching from the shadows Cordelia and Brian Roscoe reminiscence about how this has all come to be and what Albert de Blois has taken from the both of them. Will history repeat itself separating Kazuya and Victorique as had been prophesied?

The Case

We kind of and kind of don’t have a case, this is more a setup to a case that will surely be more flushed out in the coming episode. Coco Rose ties into the last big mystery of the alchemist and I like her already. Of course she is long gone and the play is merely setting up her legend for us to relive. Beyond that, this installment features a lot more connecting the dots of Cordelia and Brian’s history. I have to say I am really won over by their relationship, but maybe that is because Victorique’s dad is the evilest evil. The more information we get, the darker and creepy this whole story becomes, much more than I imagined.

The clouds are certainly gathering for the upcoming storm. Brian Roscoe seems rather close to his grand confrontation with Albert de Blois but at the same time Albert seem to be finally starting whatever plan he has centered around Victorique. I am curious how solving the infamous enigma of the royal family ties into Albert’s fiendish scheme. Perhaps he wishes to win the favor of the royal family by solving this old mystery once and for all. I do find it interesting that each of the previous books are feeding into this story. The madness that came out of WWI and the fascination with the occult to prepare for war are introduced in the first book along side the fact that Cordelia meets Julie Guile in the psychiatric facility. The stigma of the Grey Wolves and Brian Roscoe come from the second book. I assume that the Blue Rose in the title of play is the same Blue Rose from the third book. Coco Rose and Leviathan are referenced as a part of this play building on the pop up book from the 4th book. And finally the 5th and 6th books introduced the war between the Ministry of the Occult and the Science Academy plus the memento box of Jupiter Roget. It also explains perhaps why the Gosicks books are a separate line as their mysteries don’t tie into this final grand mystery and confrontation.

Final Thoughts

Both Victorique and Kazuya have tender and sweet moments separately but about each other in this episode. Each is showing more readily that they care, this is especially true for Victorique who goes tearing through the school trying to find Kazuya. In other relationships department, we have wonderful scenes between Brian and Cordelia as well. I still think this poor man is going to bite it, but I hope he gets some vengeance before then. And then we have a nice scene with Grevil when he comes to ask Victorique for her help. Despite the disturbing history of the episode there are touching moments all around.

I joked that the title for the post was how many ways can we say rape without saying rape. If there was any doubt that Albert de Blois was a very bad man than the question is completely thrown out the window now. To find he did not even attempt to court Cordelia but merely kidnapped her and had his way with her until she produced a child takes him to an all time low. We also get to see that definitely Brian Roscoe has always been a good guy if a bit jaded and bitter after his confrontations with the Ministry of the Occult. Other than that I was happy to see Kazuya’s whole segment with buying the pendent. It was a great sign of how much he cares for Victorique and wants to protect her. Although when you sit down and think about it that whole scene is also very ominous and mostly a harbinger of ill omens. That and the scene with the wall of intelligence was fairly amusing as a little levity was need to contrast the grim nature of Cordelia’s back story. Mostly I am ready to see what this grand solved caper is. Victorique has proven herself by solving 2 cold case files so now she can go for a hat trick.