Shadows House Season 2

Episodes 11-12

Saint Anthony, I'm told, is the patron saint of lost things. And my, hasn't there been a lot of loss inside the walls of Shadows House, starting, as far as Kate and Emilico are aware, with Shirley and Rum and ending with one of the Belles, leaving a sole twin to be the face for two Shadows. But the biggest reveal of these final two episodes of the season isn't that Christopher numbers among the lost, because we knew that, but that Anthony, his living doll, is not. Or rather, he's lost to those who would harm him and put paid to his plans of fomenting a rebellion on the children's wing. Only Maryrose knew that he had survived after Christopher's suicide, and she and Rosemary have been hiding him ever since…until he decides to reveal himself to Kate and Emilico, the pair he sees as his next best hope.

While episode ten did its best to dupe us into believing that Maryrose was the true mastermind behind everything, episode twelve lets us know the truth – that Anthony is the one carrying out the plans in a bid to end the system of oppression Lord Grandfather rules over. And I think that if he could pull it off without involving any of the Shadows, he would. He was definitely shaken by Christopher's death and knew that Maryrose was his best hope of survival in the aftermath, but when he tells Kate that he's a human being, there's an anger in his words that says that he resents what has been done to him and the other “dolls.” He and Christopher may have been a true team in the same way that Kate and Emilico are, but the betrayal he felt from all Shadows has to have been immense. When he talks about how Maryrose and Rosemary threw themselves out the window, he doesn't see it as them going out on their own terms (which is I think how many viewers saw it), but rather as them giving up. They're done fighting, and that means that Anthony has to find new allies, stronger ones. And if what he feels is anger towards Maryrose and Rosemary, does that mean that he feels the same resentment towards Christopher? Christopher may have killed himself to save Anthony by preventing him from having his body taken over, but that seems to be a gift Anthony didn't want or couldn't appreciate in the moment. Even if we give him a pass for residual trauma, there's a good chance that he feels abandoned by his Shadow. Kate and Emilico, therefore, are particularly appealing to him because they're good at playing the game (or at least Kate is) and are unlikely to give in to despair. If they agree to help him, they could easily be in it for the long haul.

That seems to be something Kate is really thinking about. She's maneuvered around Barbara beautifully, and her steadfast belief in Emilico – along with the return of some of the girl's memories – have helped Emilico to continue to stand up for what she thinks is right. Barbie can kick her all she wants; Emilico isn't going to just lay there and take it. Both she and Kate are fighters, and maybe that's what Anthony has been waiting for all this time, slipping through the cracks in the structure of the house like a Borrower. Would he and Christopher have been more like Kate and Emilico had Christopher survived? Would Barbara and Barbie have turned out differently had Barbie's face not been scarred, thus banning the two from ever growing up? It's impossible to know, but it's clear that someone has to break the looking-glass so that everyone can see what's really going on.

Anthony has a plan, but he doesn't seem like sharing. Kate has a goal, and Emilico is right there with her. Barbara is broken and Barbie's propping her up, and no one knows if Maryrose and Rosemary survived their fall. It's a good thing the manga is finally coming out in English, because if there isn't another season, this was one hell of a place to end. The doors of Shadows House may be closing for now, but until the glass shatters, the dolls will remain trapped in a fairy tale that doesn't have a happy ending – patron saints notwithstanding.

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Shadows House is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.