Through the course of the episode, I noted that this probably was the happiest episode for Cosette yet, and then at the end, I understood. This episode answered a lot of questions and cleared up a lot of things: Fauche-le-Vent’s plan of the previous episode, what the past few episodes have been building up to, how Jean would be able to outrun Javert for such a long time and the identity of the mysterious “Marius”, who keeps getting mentioned by the people who read the book.
I finally understand that the past episodes have basically been one huge epilogue to the Thenardier-arc, where Jean has to try and find a quiet life for Cosette to live. Fauche-le-Vent didn’t pull the stunt of the previous episode to give Jean and Cosette the chance to escape, it was to gain the trust of the head nun of the monastery. The walls of the monastery are a perfect barrier against Javert, after all, and if Jean were to escape to some quiet town, he’d have to live in fear of being discovered every day. The problem was, though, that the head nun currently knew about trespassers who entered the grounds, so she’d never allow him to stay.
The head nun then apparently gave permission for Fauche-le-Vent to fake a burial, to help the trespasser escape safely. After this, Jean and Cosette would just get smuggled back in again (something simple, as it’s something Javert certainly wouldn’t suspect), he could make a formal entrance to the monastery, and make sure that Cosette joins the other nuns peacefully, while he himself gets appointed as gardener, along with Fauche-le-Vent.
Also, I think we’ve got ourselves one of the first time-leaps in the middle of a series to actually make sense and be believable. It’s perfectly plausible for Cosette and Jean to have lived five quiet years in the monastery, after Javert gave up on guarding the Monastery. Unlike other *coughJyuohSeicoughBlackCatcough* anime, who seem to feature some outrageous changes in characters. In fact, the only thing that went wrong in this episode is Cosette’s character design. I don’t know what it is, but something went terribly wrong somewhere, considering her character-design as a girl was beautiful.
Also, finally that mysterious Marius appears. In the first four episodes, I got some commenters who wondered if Marius was Eponine’s boyfriend back then, but he actually seems to be some guy of an important family. I’m eager to see that the current arc has finished, and a new one can begin. The Javert-arc definitely had its moments of glory, like when Cosette found out about her mother, or when Javert was about to catch Jean, but it by no means was as fun as the awesomeness of the Thenardier-arc. Still, we’ve got ourselves more than 30 episodes left, so an intermezzo here and there only contributes to the best parts by fleshing out Cosette’s and Jean’s characters.]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 20
