So, when the seagulls cry…
Early on in the series the constant changes to the story and the multiple scenarios seemed like nothing more than a cruel slice of horror and gore. “Was it a witch, and if so which witch?” How was the author going to reconcile the fantasy with a mystery that should have been solvable without tricks and magic?
In one of the arcs previous to this final one, the reader is presented with what turns out to be the actual events of the crime. At the time we aren’t sure if that is just one solution, the solution, or a hypothetical. It isn’t even clear if the truth matters. It matters in the context of the two key figures trying to get to the heart of the mystery, Battler and Ange. This means that Ange’s struggle is real, her suffering is real, and that ultimately the fate of her family is her burden to carry.
The solution, and explanation, is ingenious. In the idea that all of Sayo’s washed-up bottles full of murder scenarios, plus the fakes circulating and the spread of the internet, the idea that the possibilities of what happened are endless. A million armchair sleuths pondering the crime over fifteen years until Ange tracks down the key to the mystery… it’s a very smart framing device. The imaginary friends of Ange’s, her overactive mind, and coping mechanism created an even more varied tapestry of figures. Sayo’s multitude of personalities comprise the other half of the fictional cast, and thus we have the space for infinite possibilities.
We knew through a cameo appearance in an earlier arc that someone survived from the island massacre besides Eva. The male person is exactly who we thought it was, Battler. He was struck with amnesia and reconstructed his past via his experience with online theories about his family’s deaths. The trauma is inescapable for him, he disassociates and becomes a different man. When we learn how he survived his fate feels even more tragic. Yet Ange’s anger is completely understandable. There’s a very real chance that Ange and Battler’s reunion might never have come or might have come too late.
I have to say, as a cat lover, I’m not exactly fond of how Bern became the enemy of the truth. Although with the mystery constantly referred to as a Shrodinger’s Cat Box where everyone was either alive or dead until proven otherwise would be vexing to a poor, innocent, and lonely cat. (In reality, I suppose Bern would be quite jealous of her master paying more attention to Battler.)
The tragedy could have been prevented. There were true innocents involved in this horror show. George, Jessica, Maria… their deaths were meaningless, tragic, and cruel. There’s no escaping that. We were given a glimpse of a future where Lion and his family lived happily, content, rich with warmth and life. Yet the darkness was inherent even in the context of the happiest outcome, Lion would still have been a child of incest. The fortune would still have been founded with Nazi gold.
The ultimate tragic figure is Sayo… or whichever name you want to call the heir of the Ushiromiya family. Sayo, Sharron, Kannon, Lion… Beatrice. In the end, she decides to become Beatrice the Witch. Yet they are all of those people and none of those people. An orphan, a maid, a servant, furniture…. a truly tortured soul who can’t escape a fate that, to them, is worse than death. Battler’s silly childhood promise to take them away from the island is the one hope for a child who was born both poor and rich. Mutilated, bullied, a victim and a perpetrator. A person denied their heart’s one desire to love whom they wished, because they are no longer a man or a woman, and worse, those that they love are family. Beatrice can’t live with her guilt. She instead departs and in doing so takes a piece of Battler with her.
The siblings find healing in writing. They both have to give up who they were in order to find happiness. They are able to forgive and honor their family, in all of their complex and flawed ways. They weren’t good people, but they weren’t evil either. They were no doubt broken, but they had each other and ultimately, at least in Ange and Battler’s minds, found closure.
I have to say, I had my doubts that the story would come together in the end, but it did, and I’m glad I stuck it out through the rough early middle chapters where it was nothing but lunacy and violence.
