The Holy Grail of Eris

Episode 3

If there's a villainess, there must be a heroine. That's the law of narrative causality right there – the two roles are the two faces of a coin, eternally spinning and never touching the ground. Scarlett, we know, was cast as the villain ten years ago, and this week we meet the woman who was granted the heroine role: Cecilia, now married to Scarlett's old fiancé, the crown prince. Years of consuming villainess media has primed us to be suspicious of Cecilia, or “Cess” as she too-chummily tells Constance to call her. But the roles in The Holy Grail of Eris aren't quite that clear-cut. Scarlett didn't try to kill Cecilia, but she wasn't necessarily a good person, at least not the way Constance is. And Cecilia allowed Scarlett to be executed for her purported crimes – but does that make her a strictly bad person?

Scarlett seems to think so, but one of this series' standouts is that it's never clear-cut. Constance is the most, well, constant character, but that stems less from her internal measure and is more a result of being sheltered. She's definitely more on the good side than not, but it could also be said that she doesn't really know herself. In fact, if you'd asked her if she'd be sneaking into orphanages and mansions before she met Scarlett, I'd bet she would have said no. And just as Scarlett is bringing out some of the bravery Constance didn't know she possessed, Constance is letting Scarlett show off her true self, the one society never saw. Because underneath the glittering girl who painted the town red, there was a teenager who loved her older brother and distrusted the woman who would go on to steal her fiancé. Scarlett wasn't just a vixen; she was a whole person with thoughts and feelings. After all, she didn't help Constance that first night because she wanted something from her. She helped her because Constance was in trouble.

And as we know from last week, no one, not even the fabled Lily Orlamunde, was willing to do the same for her.

All of the characters, or at least the women, are object studies in the fact that no one is just any one thing and that we all wear masks sometimes. This week, Constance attends the Earl John Doe Ball, a masquerade in the old sense, where everyone hides their identities behind masks and dominoes to cast off the dictates of society. In the case of this ball, one of those dictates that gets cast off is “slavery is bad,” but we've already seen that infidelity and drug use are other norm-breakers at society parties. The smoky haze that fills this ball is an indicator of potentially illicit substances being consumed. Clearly, there's excess drinking going on as well, if the debauched clergyman who registers Constance and Randolph's engagement is any indication. As Terry Pratchett said in his novel Maskerade, “There's a kind of magic in masks. Masks conceal one face, but they reveal another. The one that only comes out in darkness. I bet you could do just what you liked, behind a mask ... ?”

At this point, we should be wondering what is lurking behind the masks people are putting on. Cecilia and Scarlett are the most obvious examples; there's just something off about the crown princess, and we already know Scarlett put on an act for at least the last year of her life. But what about Randolph Ulster? Why would he immediately jump to “engagement” when Constance told him what was really going on? He was married to Lily, remember, which makes his proposal even odder – and potentially more dangerous, since Scarlett is convinced Lily's death was no suicide. Constance may be in over her head even more than she realizes, and being thrown into the shark-infested waters of the royal court isn't likely to help her keep her head – above water or otherwise.

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The Holy Grail of Eris is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.