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Shadows House 2 episode 7 – Peony 

Irina

Louise is a very interesting archetype I think. She’s the type who is bound to get underestimated a lot and is using that very fact to her advantage. But she’s written not only so that the other characters don’t see her coming, but I think they’re trying to trick us, the audience into underestimating her as well.

You’re not fooling me! I’m onto your little tricks!

I have been saying for the past few weeks, that I’m surprised about how careless Shadows seem to be with their dolls. But maybe I had that wrong or maybe it’s only certain Shadows. This week, we saw several Shadows lecturing Louise about taking good care of her face and essentially treating Lou like a person.

However, I think there’s a communication breakdown here. They hear Louise saying things like “she’s just a face” and assume she might be one of those Shadows who never learned to properly cherish their doll, maybe even mistreats them. But for Louise, that face is the greatest thing you can be. It’s her most treasured asset, she means it as a compliment!

This said I found Lou and Louise’s little moment on the bridge honestly touching. For the first time, they seemed to really connect. Like sisters or something!

In the first season, we got to really explore Kate’s relationship with Emilico and a tiny bit of Shaun and John’s dynamic but for the most part, we didn’t really know how the dolls and Shadows got along when no one else is around. The difference in how they all treat each other is actually quite interesting to me. And it’s a fantastic vehicle for character development!

If Louise is more interesting and fun than I first gave her credit for. The relationship between Patrick and Ricky is probably the most interesting among the four leading Shadows. Everyone else has some variation of friendship where the Shadow still holds the upper hand. However, Ricky is clearly the dominant one in his couple and right now, it’s unclear to me how much the two like each other. Patrick certainly seems to respect Ricky but he also is a little apprehensive about him. On the other hand, Ricky seems to consider Patrick more like a necessary element to succeed in Shadows House and not much more.

This leads me to think that if anything is going to cause problems for our main group, it’s going to be some type of friction or dissolution between Ricky and Patrick. Their relationship is much more transactional and utilitarian than that of the others. And I’m pretty sure Ricky would have a meltdown if he found out about the Emilico thing… Does it count as a love triangle if one person is in love with the Shadow and the other is in love with their face?

I thought about it and I have decided I find this revelation cute. It makes sense and I liked the foreshadowing. For instance, the fact that Patrick likes flowers and visits the greenhouse often. And how that interest started because Emilico gave him a Flower when he was trapped in a box during season 1. Cute! Earlier in the episode, when talking to Sarah, Patrick asks Ricky if living dolls experience romantic feelings. And that works perfectly with the conversation. You get to see that Ricky lies to him readily but we don’t know if he does so out of a sense of duty or for his own ends. However, by the end of the episode, you realize that Patrick was actually asking because he was thinking of Emilico. Awww, poor boy has it bad.

Maybe it’s just because John is so passionate about Kate. (His getting told off about it was pretty funny! But I always got the feeling that Emilico might be interested in Shaun. By now, he’s probably her closest friend in the house so it might just be platonic mind you. The thing is, in many ways, Patrick s a lot more like Shaun than he is like Ricky right now.

Maybe I just drank the Shadows House coffee. Look at me getting all into a sudden romantic subplot. That’s not my style…

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