Secrets of the Silent Witch

Episode 9

This week's episode of Secrets of the Silent Witch is spent focusing on the aftereffects of Casey's attempted assassination of the Second Prince. The issue Monica is facing is that, despite Casey objectively being an enemy of the Kingdom in general and trying to kill Monica, Monica still sees the girl as her friend.

This, more than anything else, has made Casey take pause. She's off to spend the rest of her life at a nunnery (if you believe Louis' words, anyway, which I 100% do not). But while she doesn't regret what she tried to do, she does regret the effect it has had on Monica. Casey is one of the few people in the world to know both sides of Monica—the socially awkward girl suffering from the effects of child abuse and the greatest mage of their age. Casey wants to make her exile/execution easier on Monica—tries to goad Monica into replacing her sadness with hate or apathy. But, unfortunately, that's not the kind of person Monica is.

Thus, Monica is left to grapple with her own feelings of loss. She is forced to do horseback riding alone—a sport she chose specifically to spend more time with Casey. Her only real comfort is the idea that she'll see Casey once again in the future and can tell her of her experiences riding. But that's only one side of the emotional pain she is facing.

On the other side, she is dealing with her regrets over the whole situation. She knew early on that Casey was acting strangely, yet she never confronted the girl. If she had, perhaps the whole assassination plot would have been exposed in its infancy, dissuading Casey from doing anything rash. Of course, we know that things were never going to turn out so simply. Casey was far too committed to her cause to be swayed from her path—and I'm sure that, deep down, Monica knows this too.

Then come the unexpected consequences of her actions to cover up the assassination attempt. By keeping Casey's name clean, the blame for the dangerous falling boards falls on Cyril instead, making him both feel guilty and dirtying his name slightly in the process. Worse still, she can do nothing to fix this. She has hurt one friend to save another—and can't do anything more than apologize endlessly in a sea of tears.

This episode also gives us a bit more info about why Felix has shown an interest in Monica. Be it consciously or subconsciously, he sees his younger self in Monica—back when he was a boy who could do nothing right and was fully accustomed to the hate and indifference thrown his way. He's clearly grown in surprising ways since then (and the “why” and “how” remain a mystery), but we see that he's driven to play a positive supporting role in Monica's life.

Then there's the extra layer that Felix is a massive Silent Witch fanboy. The idea that she is at the academy and working to protect him personally—well, he's the happiest we've ever seen him on screen. He's practically gushing about the possibility of meeting her. I'm sure he'll find out the truth one day, but that looks to be a story for far down the road.

Rating:

Secrets of the Silent Witch is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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