The deeper and deeper we wade into Sayonara Lara, the more and more it reminds me of its spiritual grandparent, Mawaru Penguin Drum. It’s a show with more interesting ideas than it knows what to do with. That’s a good problem to have, though still a problem. As with MPD, what carries Lara through is that it has a core of emotional accuracy at the heart of it that its sometimes confused narrative can’t obscure. The tragedy you instinctively feel is coming will feel earned, even if there were a few missed turns along the way.

Do I have any second thoughts above naming Auntie Witch as “the good one”? No – at least not in relative terms. Compared to Rowan at least she certainly is, given that his motives are entirely driven by selfishness and hate and he’s genocidal. But Grace doesn’t get off scot-free here. She was using Lara, there’s no sugarcoating that. “I want to see the ending” indeed. Her own dream was denied her, and she tried to live vicariously through her niece. Did she want the best for Lara? In her way, sure. And Grace is certainly the most interesting character in the series, all things considered. But she did use Lara for her own gratification.

Grace, as it turns out, was Rigmor’s twin. But while Rigmor humored her dream of going to the surface and escaping the prison of mermaid life – and their responsibilities – she was always going to be the one to stay home and take responsibility. The fact that she fell in love with Rowan (poor girl) made it possible for her to give the palace the light boost it was wanting. True love seems to be the key to that, though that’s where things get a bit messy and there’s a lot for the show to clean up in one episode.

It’s not made explicit how Rigmor died, but presumably the humans killed her when she came to Grace’s defense. Before dying she gives us one of the two key dialogue moments of the episode – “As long as you live for love, you can find light wherever you are”. And indeed that does seem to be one message Lara is peddling – that love takes many forms, and escapes easy categorization. But the “true love” that’s central to Lara’s – and Grace’s – story – is another matter. Grace’s true love ended the way Lara’s first one did, with reversion to mermaid form and cries of betrayal (and her turning from a blue princess into a red princess). But Grace’s dagger took the life of the one who broke her heart, which is something Lara couldn’t bring herself to do. That’s the fundamental difference between them.

The other key line of the episode is Grace’s final words – “Live for love, not the laws”. Rowan’s law, of course, is that mermaids should never have contact with humans. But the humans have laws too, among them (in Japan anyway) that marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman. Is “true love” really as simple as that – Lara loves Mari, and that’s the answer? That would be fine, but ultimately for me disappointingly simplistic as I’ve noted before.

Presumably Mari wouldn’t break Lara’s heart since she already knows she’s a mermaid and doesn’t care, thus eliminating the need for the dagger to do its thing. As for poor Luca, it appears he was a plot device and no more no matter what else happens. Of course, another possible interpretation of this week’s events is that Lara and Mari’s relationship is akin to Grace and Rigmor’s. Rigmor can certainly be argued to have been Grace’s “true love” in that she was the only one who always believed in her and stoff by here. Is there some sort of rule that familial love is disqualified from the true love requirement?

Here is where the rubber really meets the road of course. How closely will Sayonara Lara track with Hans Christian Andersen’s original (and much-derided) ending? We still don’t really have an answer as to what all the Christian symbolism represents for the writer here, and if “true love” is nothing more than romantic love that doesn’t give us an explanation. The truth is the anime can’t give us an ending that’s materially consistent with both Andersen’s story and the foreshadowing in this episode, as they’re kind of mutually exclusive. I really do wish this show had two cours to flesh out its themes, but wishing it won’t make it so – as Grace’s story sadly attests.