The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 24 Review

Breaking Free from Lizbeth’s Shadow

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 24 is the final episode of the season. And, unsurprisingly, this episode is all about Philomela. She’s finally able to break free from her grandmother’s shadow with the help of her friends.

But, a lot more happened than Philomela simply rejecting her grandmother’s wishes. That was arguably the most important part because it allowed what followed to occur. However, Philomela also used The Testament of Carnamagos to defeat the foreign god. She summoned a monstrosity of her own to devour it.

Now, is using the Testament like that going to have a negative effect on Philomela? I’m going to guess not. But, it should considering what we know about the book. This is a book that’s banned for a reason. Reading it is enough to cause someone to go mad. But, Philomela seems fine.

Once Philomela defeats the foreign god, that also kind of wraps things up for Chise. Morrígan tells Chise that she won’t ask for anything else because Chise gave her a good battle. All Chise needs to do is provide the agreed-upon mistletoe around Christmas.

And, in case anyone’s keeping track, yes, my prediction about this was wrong. I assumed mistletoe was a euphemism for Chise’s firstborn child or something. Though to be fair, it could have been if things didn’t turn out so well with the foreign god. If the battle wasn’t enough for Morrígan, who knows what she would have wanted.

Finally, Lizbeth dies before she’s able to reveal why she ordered the Webster Tragedy. And, her death opens up more questions. A werewolf child beheads her and steals the Testament before fleeing. Then, later in the episode, we see they were acting on Veronica Rickenbacker’s orders.

Christmas at Chise’s

After all those events, Philomela wakes up in an unfamiliar house. Well, unfamiliar to her. It’s a very familiar house to us, Chise and Elias’s house. Instead of going back to the college, Chise and Elias figured it would be better to unwind at home.

Philomela’s not the only one there, though. Lucy and Zoe are, as well. And, Rian even shows up after the lockdown on the college is lifted. So, it looks like there’s going to be a Christmas party at Chise’s this year.

Of course, this occasion is special for both Chise and Philomela. Neither of them has ever spent the holidays with friends before. And so, they both have activities that they want to do with the others. Most notably, Philomela wants to make potpourri with Chise as they promised.

The thing is, Christmas break eventually has to come to an end. And, I’m interested to see what happens when it does. Will Chise and Elias be returning to the college with the others? Or, was that the end of their college arc? I assume they’ll return. But, I don’t know that for certain.

Would the college even accept them back after they disobeyed orders and left? I get that they’re mages, not sorcerers. But, you’d think they would still be expected to follow the college’s rules. So, I could definitely see Chise getting expelled and Elias getting fired. Or, that might only happen to one of them.

Either way, the Carnamagos incident also isn’t exactly wrapped up. Sure, the students are no longer having their mana sucked dry. But, the college never got the Testament back. Isn’t that kind of a major issue? Something similar could happen again at any moment unless they find it.

Philomela Reborn

I don’t know which episode review it was in and I’m not going to go back to find out. But, in an earlier review, I mentioned how Philomela might become kind of a different person.

Previously, she didn’t have her memories of her childhood or her parents. And, if you didn’t have memories of your formative years, that could seriously affect you. Wouldn’t you be a different person without those experiences? Now that Philomela has “her memories” back, she might not be the same Philomela we once knew.

Well, that’s kind of what we see happen at the end of Episode 24. But, I’m not going to sit here and try to say the change in Philomela is only due to her memories. That’s definitely part of it. However, there’s more going on here than just that.

So, first, how do Philomela’s memories change who she is? She has happy memories now. She can look back on her life and remember it wasn’t all bad. There were good times, too. And, that’s undoubtedly going to have an impact on how she views her future. She’s no longer drowning in despair.

Second, the fact that she’s free from her grandmother is going to be a huge weight lifted off her chest. Even if she didn’t regain her memories of the past, she would know that the future isn’t going to be as bleak. She’s the one in control of her life now.

At the very end of the episode, we see something that illustrates this change in Philomela. For the first time in the present story, she smiles. Before this, we only saw her smile during flashbacks of when she was a child. She never smiled as a teen until now.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2 Episode 24? Were you surprised by Lizbeth’s death? Do you think the Rickenbacker family has something to do with the Webster Tragedy? And, are you ready to experience happy Philomela? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.