Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets The Wise Wolf – Season 1 Episode 17 Recap & Review

Traveling Merchant’s Shallow Thinking and Town Merchant’s Signboard

Episode 17 of Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets The Wise Wolf begins with Lawrence walking down several streets. Then, Lawrence visits Marc and the two discuss business endeavors. Lawrence wants to cause a price crash to prevent Amati from achieving his goal. Matters don’t go well between Lawrence and Marc so Lawrence departs and ponders what to do.

Lawrence spots Amati walking away from the inn. Holo bids Amati farewell and notices Lawrence nearby. She doesn’t say a word to Lawrence and reenters her room. Lawrence enters the inn and chats with the owner. The owner tells Lawrence that Holo left two letters for him to read. Lawrence reads one of the letters which contains intel on Amati’s assets.

Lawrence looks at the other document and realizes it’s a marriage contract. He asks the inn owner to bring him the money he left with him. Then, Lawrence travels to a bar. We receive a brief flashback. In it, Lawrence asked the bar owner to tell him which bars Amati likes traveling to. Eventually, Lawrence finds Amati at one of the bars.

Lawrence asks Amati to purchase his pyrite. Amati questions why Lawrence wants Amati to buy pyrite off of him. Lawrence ensures Amati he cares about Holo. Moreover, Lawrence says he’d like to sell the pyrite to Amati on credit. Lawrence explains what he means by “on credit” to Amati. He suggests Amati pay him 500 Trenni silver coins now. 

Then, Lawrence promises to hand Amati his pyrite tomorrow evening. Lawrence explains the deal clearly. Amati ponders Lawrence’s intel and presents Lawrence with a theory he has regarding Lawrence’s shady intentions. Lawrence tells Amati he wants him to accept his duel but Amati refuses. Amati says for this duel to occur, they need to have it laid out in writing. 

Moreover, Amati doesn’t want to accept a deal where he gains from Lawrence’s loss. Lawrence reminds Amati there’s a chance Holo will rip up the marriage contract he has with her. Amati thinks Holo will move forward with their marriage since he knows Holo and Lawrence got into a fight. Lawrence tells Amati he and Holo fought three times in the past but reconciled after all three occurrences.

With this in mind, Amati accepts Lawrence’s challenge and plans to take everything away from Lawrence. Lawrence visits Marc. He tells Marc he’d like him and Lant to spread a rumor around Kumerson. Lawrence wants them to discuss the possibility of wheat prices rising. He feels this will entice everyone to drop their pyrite prices. Lawrence explains why that may occur.

Also, Lawrence tells Marc he sold Amati 500 Trenni silver coins worth of pyrite on credit. Lawrence asks Marc to buy a large amount of pyrite. Marc laughs and can’t believe Lawrence didn’t obtain the pyrite sooner. Lawrence understands but tells Marc he wants to gather it secretly without affecting the pyrite market.

Lawrence promises to pay Marc, but Marc doesn’t want to go through with that plan. Marc explains why it’s not virtuous for him to move forward with Lawrence’s wishes. Moreover, Marc tells Lawrence to have faith in Holo. Lawrence understands but fears Holo will accept Amati’s marriage proposal and lists reasons why.

Marc understands and asks Lawrence what other angles he’s leaning toward. Lawrence says he’s been communicating with Batos and Marc brings up Diana. Marc suggests Lawrence negotiate a deal with Diana since she holds a grip over the northern district. Also, Marc says Diana can get Lawrence into contact with alchemists.

Marc tells Lawrence that alchemists have pyrite. Lawrence thanks Marc for his time and information. Marc promises to do something minor for Lawrence. The episode ends with Lawrence heading somewhere. 

The Episode Review

Lawrence found himself in a bit of a pickle last week. While he struggled to find a resolution this week, Marc’s advice may have given our traveling merchant a ticket out of his stressful situation. Nonetheless, Lawrence is gambling with fate, which can lead to a great or terrible outcome. Fans can only pray that Lawrence finds a way to prevent Holo from fleeing his grasp. 

That aside, this episode contained a lot of business-centric chatter. While most of it was digestible, some fans may find the dialogue boring and uneventful. At the same time, some fans will love seeing Lawrence utilize his wit to convince Amati to move forward with their duel. If there’s anything that’ll get a young, jealous merchant interested in accepting a gamble like this, it’s rubbing his interest’s connection with you in their face. 

While this love triangle sub-plot isn’t that interesting, it’s nice to see Lawrence put Amati in his place. Hopefully, Lawrence can convince Diana to assist him in obtaining pyrite. Additionally, fans will be upset that we didn’t receive Holo’s point of view here. Many fans may have wanted a scene or two of her reflecting on her recent conflict with Lawrence at the inn. 

Excluding a segment like that feels like a missed opportunity on Passione Studios’s part. Nevertheless, this was an interesting chapter of Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets The Wise Wolf. The monetary discussion scenes were a slog to get through but it’s nice that Lawrence hasn’t given up hope yet.