Summary:

Having recently rescued Juliet, the Capulet group is now preparing to leave for Mantua where William’s mother Ariel has a home. Cordelia isn’t going and is worried, so Juliet reassures her that she’s okay because she feels she’s with Romeo even if they’re separated. Meanwhile, Romeo arrives at the Gradisca mines after telling his father that he let Juliet go because he loved her. When Romeo had said that he now understands why his mother left the castle, Montague decided to give his son authority over the mines and told him not to come back until he doubled the mining output. Upon his arrival, Romeo tries to give a speech urging everyone to work hard with him, but no one seems to care. Romeo then insists on seeing the work sites, so the head of the mines Paolo gives him a tour. It is during this inspection that Romeo notices a skinny boy carrying a heavy load who collapses. During dinnertime later, he is surprised at how little food the laborers get, and he also sees the boy from earlier getting picked on by two other men. However, when he tries to help, Romeo gets an elbow to the face. The two offenders go once they realize who they hit, but the boy Romeo saved isn’t grateful and instead tells him not to do anything unnecessary. Afterwards, Romeo turns down a chance to shower because water is precious here and decides that he’ll also go to work starting tomorrow.

Meanwhile, William parts ways with the rest of the Capulet group, but before he goes, he tells Juliet to show him a miracle concerning how she’ll fulfill her love with Romeo. However, once William is gone, Francisco asks Juliet to forget about Romeo because if she has doubts, then they can’t overthrow Montague. Despite this, Juliet remains firm about the oath she took with Romeo and believes that he’s looking for a way for them to be together. Back at the mines, Romeo starts working with everyone else, and on one particular day, he saves the same skinny boy from a several falling pieces of wood. Even now though, the boy – whose name is Petruchio – remains ungrateful and accuses Romeo of wanting to show Montague his good qualities. Petruchio reveals that everyone knows about how Romeo angered his father and got sent here, but it’s not until Petruchio starts talking badly of Romeo’s mother that Romeo gets angry. Petruchio wants Romeo to hurry back crying to Montague, but Romeo is resolved not to run away from his father or his own fate. Seeing Romeo continue to work hard as the days pass, Petruchio eventually helps Romeo out and apologizes for what he said earlier. The two quickly develop a friendship, and Romeo finds out how much Petruchio wants to go back to Neo Verona.

Sometime later, Romeo can’t find Petruchio in the dining hall and learns that the boy is sick. Once Romeo sees how poorly Petruchio is doing, he orders Paolo to send for a doctor as soon as possible. For the time being, he sits at Petruchio’s bedside and urges him to get better so that they can go back to Neo Verona. Petruchio, however, explains that he’s only got his little brother and sister left in the city and asks Romeo to take them on a winged-horse ride when he goes back. The following morning, Romeo wakes up to discover Petruchio dead. After burying the boy, one of the other laborers named Giovanni reveals that Petruchio was sent to these mines for stealing bread for his starving siblings. With Giovanni contrasting the extravagant noble life with the other reality, Romeo starts crying uncontrollably in front of Petruchio’s grave.

Preview

Here I had thought Montague would punish his son with hard labor for letting go his mortal enemy, and what actually happened – him sending Romeo away to supervise a mine – seems like a rather weak punishment in comparison. In a way, I guess you could interpret it as an illustration of the divide of thinking between the nobles and everyone else. Perhaps Montague still hopes that his son can make something of himself. Overall though, I found this episode rather predictable in terms of Romeo befriending Petruchio and Petruchio dying. For him being sent to the mines not to be a complete waste of time, Romeo had to go through some sort of hardship and learn something about reality while he’s out there.
Actually, I was more interested in how William narrated the recap at the beginning of the episode, and how he continues to want to find out how things turn out between Romeo and Juliet. It seems to reinforce the notion that he’ll survive all this and write the actual play Romeo and Juliet at the end of this story. That in turn makes me think that this will indeed end tragically, though I guess the important thing isn’t what ending, but rather how they get there. In any case, the preview for next week shows Romeo still at Gradisca, so the story will probably continue focusing on him instead of Juliet.

As a side note, I knew Petruchio was the main character in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, but I didn’t realized that he was a character in the original Romeo and Juliet play too.

