Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc

Episode 4

I regret to inform you that our dear Sebastian may have been mistaken. After consulting several Victorian medical texts, including my copy of The People's Common Sense Medical Advisor in Plain English or, Medicine Simplified by R. V. Pierce, M.D. (1878), wrapping bacon or other pork products around the throat does not appear to have been a common medical practice. Tincture of Opium for virtually everything else? Absolutely. But even The Practical Home Physician, the closest Victorian text I could find to the book Sebastian showed Sieglind, doesn't include bacon. Although a different text I own from the 1870s does suggest rubbing raw beef on the scalp to regrow hair…

While I wouldn't call this a rare misstep for Black Butler - after all, Sebastian fits the definition of valet better than butler – it is an interesting one in this particular episode, given that Sebastian's table manners lecture is pretty spot-on. But it is a good distraction from the darker themes at play in this season, one of which is Finny's past. The Phantomhive gardener has been thrust into the spotlight with Ciel's current state; as the youngest member of the group, he's the only one Ciel will allow to touch him in his present delirium. Finny is somewhere between one and three years older than Ciel (Toboso has been a bit coy on that front), and that reads as safer than an adult to the other boy. Sebastian mentions to Sieglind (who is fortunately also around Ciel's age, so she can treat him) that Ciel was intended to be a human sacrifice in a devil-worshipping ritual, and while that doesn't answer the question of why he's either calling someone else Ciel or speaking of himself in the third person, it does explain why adults aren't to be trusted. Given Finny's past as a human experiment, he's not only the right age to tend Ciel, but also the person most able to understand.

It also allows Finny to live up to his namesake. In his memories this week, we see that Ciel named him out of The Fenian Cycle, a collection of Irish folklore about the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicized as Finn MacCool. Finn (also the inspiration behind Finn in DanMachi) is one of the great heroes of Irish lore, and in giving him this name, Ciel also gave the previously unnamed boy an ambition. Maybe it's not the sort of heroic ambition we're used to seeing (he's not talking about saving the world), but it's still important; saving Ciel is saving Finny's world, after all. This is his heroic moment, and if it's about modulating his strength to not blow hot milk in Ciel's face, that's more than enough.

It may also be easier to see as a hero move than Sebastian's current actions. While everyone intellectually understands why he's functioning as Sieglind's butler, seeing the reality of it is a little tough to take. Wolfram feels displaced, the village women are mistrustful, and the Phantomhive household just feels…icky about it. But Sebastian is unquestionably serving Ciel by ingratiating himself with Sieglind, and he'll sew her as many dresses out of bed curtains as he has to if it'll bring him closer to the truth Ciel has been tasked with finding. That truth may very well lurk in the secret cellar he's found. I can't help but worry that it's a Bluebeard's closet situation, but if anyone can handle that, it's Sebastian.

Rating:

Dub Thoughts: Since I couldn't find a way to naturally work in the dub assessment above, I'll put it here as a postscript. As viewers of earlier seasons know, Black Butler's dub is very strong, to the point where I couldn't blame someone who wanted to wait to hear J. Michael Tatum and Brina Palencia and their positively plummy accents. This season adds the German characters to the mix, and while Sarah Wiedenheft does a good Sieglind, her accent can be a bit too strong for easy comprehension. That may well be intentional, and it will be worth revisiting the dub around episode four to see if that's the case.

Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.