It’s surprising, but sometimes, there are good people hiding in bad places. An insider – a “good guy” hidden among the ranks of the enemy – can save the day. That’s one of the interesting occurences that took place in Orb episode 14. This was a fascinating episode for other reasons, too. We’ll go over the sad and exciting events in this episode review.

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Episode 14: Tonight’s Sky

Episode Rating: 8/10

If you’ve seen the episode, you already know, but the number one main event was the execution of Oczy and Badeni. I had started to forget the inevitable upcoming character death, but this episode quickly shook me back to reality. It would have been really cool if Jolenta had found a way to save the men, but Orb isn’t that kind of anime. It’s bleak, which makes it all the more powerful when characters can find bits of hope.

Before we talk about the death scene, I’d like to point out that Badeni is not any kind of irredeemable narcissist or sociopath, though he is an asshole on most occasions. But Badeni can clearly empathize. This episode proved it. When Oczy was about to lose one of his eyes, Badeni remembered getting his own eye burned out. He could no longer let the torture continue, so he told Nowak the location of the documents he didn’t burn.

Having surrendered the last of the materials to the inquisitors, Badeni and Oczy face their impending deaths. But Badeni says heliocentrism is not dead yet. He arranged a plan for Oczy’s book to survive and spread, though he also says the chances of it working are infinitesimally low. If someone reads the book, they may become infected with the inspiration to learn more. Eventually, it could lead to someone repeating the research and successfully introducing the model to the world. The details of Badeni’s plan are unknown at present.

For some reason, rather than being burned alive, Badeni and Oczy are given the relatively merciful death method of hanging. They were burned after dying quickly. The scene was very well-executed, focusing on the character arc conclusions and story themes rather than showing prolonged violence. The last few lines of dialogue for Oczy and Badeni were perfect. Oczy died hopeful, not in terror. Before he died, Badeni smiled and said he would believe that Heaven was waiting for him.

Despite the two men finding some level of inner peace, it was still sad and frustrating that they were executed. Now, the only surviving protagonist is Jolenta. In the second half of the episode, she gets detained and questioned by the two newbie inquisitors, including the shorter one with brown hair who has more humanity. He still doesn’t have a name (not even on the MAL page for Orb), so I’ll just call him Brownie for now. The other guy can be Goldie since he has gold hair.

Goldie and Brownie had no intention of anything more than an interview with Jolenta, but Anthony – the authoritarian son of the Bishop – pressures them into torturing the girl. Neither of the newbies want to hurt Jolenta, so Anthony leads by example and yanks out a tooth from Jolenta’s mouth. He then leaves Goldie and Brownie to continue the job. It was rough watching the adorable Jolenta in pain, but to her credit, she was holding up extremely well, remaining defiant against her captors.

When he goes to fetch the thumbscrew, Brownie overhears Anthony telling his followers that his plan is to ruin Nowak by finding his daughter guilty of heresy and witchcraft. He definitely intends for Jolenta to die, and his reasoning was being corrupted by personal feelings. Brownie decides not to roll over anymore. He sends Goldie away, cuts the ropes holding Jolenta, and leads her outside to where a horse is waiting. As Brownie urges Jolenta to run away, she pauses to ask him why he is saving her.

Brownie doesn’t seem to know exactly why he’s doing this, either. But it’s related to his Faith (AKA religious belief system), which he describes as a way of life. There’s nothing in fifteenth Century Catholicism that would be likely to inspire such a humanistic and un-Biblical action (saving a potential witch from the Church’s judgement). So, we can assume Brownie is a good person by nature who uses some kind of personal faith as a way to explain his pro-social values. And since he’s helping people, more power to him.

Oczy and Badeni are history now. Jolenta is still alive thanks to “Brownie,” who is an excellent example of a good person stuck in a bad place. I look forward to seeing how the story will continue from here. If Jolenta dies after all this, I will be royally pissed off. Anyway, that’s all for today! What did you think of Orb episode 14?

~Thanks for reading~

Written by 7Mononoke

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