24 Comments

  1. Dang.. Romeo got slapped AGAIN… Slap #3 I think x(. Did that boy with the nasty look from last week die? @-@.

    Tybalt is still MIA..

    OOh.. A potential Hermione episode? seems interesting….

    Shiningninja
  2. Hmm, Romeo sure does get smacked around a lot. :\ I thought sending him to work in a mine was kinda of odd; it makes much more sense for Montague to exile him to look after a mine instead.

    On another note, I hope this won’t be the last we see of Willy. He’s such an amusing character, I hope we get to see him again.

    mangaka-chan
  3. Potential happy ending? William writes the story of Romeo and Juliet’s love only to have them die in the end of his story. But in real life both live, maybe to protect them from their fate. Could be the easy road to getting a happy ending.

    Shiggy
  4. Lol, of all the places, a mine? Okay, I’ll go with Gonzo’s choice then, although I feel it’s a bit weird and random for Romeo to be sent to hard labor in a mine. I’d think torture or something medieval, but I guess that’s how it is… ?

    Shannon
  5. Maybe very predictable, but at the same time very pleasant for Romeo to learn on the hard way; especially since he wants to overcome his father to be with Juliet (something we already know will end bad). Anyway, with William exited about their love story, we can tell our main characters won’t make it to their “happy ever after” ending… just a dream.

    I bet (at July 5th 2007) my 2.68 TB anime collection that they’ll die fighting against Montague.

    Ten episodes more to go!

    Syaoran Li
  6. I always have a feeling William will be the one who wrote the play “Romeo and Juliet” at the end of the series. I mean…come on….William Shakespear…William? But from what I knew, most plays are over dramatized so who knows? Maybe the series will end “differently” with William writing the original Romeo and Juliet play while in actual fact both Romeo and Juliet are alive and well? You guys get what I’m talking about?

    dward
  7. @dward

    I was thinking almost the same thing too! Except that I’m thinking what if something happens in the end which cause William and the others to think that both Romeo and Juliet had died, which inspires William to write the play. But later we see an after credit scene which shows Romeo and Juliet alive and living happily ever after in some faraway place? Hmmm…

    Divinity
  8. @dward

    I was thinking almost the same thing too! Except that I thought that what if something happens in the end which cause William and the others to think that both Romeo and Juliet had died, which inspires William to write the play. But later we see an after credit scene which shows Romeo and Juliet alive and living happily ever after in some faraway place? Hmmm…

    Divinity
  9. You guys still think it’ll have the same ending as the original play? I don’t think so, it’s shown in one ep already where Willy says that if this was one of his plays he’d make it more tragic and full of more drama when talking to Juliet iirc. Anyways, I don’t expect the same ending at all. I still think that with all the changes made from the original that the ending will be changed also. That aside, Willy can write his version anyway he wants to, and that’s the same for the ending. It’s not like he’s got to worry about it being 100% true.

    GP
  10. I’m just gonna throw in that they might not commit suicide and the details might be changed, but they could still die. That’s what I’m guessing, that they’ll die but in a different way from the original. Because I honestly will feel cheated out of life if they live. I mean, that’s really what made Romeo and Juliet a classic to begin with. Why change it?

    Alice
  11. If they do live, it’ll be a nice twist. If they die, that would be sadly expected and the future of Neo-Verona will have to be with the rule of the people rather than bloodline royalty. The fact though for RxJ is that one family has an evil ruler, while the other family is good. In the original R and J, it would make sense for the suicide because both families are good. They just fight like little kids until two deaths made them realize how wrong it is to fight.

    I just can’t imagine RxJ’s Montague being very sympathetic if Romeo kills himself…. He’ll be like: “*glare* Everyone, forget this ever happened!!”

    As for this episode, yeah. This episode marks Romeo getting slapped again. 😀 The next slap bet would probably be with Hermoine! (J/k…?)

    Episode 15 summary:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Ohhhh. I think I know who may start that in Episode 15. Yep. *nods* Someone apparently isn’t too happy and she must feel compelled to help? (Maybe? Maybe?)

    tg
  12. Actually I don`t remember Petruchio in Romeo & Juliet. I think Gonzo included other Shakespeare’s characters such as Ofelia (Hamlet) and Portia(The Merchant of Venice)
    Give your thoughts about it!

    Ileane

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