Goodbye, Lara

Episode 4

Of all the fairy tale princesses, both folkloric and literary, no one knows heartbreak like the Little Mermaid. There are a few who come close – most variants of Sleeping Beauty feature a princess who has her prince chosen for her rather than having the agency to make her own choice, but Andersen's original mermaid suffers untold tragedies as her prince chooses someone else…someone he thinks is her. (And then he has the gall to tell her, “My happiness is sure to give you pleasure, for you are fonder of me than anyone else.”) For a girl who had her tongue cut out (the flashback isn't lying in terms of the source material) and feels like she's walking on knives with every step, the rejection of her true love is the last straw.

Goodbye, Lara is doing a remarkable job working within Andersen's frame in this episode. When Himeka sees Ouji with another girl, she knows the pain of Andersen's mermaid dancing at her love's wedding. When Lara observes it, she relives the moment when her prince rejected her for being different, for being a mermaid rather than a human. Their heartbreak is the same, just told in different ways for different audiences. Mari scoffing at the tragic love story film that brings Lara to tears is the embodiment of the way audiences for doomed love stories have changed since 1837: what Lara finds achingly familiar and beautiful, Mari sees as overwrought and stupid. Lara's not just a fish out of water, she's a girl out of time.

I love the way that this episode goes back and shows us more pieces of Lara's original tale. We could guess from the scar on her tongue that Grace had, in fact, cut it off back in the day, but seeing it and how it affected Lara's interactions with the prince in the 18th century both ties the episode closer to Andersen; it also emphasizes how this time things are different. No one's talking about the importance of body language, which implies that Lara's mission is much more critical than it was three hundred years ago. (Plus that whole “no voice” thing really didn't work out before.) This time, Grace is guiding Lara, which I think is a good reminder that “witch” is not a negative word; it's typically an epithet reserved for powerful women others are afraid of. Grace clearly knows more than anyone else – including Lisa, I suspect – and she's using that to help Lara help the merfolk. Although she doesn't do much this week, Grace is still a major driving force behind the story, the author of everything that's happening.

That makes me question her directions to Lara. She's supposed to find her prince, which is Lara's interpretation of the “true love” Grace talks about. It's definitely worth pointing out that Mari has already proven herself better than that 18th-century prince in that she knows Lara's a mermaid and doesn't care; she's much more annoyed by some of Lara's naïve actions than the fact that Lara's half fish. Of course, Mari's also very wrapped up in her own thing – she never stops moving in this episode, always jumping rope or lifting weights, unable to exist without focusing on her boxing. It's her coping mechanism, and Lara so destabilizes her routine that she seems to be compensating for her emotional distress (or annoyance) by refusing to stop training no matter where she is. Mari may not be as outwardly romantic or obviously interested as the past prince, but I also wouldn't put her out of the running for “true love.” There's even a bit of a parallel between her and Himeka's relationship with Ouji: Mari and Lara may not have known each other forever, but Mari's definitely by Lara's side as she explores the world and ideas of love, just like Himeka and Ouji have been there for each other. Does this mean that Mari definitely won't become Lara's prince(ss)? I suppose that depends on which narrative you're reading.

Despite having lived a tragic love story, Lara's mostly in the dark when it comes to love. She doesn't understand the different types of it, and she's woefully fixated on the whole “prince” bit. But she's also joyful as she explores the human world and interacts with people, and her breakdown when she hears Lisa's voice reminds us how young she is – she never got to grow up in the past, so this is really her first chance at it. With each encounter, she learns something new about herself and the world. Scholar Kimberly Reynolds views The Little Mermaid as a “paradigm of child death,” which is more than fair. That makes Goodbye, Lara a story of revival and resurrection, a second chance for Lara to live. Her unbridled joy at buying groceries by herself, a version of a child's first solo errand, makes this episode shine in that respect. This time, Lara's going to find herself true love, but more importantly, she's going to live.

Hopefully Lisa lets her. I'm a little concerned about why she's being so cagey with her sister and what her goals are. Lara doesn't need to spend another life dancing on knives.

Rating:

Recommended Reading: Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue, a lyrical collection of interconnected fairy tale retellings where the princess gets the girl – or the witch.

Goodbye, Lara is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.