Well, time to pop in the last disc of Gankutsuou (I realize that those of you with the Funimation release did this a couple of episodes ago, but I’ve got the older Geneon discs). We’re well into the point in the series where I know generally what happens, but the details have been mostly lost. It almost seems appropriate to react that way, since for so many of the show’s characters, things are chaos; the three betrayers have all had their lives thrown into discord and everyone related to them is suffering some degree of consequence. The details are all a mess and the resolution is unsure.
I will warn anyone who’s familiar with the book that, from what I understand, the resolution to the series is somewhat different. This hasn’t seemed to trouble many people that I know of, but for those who are sticklers for “accuracy,” I thought some warning was due.
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Act 21: The Golden Boy’s True Identity
The Count corners Danglars on his escape ship and demands of him five trillion Francs in cas, which happens to be all that’s left in his suitcase. The Count leaves Danglars to his dream of gold. Albert waits at the Count’s mansion for his return from space. At Villefort’s trial, Andrea Cavalcanti, true name Benedetto, reveals his origins to the court, backed up by DNA evidence. Mercedes returns to her hometown and visits Edmond’s former home, remembering the times she looked after Edmond’s father, waiting in vain for him to return. The Count pays a visit to Villefort’s hospital room after Andrea poisons him at the trial, and deals the final emotional blows. Albert finally encounters the Count on the street, and seems ready to face him.
Act 22: Counterattack
Albert begs the Count for the truth, just as General Morcerf brings his military forces to Paris and declares martial law, forming an interim government of his own making. The Count tells Albert the story of his former life, imprisonment, and his meeting with Gankutsuou at the Chateu d’If. Mercedes confronts her husband, who has gotten drunk on the idea of his own power. As he causes destruction throughout Paris, she bids him farewell and is, in turn, shot by the bullet from his guy. Albert arrives on the scene and meets a similar fate, though having allied with the Count’s servants, they stage a rescue for him. Morcerf nearly commits suicide, before deciding that it will have to wait until he confronts Edmond Dantes and settles things once and for all.
Discussion: Urgh, I really wanted to just leave the DVD running and watch the final two episodes.
Again, these two episodes are primarily focused on doling out the punishments we’ve all been anticipating for several episodes. I’m afraid I may have slightly spoiled some readers for the revelation about Andrea’s origins; I honestly can’t remember if it was spelled-out implicitly beforehand whether or not he was the lovechild of Victoria Danglars and Prosecutor Villefort, and it may have just been a matter of my being confused about the order of events and my vague memories of my first viewing, so I apologize. In any case, most of what happens during these episodes removes any need for speculation, so I’ll be spending a little less time writing this week, and perhaps some more time building up to the final couple of episodes.
One thing I’ll say is that my sympathy for Morcerf all but melted away by the end of episode 22. While I think that there’s a lot of evidence to mark this as a story that paints revenge in a negative light, it’s also easy to sympathize with Edmond/The Count and get the impression that the actions he’s taking are entirely justified, because there is literally no remorse from some of these characters (or, at least, their reasoning for feeling sorry is entirely the result of their being caught in the act). Morcerf ends up the victim of his own bad decisions and power-hungriness just as Danglars and Villefort have, shooting the people he supposedly loves rather than face the music.
I’m going to intentionally leave this post open in anticipation of the final episodes. What we have to look forward to, of course, are Morcerf’s encounter with Edmond, and everyone’s final fates. Are there any answers you’re especially anticipating?
It's abundantly clear in these episodes that Andrea/Benedetto knew *exactly* what he was doing when he came on to his mother and half-sister.
I think that at about this point, the writers decided it was time to finally pull out the remaining SF stops and just go straight into what some of the extra technology can do.