The following article contains spoilers for To Your Eternity: Season 2 Episode 7, “Crime and Forgiveness,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Following the whirlwind events of the previous episode, To Your Eternity: Season 2’s seventh episode takes a slower, more intimate approach to its pacing as it centers around Prince Bonchien, who along with Todo has been captured by the villainous Church of Bennett.
With Fushi incapacitated by the Church — courtesy of some molten iron — Bon winds up interrogated by the organization’s Grand Cardinal, Cyrila. It’s through this interrogation that the Church comes to discover Bon’s ability to see ghosts, and the audience comes to understand the prince even more.
Bon’s Capture Is a Chance for To Your Eternity to Examine His Character
Bon and Todo’s cages are on a pulley dangling precariously over a ravine, with Bon sharing his cage with an impoverished boy to offset Todo’s weight. In between the Church’s interrogations, the prisoners are given food, and when Bon complains that his single bread loaf isn’t enough, his cellmate kindly offers half of his — only for Bon to attempt to steal the whole thing.
Between this and the prince’s constant cruel remarks at the expense of Todo’s weight, Episode 7 accentuates some of the prince’s more unlikable qualities. It’s a curious choice as the prince faces impending doom to highlight so many of his flaws, but it becomes clear that it’s in service of a broader look at his character.
When the boy asks what the prince’s interests are, all he can answer with are flowers, crowns and swords — all symbols of the Uralis monarchy. When the Church ponders why Bon believes he was given the ability to see ghosts, he answers with the fact that he was born to be king, only to remember that this theory doesn’t hold water given that his brother was chosen over him.
These moments serve to spotlight that Bon has centered his entire identity around becoming king and little else, and with his death seemingly imminent, the crown prince of Uralis is forced to confront just how vapid that pursuit has left him.
Fushi Manages to Escape the Church’s Clutches
Meanwhile, the existential horror of Fushi’s predicament is elaborated upon further. The Beholder notes that the immortal, still trapped in the solid iron block, is now locked in a cycle of waking up every six minutes, only to succumb to unconsciousness after two breaths, unable to form a coherent thought in the interim.
It’s a gruesome image that makes the Church an even more bloodcurdling foe than before, and the Beholder wonders if Fushi’s inability to regenerate will eventually consign the immortal to oblivion. Luckily for Fushi, however, their unconscious state goes from six minutes to nine seconds, and their regenerative powers manage to heat up the cage, contorting the iron and allowing them to finally break free.
When Fushi arrives to free Bon, Todo and the peasant boy, however, the prince declines to go with them. He tells Fushi that if Bon should escape, they’ll just persecute other perceived blasphemers instead, and Bon intends to denounce Fushi as a heretic. Fushi accepts Bon’s decision, telling him that survival is always the best course of action, and they vow to meet up with the prince again.
Prince Bon Sacrifices Himself for Fushi — but Is This His End?
This turns out to be a ruse, however — despite fabricating a story about how Fushi is in league with demons, Bon still pledges his loyalty to the immortal, and the Church arranges for the prince to be executed in response. As he marches toward death, Bonchien reflects on what he considers his “impotent” life, but two of his ghost friends appear to comfort the prince, commending him for his sacrifice.
As Bon soliloquizes to himself about his family and Fushi, the guillotine blade plummets downward — but the episode cuts to credits before the impact. If this really is goodbye to Bonchien, he got a worthy send-off; the prince has been a figure torn between a genuine desire to do good and his crueler instincts. This episode thus serves as a reconciliation of Prince Bon in his entirety, warts and all, as someone capable of both great selfishness and selflessness, with the prince ultimately doing the right thing at the cost of his own life.
Still, is this truly the end? While things might look grim for Bon, there are still several plot threads surrounding him left to be resolved, such as his knowledge of Fushi’s resurrection abilities and the fact that he has yet to discover that Todo is actually his childhood crush Iris.
On the other hand, To Your Eternity has always been more character-led than plot-led, and some strands going unresolved would be fitting for a series so frank about the cruelties of life. Whether Bonchien lives or dies — and whether his gambit to stop the Church’s cruelty from spreading further will be successful — remains to be seen, but either way, it’s unlikely that either Fushi or the Kingdom of Uralis will let the prince’s suffering at the hands of the Church stand, and there’ll be hell to pay in the aftermath.
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