Score: A-

Another episode from this show that I sincerely enjoyed. There was some nice focus split between the ball and the kidnapping incident. Both sides of that evening helped move the story forward and honestly provided some real shocks for Mia in good ways. She may not have expected things to go this way, but she is steadily heading in a direction that won’t lead to a painful and tragic end for her. She’s even picking up friendships that she never would have imagined having. Gaining Rafina as a friend wasn’t part of her plan since she was still sore about how they interacted in the previous timeline. But that’s a friend that could mean quite a bit to Mia’s efforts.

I think he’ll turn out just fine

I honestly really like the ship between Mia and Abel. It’s started out as him being a convenient target for Mia. She doesn’t have any bad interactions with him from the last timeline, he’s part of a militarily powerful nation, and he’s not so important/confident that she can’t make herself a precious part of his life. But this isn’t a bad deal for Abel. Before he was a pretty ineffective Prince that had given up on competing with or measuring up to someone like Sion or his own brother. His future in that other timeline was probably just a minor royal figure that never amounted to much of anything. Mia provides a reason to believe in himself and to aim higher. Here’s this gorgeous girl that is confident in his abilities and sweetly lead him in the dance while keeping her dance level to match his.

This ship has potential

It’s not just Abel that is getting something out of this though. Mia started out just wanting to use him to help keep herself safe. Regardless of the reason though, it created the chance for his good nature to truly touch her heart. And that’s a great gift. Mia outside of doing all she can to repay Anne’s kindness has had to take a practical approach to her life. There’s no point doing whatever she wants if her fate is years in a horrible prison and having her head cut off. So, approaching Abel is a sensible choice for her ends. But that’s also a tough way to live if she can’t enjoy herself.

Which made her heart being moved so important. She was having a good time with Abel. Dancing with him wasn’t a bad thing and neither was him having a drink for her when she made her way over. Even if it’s a smart choice for her safety, the best result is Mia honestly falling for this guy. And if Abel can keep up moments where he just treats her like a girl and not like a distant Princess then that will continue to build things up nicely between them. This episode really got that relationship off on the right foot.

These two can dance!

The dance with Sion was interesting and highlighted how that pair could mesh up in theory. Of course, it’s not that simple. It’s not Sion’s fault in this timeline, but it’s not that easy for Mia. They didn’t really get along in the original timeline to say nothing about the role he and his nation played in her death. But they are both great dancers and that was on full display during that brief scene. The CG portions were a bit weird. But when the visuals cut in close for the 2D portion of the dance (which was the majority anyways) it looked good.

And I think things would line up better if the Sion and Tiona ship continues to show promise. Ironically it needs a bit more help in this timeline since Mia isn’t bullying Tiona here. But it worked out great thanks to Sion reading WAY too much into Mia suggesting there was a better partner for him. She had nothing in mind, but just wanted to get some distance. These two clearly have personalities that can align nicely since they were Revolutionary leaders together in the previous timeline. Here it might just take a bit more time to naturally work out. But despite Mia possibly having concerns over those two getting close, it might be for the best.

This girl is amazing

Anne deserves some huge credit here. First, her taste in dresses is top tier. There was nothing wrong with Mia’s first dress really. But I think the second one was the superior choice. It really highlighted Mia’s cuteness and removed all the excess to keep it nice and simple. Even before the narrator was commenting I was thinking Mia arriving at that ball was like an angel showing up. Just took everyone’s breath away and let her make the best impression possible. It’s amazing that this girl went from being one that so few people would try to protect into one of the most popular girls on that continent.

How Anne handled the kidnapping situation really let her shine though. Her inner council debating how to use that money was cute. Mia obviously just wanted Anne to have a good time and that was it. But Anne has such a high opinion of Mia that she read some grand mission into it. Thankfully she reacted well to speak up for Mia when her possible role in the kidnapping was mentioned and she quickly decided to use that money to get Tiona a new dress. While that was using Mia’s money to help someone Mia doesn’t exactly like…it helped give Mia an easier time in handling the aftermath of the kidnapping. Anne is the perfect maid.

Rafina broke Mia

Rafina is an interesting character. She’s imposing and there’s no shock that Mia didn’t want to interact with her more than necessary. There’s also no obvious need for her to do so. Rafina doesn’t appear to connect to the uprisings or Mia’s death. But regardless, Mia keeps getting involved with her because she just has to. The offer of friendship did completely blindside Mia. But it’s not a bad offer really and could come in handy. Understandable though that she utterly shut down though. Mia is doing a good job rolling with the punches, but some things are just too shocking for her.

No wonder she stole the hearts in that room

One thing I’m curious about coming out of this episode is where a stumbling block might come up. So far it seems like Mia has resolved most of her issues. The economy of her nation is looking better, and she seems to have avoided an epidemic that would have been devastating. There are likely still upset peasants in the nation, but whether that’s enough for a full-blown Revolution, I’m not sure. And Mia herself might have more enemies (erasing her is almost more important than anything else for an uprising) she also has far more allies now. I’d love for Mia to dive into that diary a bit so we can see what her big upcoming issues are.

This ship isn’t bad

This was a good episode! Mia gained a lot from this episode. If she can keep this up then saving her life doesn’t seem to be beyond the realm of possibility. I’m all for that since this girl deserves to avoid that horrible bad end this time around. Let’s just hope it all works out. If she can keep building up allies and getting people to interpret her words in the best ways possible, then she might just get through this!