The Ancient Magus’ Bride – Season 2 Episode 4 Recap & Review

The cowl does not make the monk

Episode 4 of The Ancient Magus Bride Season 2 begins with Chise and Ruth meeting Rahab after being teleported to her domain. Rahab tells the two that she’s a sorcerer and has a strong connection with Elias and Lindel.

Meanwhile, Elias’s shown cleaning pumpkins, and Angelica, one of Elias’s former acquaintances, greets him. Elias and Angelica discuss Christmas gifts and he tells her that he gave Chise a necklace. This was an item Angelica asked Elias for back then, but he refused to give it up.

Chise explains her affiliation with Elias to Rahab and Ruth tells her that Elias deems her as his bride. Rahab asks Chise and Ruth to come inside to discuss things more.

After brewing some beverages for her and Chise, Rahab tells the two Lindel and Elias used to live with her. After Elias parted ways with Lindel, he returned to Rahab’s place. Elias asks Rahab to teach him about humans so that he can resonate with them more.

Rahab tells Chise that Elias started mimicking her eating, walking, and sleeping methods. However, Rahab admits she couldn’t teach him how to express anger or happiness.

Rahab reveals she taught Elias what being a part of a family means alongside marriage. Rahab apologizes to Chise for giving Elias different ways of interpreting what a bride is. At the same time, Elias tells Angelica that he has developed a new stance regarding Chise’s safety, and Ruth told him that Chise believed her pain is her own to suffer. This convinces Elias to fork over his necklace to her since this would force Chise not to get into dangerous scenarios. Chise tells Rahab that even if she’s not an ideal bride, it doesn’t change that she’s by Elias’s side.

Chise tells Rahab that Elias has experienced different emotions since she’s known him. She comments Elias is where he’s at today thanks to Rahab’s teachings.

We then receive a flashback of Rahab giving a young Elias the same necklace Chise wears. Rahab thanks Chise but asks her not to tell Elias she met her. Rahab admits she transported Ruth and Chise here out of concern, and she feels it’d be best for Chise to learn to handle secrets and truths. Chise and Ruth return home and reunite with Stella, where we see Philomela tampering with a magic potion at college.

Elias and Chise follow guides men to a back passage to get to the college faster. Elias and the guide explain the fundamentals of back passages to Chise. The guide wouldn’t recommend people taking this route, since they can be dangerous and unpredictable. They encounter the passage’s guard dogs, and the guide pays them with meat to allow Chise, Elias, and Ruth to go through. Chise communicates with the guard dogs, despite them only knowing a specific type of language.

They make it to the college, but Chise asks Elias why he intended to make her his bride. Meanwhile, Meanwhile, Zoe speaks with Alexandra about some things that have been bothering him. Philomela overhears him discussing Chise and gets startled. The episode closes with Chise’s college roommate Lucy waking up from a terrible dream about her past life.

The Episode Review

This was a delightful episode of The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2. We reunite with Rahab after her appearance during the earlier half of the first season. Hopefully, we’ll get to see Rahab crop her head in more affairs in the future. Furthermore, it’s great to compare Elias to who he’s become in the present to who he was during his youth.

Considering the brief touching moment we received of Elias at the table in the previous chapter, it’s safe to assume this season will continue exploring Elias’s humanization and growth. The back passage bit was interesting and will remind many Harry Potter enthusiasts of the time when Harry explored that strange location in The Chamber of Secrets.

This was similarly eerie due to having spooky monsters and a dark setting. It’s fantastic seeing The Ancient Magus’ Bride introduce more magical and creepy terrain as it’s one of the series’s strongest qualities. As mentioned in the previous episode review, Lucy, Zoe, and Philomela feel like the students the series will be focusing heavily on.

This episode proves that point with Zoe visiting Alexandra over his concerns for Chise, Philomela’s quirky nature, and Lucy’s backstory potentially being darker than we’d anticipated. Many viewers will be excited to see what the author plans to do with these students and I’m excited to see how they’ll overcome their distinct internal or external dilemmas. Overall, this was a great chapter with decent character-driven and world-building material.