Meeting Date: 3/17/2019
Disclaimer: The Herald Anime Club discusses shows as they’re airing. Naturally, there will be spoilers for a given episode. You have been warned!
Samantha Ferreira: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Herald Anime Club! I’m Samantha, and I’m joined by Anthony Simpson this week
Anthony Simpson: Evening
Samantha Ferreira: Tonight, we’re talking up The Promised Neverland episode 10: “The one with the sad flashbacks.”
Anthony Simpson: My god where do we being with this episode.
Samantha Ferreira: I don’t know. Like… this whole thing was just an emotional and cerebral bombshell
Anthony Simpson: So we found out that that the the cliff goes all the way around the house
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed. And that the facility is set up in like a panoptic prison, albeit without the guard tower in the center
Anthony Simpson: One way in and one way out of the place via a bridge
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed… and that’s right through headquarters
And god.. that whole scene was just brilliant – Norman’s refusal to deviate, his going through his belongings for one last time, the flashback!
That flashback!
Anthony Simpson: That flashback was hitting right in the feels
Samantha Ferreira: god yeah… I got all teary-eyed
it was just disarming, having this reminder that they were just a happy family, oblivious to everything
And it was just this valuable moment of levity in an episode where we had Mama Isabella saying “say another word and I’ll kill you.”
Anthony Simpson: Yea it was a complete 180 with the feelings from a simpler time
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed.
And that whole farewell scene felt like a funeral – a huge change from episode 1 with Conny
Anthony Simpson: Oh god it did. Especially with Norman packing just the cup and string phone.
So bringing the topic back to Norman. I wonder what was in the room he went into past the gate? He was surprised what he saw in there.
Samantha Ferreira: I’m thinking he’s not dead – I’m thinking he really was adopted
given the way Isabella was talking tho him
Anthony Simpson: Either he was really adopted or he escaped.
Samantha Ferreira: Yeah
He’s not dead until he’s dead onscreen, as this show LOVES to point out
Anthony Simpson: Yea, unless your body is shown your still alive.
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed. They’ve been 100% explicit with that rule, too
I mean, we saw Krone get straight-up murdered and we saw Conny’s corpse
Anthony Simpson: True. My guess is he in the farewell scene after Isabella told Emma she would kill her he disabled the tracking device.
Samantha Ferreira: I don’t think so – I think he still has the device.
Anthony Simpson: I though he gave it back to Emma.
Samantha Ferreira: The tracking device, sorry
Anthony Simpson: So Isabella gave Emma the offer of her wanting to train to become a Sister/Mama
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed. And even that was just condescending and dire
“Just give up, accept that you can’t save anyone, and live a good life” is kind of dark
Anthony Simpson: Not kind of, it is dark.
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed
Anthony Simpson: To do so while Emma is already saddened by Norman being gone is like twisting the knife at that point.
Samantha Ferreira: True that. And it’s clear that she was looking to break Emma once and for all at that point; like… her retort “just writhe in pain and despair” was dripping with resentment
Anthony Simpson: She was.
Speaking of which Emma’s face at the end of the episode. That’s the face of someone about ready to snap.
Samantha Ferreira: Oh yeah… Ray knows she’s been stewing in hatred the whole time, and she’s going to break some shit (TM)
Matt Brown: I still come back to “what if Norman is her blood child?” :3
Or hell, even all 3 of them.
Anthony Simpson: At this point if someone isn’t in a dead in a pool of their own blood in the end I’m going to be disappointed.
Samantha Ferreira: I’d say that if anyone was her blood child, it’d be Ray, who was singing Mama’s final lullaby (TM)
Matt Brown: I don’t know what happened with Norman, but Isabella is tossing Emma a life preserver, and in her grief she’s refusing it
Samantha Ferreira: True that.
Matt Brown: It’s also not an unambiguous evil that she broke Emma’s leg. It looks and feels evil, but now given what we know, her apparent motivation for it is out the window.
Why hobble someone who can’t escape in the first place?
Anthony Simpson: Show of power.
and control over the children.
Matt Brown: Perhaps, but another way of looking at this is that she has her own plans for the children, and they are messing it up by trying to escape.
Samantha Ferreira: I’m not seeing that… I’m seeing her as irredeemable at this point
Matt Brown: I don’t think she’s good. But she might be rebelling as well.
Anthony Simpson: Isabella was always irredeemable.
Matt Brown: Really there’s reason to doubt every single character, because they’re controlling what the viewer knows just as carefully as the characters.
Samantha Ferreira: what would she rebel against, though? She’s, as far a we’ve seen, the most charmed of the mamas
Matt Brown: I dunno. Taking care of that many children all the time just to send them to their deaths is a shitty existence. She does it to stay alive, but just like Emma, maybe she questions if it’s worth it just to survive.
Anthony Simpson: Krone rebelled to an extent against the system. Isabella is working for and part of the system. She all about the profits.
Matt Brown: Clearly all the mamas are prisoners too.
Samantha Ferreira: Indeed.
That’s an interesting angle
Matt Brown: I think her surprise at Norman asking her if she’s happy was a sign of things to come.
Samantha Ferreira: Hm, true. She genuinely didn’t expect that
Matt Brown: She’s ruthless, and talented. But it seems impossible to claim she’s happy. And it could be that in that moment, she changed her mind about Norman’s fate.
As usual, this is all speculation :3
Samantha Ferreira: Of course
None of us have read the manga
Matt Brown: If you think about it, not much of anything happened in this episode, so I kind of zeroed in on these little cues. If by any chance Isabella is helping them, then Emma is about to fuck it up :3
Samantha Ferreira: Did anyone else notice that slow desaturation tht just happened through the episode?
Anthony Simpson: Oh yes I noticed it
Samantha Ferreira: I thought that was just fantastic. Like… just as the color drained from Ray and Emma’s lives, so did it in the actual show
Anthony Simpson: It is fantastic. The time passing and showing them being still affected by Norman’s departure and the hope of possibly getting out going away
Samantha Ferreira: Yes! All the while it kept cutting to Isabella, who was so sure that her lambs had given up to the slaughter
Anthony Simpson: I can’t wait until she gets her comeuppance
Samantha Ferreira: Same.
Anthony Simpson: Any other thoughts this week? I have nothing else to say about this episode.
Samantha Ferreira: Nope! I can’t wait to see what happens next, at this point.
Matt”?
Matt Brown: I think I’ve spun enough crazy theories for now. :smiley:
Samantha Ferreira: Hehe, fair enough.
Til next time, then, remember: “if a room is covered in yellow caution tape, it may just be a friend who needs a visit.”
Have a great night!
Anthony Simpson: Good night
