Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2

Episode 4

Frieren and Stark spent the back half of last episode planning the perfect date for Fern. Stark would take her to all the places she would like—fun shopping, tasty food, and beautiful views. There is just one problem. The two mistook the true reason for going on a date. While having fun is important, the purpose of a date—especially a first date—is getting to know each other better.

While this may seem a bit silly in context (as Fern and Stark have literally spent a year together at this point in near-daily proximity to one another), the fact of the matter is that they are coworkers before they are anything else. Thus there has always been a kind of distance between them. Sure, they hang out often outside of work but how much of that is simply because A) there is no one else around or B) they don't know anyone else in their current location? A date is about opening up on a more personal level—moving beyond the professional or even the friendly.

Herein lies the problem Fern has with the date: it's all about her. It's catered to nothing but her likes and interests. Nothing they see or do is remotely related to Stark. They don't, for example, go help out random strangers or play with the village kids. She learns nothing about him through where they go or what they do. Moreover, their conversations are all inevitably drawn to their work and the most interesting aspect of it, Frieren herself. The distance between them doesn't close at all. At this point, she is left wondering what is different between her dragging him around town to her favorite spots and a “date.”

While Stark doesn't fully understand how and where things went wrong, he is at least able to pick up on the fact that they did. He explains that he worked with Frieren to try and plan the perfect date and he's sorry it didn't work out.

This is the exact moment when Fern finally gets what she's been looking for: a peak into Stark's soul—insight into how he feels about her. He cared about her enough to do everything he could to try and make her first date special. It may have been misguided but he obviously put in a ton of effort—even seeking help when he was worried he couldn't do the idea justice all by himself. She has seen him give his all in battle and here she sees that same single-minded focus pointed at her. The date, as constructed, was a failure—but in that failure, it becomes a success.

The back half of the episode is, sadly, much weaker. It is designed to do two things and little more. The first is show that the Northern Plateau, even a few hundred yards from the wall, is a drastic step up in difficulty. The monsters are more numerous and the demons are both smarter and stronger. There is a reason that only First Class Mages are allowed to pass: it's just that dangerous to those not accustomed to living there.

The second point of this part of the episode is to explain why the party didn't just ride a boat north like Wirbel and company did. Seeing how dangerous the Norther Plateau is, even Stark wonders why people live there at all. The answer is simply that it's home. The people were born and raised there and don't want to give it all up for a safer life south of the wall. The reason for walking north is simply to help these people out. They need adventurers desperately since most ride the boat and bypass the area.

Of course, this idea, like so many, is something that Frieren learned from Himmel—something she is now passing on to the next generation in his stead. The reason for her journey may ultimately be a selfish one but that doesn't mean that the journey itself should be as well. Frieren knows now from experience that the journey is as important as the destination—and that the journey can help many beyond their small group of travelers.

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Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.