The Truth About Unicorns
Episode 6 of See Season 2 begins with Paris awakening after a horrific vision. She foresees bloodshed and betrayal; two ominous signs that cause Haniwa to grab her horse and gallop on along to find Baba Voss and Maghra. ..
Toad teaches Kofun how to fight so that the blind man can protect himself. However, why give him a weapon that can kill when he already has the ability to see? Maybe a long spear like those used in ancient Greece would be more appropriate. After all, logic isn’t always important. ..
Anyway, the pair continue to fight, with Toad encouraging Kofun to fight blindfolded instead of having a clear idea of where his opponent is. This is brilliant.
Queen Kane continues to wrap her slimy hands around Kofun, encouraging him to take her out for a ride on his horse. This is then followed by the pair together that evening, with Queen Kane seducing Kofun and sleeping with him. As predicted, she’s after his seed to make a sighted baby.
Meanwhile, Edo promotes Wren up to the position of Captain. She’s tasked with making sure the talks and negotiations with Maghra and the others fail, given Edo wants to go to war. This is the way he’s going to get around the government currently in charge. Stuck in a difficult position, Wren agrees.
The convoy is on its way to meet up with Paris’ vision, where both sets of soldiers agree to head in unarmed and undergo a thorough search before being let beyond the borders. Wren is also cleared too, despite holding her breath when her bag is searched. As we later find out, she’s actually stashed a knife in a baguette. As she’s cleared, Haniwa shows up with news of Paris’ vision.
Negotiations between Baba Voss and Wren continue to go poorly. The terms are read out, including the apology for the queen which goes down like a lead balloon. In retaliation, Lord Harlan finds out his brother was beheaded and sent back as a present for him spying. This immediately destroys the negotiations for the day, ending things on a sour note and teetering on the edge of war.
With negotiations seemingly lost, Maghra confronts Harlan about what happened. However, the latter is convinced this had a good outcome, pointing out that the Trivantians wouldn’t be willing to negotiate and hear them out so much if they didn’t actually want peace. That evening, Wren meets Haniwa in secret, high above the meeting point.
Secretly, one of the Trivantian negotiators meets Maghra. She confirms that Kane won’t be queen for long, and confirms that she intends to usurp Kane’s position. In order to make that happen, the Trivantians need to apologize and play along for the time being. If they do, Maghra promises to make the truth known once she’s taken over the queen’s throne. ..
As we soon find out, one of the terms in the agreement includes Kane relinquishing her obsession with the sighted. This is something that Maghra knows will be easier said than done, as she knows Kane is not completely committed to this pact.
That evening, while everyone is sleeping, soldiers sneak around camp, taking out the Trivantian guards. Only, it doesn’t take long before all hell breaks loose and the place is left a bloodbath. When Wren finds out, she grabs Haniwa and holds her up at knifepoint.
She’s convinced that all of this was planned, with Haniwa serving as a distraction so all her soldiers can be slaughtered. Wren slips away, with Baba Voss and the others allowing her to go, despite being the only survivor. She also leaves Hainwa a panicked, sobbing mess. Of course, all of this was a ploy by Queen Kane to force the negotiations to fail and set up a war.
Wren heads back to Edo, feeding back details of the attack on the negotiators. He questions how Wren was the only one to survive, forcing her into divulge the truth for him. Silently, she fixes up his puzzle, confirming that she can see as Edo gasps.
The Episode Review
This week’s chapter features a slow-paced story that turns toward the negotiations that we all knew would go sour. It’s no surprise then to see the Trivantians attacked so ruthlessly by Queen Kane’s soldiers, essentially setting up a war to come in the final two episodes. Or, given the show has already been renewed, the third season.
This world has been trying to ignore the elephant in the room for months now, and instead focus on the upcoming war. But even though this war is important, it’s not the only thing that’s on everyone’s mind. The sighted and guns are also on everyone’s mind, and they’re both causing a lot of pain and suffering.
The idea of the majority of the blind vilifying the sighted is a good one, although these later episodes seem to have abandoned the worldbuilding and the larger expanse around settlements in favor of small, claustrophobic sets to build up political intrigue. ..
The problem is, it’s all so transparent. Anyone could have seen Queen Kane’s intentions coming a mile away with Kofun. Wren and Haniwa hooking up and the misunderstanding trope being played out, setting up Wren and Haniwa for a final emotional fight, is also an obvious ploy at this point. And that’s before mentioning Edo Voss, who just seems to have faded into the background for these last 2 or 3 chapters. ..
Critics were only given the first three episodes to review, and this is why I didn’t write a review for this ahead of release. Having watched further now, it’s clear that the series has potential but needs more development. ..
The second season of “Game of Thrones” has opened up a lot, but it’s also become more stale and drawn out than ever. This show needs some pacing – and big action set-pieces – but with such a flawed world to begin with, is there any hope for it?
