The Holy Grail of Eris

Episode 4

It is, I think, a good time to talk about the names in this story. Although there are elements of the richly layered plot from the original novels that are being skimmed over, many of the details remain—and some of the best ones are hiding in plain sight, spoken with great consistency. While not every name has a significant meaning, there are enough that do to merit mentioning. Obviously both Constance and Scarlett are somewhat loaded; the word “constance” can be read as “faithful,” which Connie certainly is once she's decided to help Scarlett. “Scarlet,” meanwhile, has connotations of “scarlet women,” which in turn means women who are disreputable. Generally it's used for sexually adventurous or promiscuous ladies, but in the case of Scarlett Castiel, it seems to relate to her scandalous life and death as a whole; the way people talk about her, she may as well have Nathaniel Hawthorne's letter “A” on her chest.

Other names are equally significant in less obvious ways – for example, Deborah is a name associated with judgment and means “bee,” both of which speak to the judgmental, venom-laced nature of the Deborah in the show. And Randolph is associated with a shield (part of it comes from an old word for the rim of a shield), and our Randolph clearly is shielding Connie. And what about Cecilia? Her name comes from a Latin word meaning “blind,” and once again, that feels significant. She herself may not be blind, but she is attempting to blind others to her faults. Cecilia seems to be playing a long game, and so far, it's been going her way.

That, however, is about to change. Cecilia has fallen into the same mistake that most people seem to when it comes to Constance: she interprets the famous Grail sincerity as being synonymous with “foolishly innocent.” And Connie is innocent and naïve, but that's not because of “sincerity,” but rather because she hasn't had much experience of the world. Instead, Constance's version of being sincere is believing in Scarlett and doing her best to right the wrongs begun ten years ago. She's still naïve, as her reaction to Scarlett's information about Cecilia's “special tea” indicates; she can't believe that the crown prince's wife would be deliberately taking an abortifacient/birth control regularly. But the fact that she is is important information. Why did she bother to steal Scarlett's fiancé if she wasn't going to solidify her position by bearing him an heir? Was Scarlett that much of a threat—or was it the Castiel family, with their matrilineal ties to Faris, that presented the bigger issue?

It's very clear that Cecilia is at the heart of this entire tragedy, and her split-second grimace when she learns Randolph won't be accompanying Constance to her little tea party tells us that she's clearly still scheming. Perhaps she was hoping to snag Randolph for herself and turn him against Constance, just as she did with Enrique and Scarlett? Is that what happened to Lily Orlamunde, Randolph's first wife? Lily may not have been as pure as she's been painted in death, but she clearly knew something else was going on after Scarlett's execution, as her secret words worked exactly as she told the children they would when Constance was about to be kidnapped.

That appears to be another layer to this whole situation: the kidnapping of children. Deborah refers to the dancers at the Earl John Doe Ball as “children,” Lily specifically warned the orphans—and now a child prince has vanished from the palace…conveniently after a merchant with a habit of carrying a large hamper full of rugs departed. Depending on the size of the boy in question, either a large hamper or a well-rolled rug could conceal him, and if this is in fact what happened, Cecilia's sticky fingerprints must be all over it. That may seem too obvious, but consider the ludicrously sloppy evidence “Scarlett” left behind ten years ago that led to her execution; no one questioned it because of Cecilia, and she's likely counting on that working in her favor now.

What she's reckoning without is the famous Grail sincerity. As the image in the screencap shows in its symbolic use of a pose traditionally reserved for spouses in old portraiture, Constance has devoted her constance and sincerity to Scarlett, which we can see in her assuming the wife's pose. Scarlett, standing as husbands typically did, has Connie's loyalty, possibly the first time anyone's ever had her back. What can she accomplish now that she has that support? And what can sincerity do in the face of cynicism? I think Cecilia may be about to find out.

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