Princesses and Pickpockets in Princess Principal (Episode 8 Review – “Case 20 Ripper Dinner”)

(Spoilers in this review) Summary: Team White Pigeon set up a stakeout in order to find out who Lord O’Reilly is meeting with in secret. While Ange pretends to be a landscape artist during said stakeout, she befriends a pickpocket/orphan and she tells stories of the Black Lizard Planet to said orphan. One of the stories Ange tells happens to be her past with Princess. After the stakeout successively concludes, Ange helps the orphan and her friends move to an orphanage. The episode ends with Princess and Ange playing piano together like they once did back when their positions were reversed.

Review: Since this is case 20, this takes place after case 18 / episode 6. I really do wonder why the order of episodes are like this.

I’m sure many viewers are pleased to finally get a bit more information about how Princess and Ange met, became friends, and switched places. This whole Revolution thing just happened right when Ange (who is actually the princess) was able to switch places with Princess (who is actually Ange) so “Ange” could try momentarily escaping stuffy life of being a princess. The timing of the revolt is pretty amazing considering how Dorothy became separated from her father during that time frame, too.

The implications of the switcheroo were also elaborated upon – at least on Princess’ side. She was forced to become a flawless princess or else they would find that she was a commoner fake and she would be sentenced to death. That desperation in turn pushed her to become a genuine princess. Thus she was a lie that became truth in the making, as Princess said herself back in episode 1. In other words, it’s a story where the fake becomes the real deal and I’m a sucker for those sort of stories and I’ll have to write a post about that one day.

Sharp observers probably already figured this out, but the exchange Ange and Princess had in episode 2 (case 1) was a reenactment of a conversation they had as children (which was seen in a flashback during this episode). Nice eyes, those of you who had guessed correctly! I wish I could say I believed.

Ever since episode 4 (which is when Dorothy’s superior told her that spies and the like live in a world of greys), I’ve tried to compare Team White Pigeon to Gazelle, the only enemy spy we’ve consistently seen thus far. And while TWP do dubious things as spies are wont to do, Gazelle seems much more ruthless in comparison. If TWP truly is grey given that they’re a team of cutthroat spies, then they’re almost certainly (for now) a lighter shade of grey compared to Gazelle and the rest of the spies that work for the Duke of Normandy. Perhaps the reveal of the true goals of Control will change the perspective of everything, but I doubt it.

It was very interesting to see how that Ange (who is actually Charlotte) was the one who wanted to become Queen in order to change the system of walls (within people’s hearts and physical walls like the ones that separated many people or the ones associated with upper-class and lower-class, I suppose). But it seems that, by the time they reunited, Ange had given up on that dream and that Princess (who is actually Ange) has inherited that dream instead. It’s implied that Ange now calls Princess Princess out of respect for her dedication towards her dream.

Seeing Princess admit she’s a spy while she’s confronting Lord O’Reilly made me roll my eyes. What if people heard what she said?! But I guess being a little careless with realism for the sake of theatrics and entertainment is to be expected in a show about spies.

All in all, this was an episode that really filled in the blanks for Ange and Princess, but it’s still another episodic mission that concludes smoothly as usual and I’m left wondering if things will change since each episode is starting to feel a bit formulaic. Since Team White Pigeon seems to always outperform the enemy spies and seems to have the moral high ground, it’s hard to take the opponents seriously. Perhaps Gazelle can make use of what she learned from Dorothy’s father in episode 6 (he reveals that he has a daughter who just happened to join the morgue shortly after he received the offer to find the cipher in a corpse) so she and the Duke can turn the tides. And when will Operation Changeling actually take place?

Meanwhile I’ll just enjoy cute girl spies, I guess.