I’m back with another episode of Spice and Wolf! This week Lawrence and Holo reconcile, Holo comes up with a money making scheme and Norah decides sticking it to the church is a good idea. None of these can possibly end in disaster, right? So without further ado lets jump in!
Before we get to the good stuff though I have to get something off my chest: I wasn’t a big fan of the tavern scene. I know that might not seem like much but this might be the worst scene in the season for me. Everything about their reconciliation felt… forced. It’s supposed to be forced in a way sure, Holo and Lawrence say as much in their banter. But it felt that way in a “meta” sense to. As if the plot needed it to happen and so it did, without much care for how it happened. As if the scene and dialogue was created before the context for it was. This made it feel off and a bit rushed reconciliation wise for me. I still enjoyed the romance in it of course! It’s mostly the “try again” bit that bugs me. That aside, onwards to the good stuff!
And first up? Money! Or rather the money making plan. I could say I was right since gold smuggling was one of the ways I foresaw Lawrence going. But to bring in not only Norah, stuffing sheep full of gold, but the trading company he is in debt to as well? I guess this is Spice and Wolf’s win this time. I do like that they brought in Lemerio trading though. It covers a lot of bases, answers a lot of questions. Questions such as “What about the time limit, he can’t smuggle gold that fast?” or “How can a man in debt afford gold to smuggle?”, stuff like that. And the cherry on top of it is that it makes perfect sense in universe as well. This is a trading company so desperate they bought out his debt, of course they would leap at this chance.
As for the plan itself, it’s pretty clever to. I figured they would use Norah somehow. Whether it be traversing back paths to avoid guards or borrowing money from her somehow. Maybe using her to go and find the mercenaries that were mentioned. But I never imagined they would smuggle the gold inside the sheep. How do you even get the gold into the sheep? Or back out? Do you feed them and wait for them to take a dump or do you butcher them? Hopefully Spice and Wolf tells us because I’m very curious how this is going to work. However it’s done though I don’t expect everything to go to plan. The mercenaries have been mentioned to many times to not get involved somehow. Same with Norah being thought of as a witch or the wolves we saw in the arc preview. I’m sure it’ll work out though.
Speaking of Norah, that was a really clever way to pull her into the scheme. I figured she would go along with it because she was just a nice person. But the way Spice and Wolf worked in her backstory, her experience with the church, and used that to fuel her revenge was clever. I like that there are layers to this. That everyone wins. Lawrence and Lemerio get out of debt while Norah gets a chance at a new life with the money and revenge. If we had more than 2 episodes left I would assume this would come back to bite them in the ass. It has in both of the last two arcs after all, whether it be the coin trade or the armor. I suppose the question is: Does Spice and Wolf have the balls to end the season on a cliffhanger like that?
As for how this could bite them and what could go wrong? I have a few ideas. There were a few interactions this week that seemed very suspicious. As if everyone but Norah is plotting something. Maybe Lemerio trading will rat out Lawrence and Norah to try and gain favor with the church. Or that Lawrence and Holo will try to make out like bandits with the money, after they pay Norah of course. I assume there are no legal protections against theft when you’re smuggling gold after all. Maybe I’m just being paranoid though. It’s entirely possible this plan goes off without a hitch next episode and the last one is an epilogue of sorts to lead us into the 2nd season. I think that’s unlikely but hey, I’ve been wrong before. At the end of the day I just hope Norah gets out of this ok.
All in all it was a good episode. Shocking for Spice and Wolf, I know, but if it works it works. The narrative around the armor and gold is predictable but executed in a solid way. Managing to cover all of its bases, all the character motivations and all the possible questions I had. The only negative, and I stand by this, is the tavern scene. It’s certainly the most awkward and forced conversation between Holo and Lawrence so far. Only made more obvious by just how high quality their conversations normally are to begin with. Is it a big mark against the episode? Not really. But I variety is the spice, heh, of life so I felt the need to mention it.
See you all next week for the penultimate episode! And if you have any suggestions for the next Throwback Thursday put them below in the comments. I’m starting to compile a list for the next poll.
