The Ancient Magus’ Bride – Season 2 Episode 10 Recap & Review

Conscience does make cowards of us all. II

Episode 10 of The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 begins with Seth’s bodyguard washing ashore after surviving the ordeal with the masked werewolves. Meanwhile, Lucy wakes up and helps Seth with his morning routine to get him to leave early. Chise arrives with mail in her hand, and Seth brings up Lucy’s bank documents despite her refusing to use his money. Lucy asks Seth if he’s acquainted with Chise, and Chise informs Lucy that he saved her in the past. Lucy leaves to get dressed while Seth explains how he’s more of a father to her now than a brother.

At the same time, Alexandra helps restore Simeon’s magical power after the incident that took place in the previous episode. Elias tells Simeon he found him in the yard and brought him to Alexandra. Simeon can’t remember what happened to him but is glad Elias shared some of his magic power. Simeon falls asleep before Elias asks him about friendship. Chise and Lucy follow Seth to his car, but Seth’s confuzzled bodyguard isn’t inside. One of the werewolves attacks Seth, but his protective charm saves him from certain death. Seth tells Chise to flee with Lucy while the other werewolf arrives and attacks Ruth and Chise. Elias picks up on Chise’s pain and leaves Alexandra’s office.

They all make a run for it as an establishment. Elias arrives and fights one of the werewolves. The other one attempts to slay Lucy, but Chise protects her. Lucy wonders if the werewolves were responsible for killing her family. The werewolf says he plans to finish what they started today, as Chise hears her inner voice tell her to visit a specific location. Chise opens an entryway to the back passage area and tells Lucy to close her eyes. Elias lets the werewolves go since he doesn’t care for the siblings’ safety.

Chise and Ruth meet the back passage’s guard dogs and tell them they don’t have their toll on them. Chise promises she’ll bring them meat next time as one of the werewolves attacks her. Since the guard dogs are infuriated by Chise breaking the contract, they attack the werewolf. After seeing the werewolves in pain, Chise promises to pay for their passage with some meat. The guard dogs flee. The female werewolf rips her mate’s head off and leaves. They all return to school, and Seth tells Lucy he’s thankful she’s not hurt.

Suddenly, Seth’s bodyguard and Marielle arrive. Elias tells Marielle he wants her to investigate something. Meanwhile, Chise helps Seth out at the hospital. Seth says situations like this happen since they’re a family of sorcerers. We receive a flashback during Lucy’s childhood years. Lucy asks Seth why he’s leaving but finds out it’s because he lacks sorcery skills, can’t use the spiders, and is a disgrace to the family, according to their father. Lucy sits in her room and wonders how Seth views her. Suddenly, Lucy hears the spiders’ call and rushes into the workshop to discover countless dead bodies, a scared child, and one of the werewolves.

Seth returns after being summoned by his folks to talk sense into Lucy. He returns to see Lucy frightened by the dead bodies around her. Seth tells Chise there are many reasons for people to attack them in the present, but he’s unclear what their motivation was back then and why Lucy was spared. However, he knows they took all the spiders, and rumors were shared, claiming he hired hitmen to murder his family. Seth confirms Lucy distrusts him because she thinks he despises her for inheriting the family business. He didn’t refute the claims because he had no weapons or people to back him up.

Fortunately, he found a job that’ll allow him to pay for her College expenses. Lucy overhears the conversation from behind the door. At the same time, Marielle confirms something is still consuming Simeon’s magic power. Elias asks if Marielle’s aware of the illness or curse behind this phenomenon since two other students have fallen victim to it. Marielle uses her magic on Simeon to find the source and encounters a bizarre-looking creature that snaps her out of her trance. Marielle says someone’s using The Testament of Carnamagos to steal people’s magic powers.

Lucy and Chise converse in the College’s garden. Lucy asks Chise why she let the werewolves live. Chise said the female wolf mentioned a child, so she didn’t want to see them perish. This angers Lucy because the werewolves slaughtered her family. However, she plans to use this situation to discover who called for the attack and why. Lucy collapses. The episode closes with “the grandmother” affiliated with Philomela plotting something.

The Episode Review

As expected, we finally got more intricate details concerning the Webster Tragedy in this episode. It appears the werewolves are the slaughterers behind the incident but it’s possible “the grandmother” is the one who hired them to assassinate the family for the spiders and other alternative reasons. With only two more episodes left, it’s possible we’ll have to wait for a follow-up season to find out why.

Nevertheless, many viewers will be pleased that we finally got to see the events play out this week. On the other hand, this chapter had great action and horrid imagery. Despite being the antagonists this week, it hurt to hear the wolves endure severe pain from the guard dogs. Even though the female werewolf may have lost her mate, it’s possible she’ll assist Chise down the line because of her actions.

Lastly, Elias forming a tight connection with someone other than Chise would be a great development for him. We’ve seen him show some signs of jealousy when Chise’s around her friends. For him to befriend Simeon and other staff at the end would be a wholesome sight to see. Overall, this was a great episode of The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2.

It features some great violence while giving viewers answers to long-awaited questions concerning the Webster Tragedy and Lucy’s reasons for resenting her brother. Hopefully, the remaining episodes will give us insight into who’s using The Testament of Carnamagos and why.