Case Study of Vanitas Season 2

Episode 16

That screencap of Mur over there? That's an accurate depiction of my mental state for most of this episode. While perhaps not as well put together as previous episodes, this one gives us a lot of information as it reveals more of the truths behind the haunting of Gévaudan by beasts both human and non. The crux of the matter is of course that Jean-Jacques, not Chloé, is the real Beast of Gévaudan, a form he willingly took on in order to keep the woman who took him in safe from the monsters in human shape outside.

That truly does feel like the major takeaway from the reveal about the Beast and what made both Chloé and Jean-Jacques curse-bearers: there may be people out there who can take the form of a giant six-eyed dog or drink blood, but the real monsters are the ones who look just like you and me. The only reason that Jean-Jacques had to make a bargain with Naenia in the first place was because the Church was using a made-up tale of a monstrous dog to cover up their illegal vampire hunting operations, and Jean-Jacques couldn't bear that they would sooner or later come for Chloé. So he became a monster to fight the beasts, and I think we can all agree that his motivations were far purer than anything the Church was using as an excuse to kill vampires who weren't hurting anyone. Both cases are ruled by fear, but Jean-Jacques' is a fear of losing someone he loves; the hunters are simply driven by the fear and hatred of the Other.

If Chloé was aware of what was really going on, that means that her concern over her Jeanne's potential death when reports of a girl named Jeanne being killed began to trickle in, that means that she was less afraid that she killed her friend and more that the vampire hunts were in full swing again, trapping her in an endless loop of fear. That could be just as much behind the power that Naenia gives her in exchange for her true name as anything else—early in the episode, Vanitas comments that they're stuck in a time loop caused by a curse-bearer, and if Jean-Jacques is the Beast, then Chloé must be the owner of the frozen time. If she cuts off time around the time of the actual Beast's first appearance, then she can keep herself and Jean-Jacques safe by ensuring that he takes out the king's musketeers every time they come, and that no one else can break into her closed world. She and Jean-Jacques may be stuck in an unending 1767, but that's a price that she's at least temporarily willing to pay to keep him safe, because what Chloé fears most is loss.

Where do Noé, Jeanne, and Vanitas fit into all of this? That's a very good question. Jean-Jacques forces Noé to drink his blood so that he'll be forced to bear the burden of memory after Jean-Jacques and Chloé are gone, something the other man seems to see as a given now that Jeanne has arrived. But what he couldn't have planned for is Noé's nature—Vanitas may want to cure vampires, but Noé is much more of a universal savior: he wants to, as Jane Austen put it, “ensure that every body…is restored to tolerable comfort.” If he could work out “happy,” I daresay he would, but Noé has also shown that he's not going to just let people die as a first step. We see that as he tells Vanitas that Chloé should be cured no matter what, and while Vanitas says that he's willing to help because he needs to get his book back, the truth is more that he admires his friend's earnestly good heart. Vanitas has an endgame; Noé just wants to make sure that there are no more Louis.

This whole episode reminded me of a play by Alphonse Daudet from the 1860s, The Romance of Little Red Riding Hood. In it Red is stuck in an endless loop wherein she goes to Grandma's house to be eaten by the wolf, day after day after day. No one can save her, though a few do try. She's resigned to her fate, although no one else is. Chloé seems like she may be playing her part in this story, and whether or not she even wants to be saved at this point is up in the air.

Could the time loop explain Vanitas' missing hourglass earring? Why do so many vampires have what we call in my house “put down disease” (when you just put something down and forget about it)? And what will turning Naenia human and killing her actually do for those whose true names she has stolen? Chloé seems to have some idea, but that could also just be her throwing herself into the jaws of a different wolf in order to escape the first one.

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The Case Study of Vanitas Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.