The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 20 Review

Adam and Iris Sargeant

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 20 revealed more information about Philomela’s parents. Well, it gave us pretty much everything we know about them. Before this episode, we had to make assumptions without any evidence to back them up.

So, who were Adam and Iris Sargeant (Sargant)? We knew that Adam was Lizbeth’s son, which makes Philomela Lizbeth’s actual granddaughter. But, what we didn’t know is that he broke away from the Sargeant family. He left to elope with Iris and live out a normal, family life.

We knew even less about Iris, and I had made even more assumptions about her. For example, I assumed she was another assassin in the Sargeant family. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. Iris’s mother sold her to the Sargeant family when she was a teenager.

Why did the Sargeant family purchase Iris, though? Did she have some special kind of magic they wanted to get their hands on? No. They bought her so that Adam could use her as a test subject and refine his torture methods. That’s quite the way to meet your future spouse.

When the two of them first met, Iris attacked and headbutted Adam. And, I guess Adam is a bit of a masochist because it was love at first sight. I would have thought someone planning to practice torture methods would be a sadist. Apparently, that’s not the case for Adam.

At some point, the two of them ran away together and had Philomela. But, what’s interesting to me is that even after that, Iris still isn’t sure how she feels about Adam. She’s not sure if she hates him or not. That seems like something she should have decided before having his child.

Master of Hexes

So, as far as we know, Iris wasn’t a mage or sorcerer or anything like that. She’s a regular person. But, as a member of the Sargeant family, Adam is a sorcerer. And, the kind of magic Adam specializes in is hexes.

As I’m sure you remember, we got a crash course on hexes from Alexandra back in Episode 18. And, at the time, I was wondering if hexes were going to be important to the story. After all, why else would they have been brought up then? Well, now we know why.

Although hexes are the kind of magic Adam specializes in, we only got to see him use two of them in this episode. First, he cast a hex on a doll to transfer Philomela’s illness to it. That seems like a pretty useful kind of hex. And, it seems low-stakes to use, too.

The other hex Adam uses is more interesting. It’s a hex that reflects damage taken back on the assailant. It’s unclear how long this hex lasts for. But, we know he used it on Iris shortly after they met and that it was (still) in place when she died.

Why did Adam use this hex on Iris early on? Well, it looks like he ended up using her as his test subject despite how he felt about her. So, to show her that he’s “actually a good guy,” he placed the hex on her. Everything he does to torture her, he feels, too.

This explains why Iris still harbors some resentment toward Adam later in life.

At some point, Adam also places this hex on himself. This doesn’t stop the Sargeant’s assassins from mortally wounding both Iris and Adam. But, at the very least, it lets Adam feel like he’s won.

Ancient Goddess Morrígan

We now know that the mysterious woman who appeared before Chise is the ancient goddess Morrígan. I predicted that it was Titania, Oberon’s wife, based on her hair and eye color. But, the fact that it’s Morrígan is far more concerning.

I was wondering why Titania would be coming after Chise looking for a sacrifice. But now, I have to wonder why Morrígan, an ancient Celtic goddess of war and death, is doing that. That can’t be good for Chise even if Morrígan decided to help her out, for now.

So, it’s pretty clear that we’re supposed to have some idea of why Morrígan is here. She knew who Ruth was and Ruth seems to remember being told that Morrígan would come for a sacrifice. This likely all happened back in Season 1, which, at this point, aired six years ago. I don’t remember much of it.

Let’s make some inferences about what Morrígan wants based on what’s said in this episode, though. She very clearly states that she’s there to receive a sacrifice of some kind from Chise. And, when Chise doesn’t know what she’s talking about, Elias steps in.

He says that Morrígan wants “mistletoe” and proceeds to tell Morrígan that Chise is still a child, so it’s too soon. From that exchange, I understood “mistletoe” to be referring to a child of Chise’s. And, that would track with the whole “sacrifice” thing.

To put it simply, Morrígan seems to want Chise to sacrifice her firstborn (unborn?) child to her. And, she was expecting Chise to already have the child in question by this point. I guess Chise had promised this to Morrígan in exchange for her help at some point.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 20? Were you surprised to find out how Adam and Iris met? Do you think Adam placed some sort of protective hex on Philomela, too? And, do you remember why Morrígan is looking for a sacrifice from Chise? Let me know in the comments.

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The review of Episode 21 is available now.