Last time on Gemma, Gemma brought out the magic, much frivolous waste occurred, and Ann decided to get revenge on two other girls.

Her revenge turns out to be stripping them naked. I know Victorians were prudish, but…

When they realize their state, the two of them squeal and try to cover themselves with their arms. Cecily actually attempts to use Elizabeth as a human shield, while Elizabeth cries and pulls Cecily’s hair.

It’s an all-girls school, so they’re not even being seen by the opposite sex. Would being naked really be so horrifying and humiliating it overrides the fact that their clothing just somehow disappeared off them? Because that’s really what I’d be more worried about.

The girls cackle so madly from their scarf tent that Moore comes in. She compares them to hyenas. Did that phrase exist a hundred years ago? Anyway, she wants to know what’s up inside their special sanctuary. Felicity drops a bunch of hints about how she knows of an even better place, and it’s like this garden.

A sort of private paradise.” Felicity smiles dreamily.
“Best not tell me, then. I don’t know if I could be trusted in paradise.”

Moore is always dropping these annoying mysterious-past hints. I’m hoping she’s Sarah from the diary or something to justify why she’s being a side-sue this whole time.

Gemma obligingly wonders, but only in the general sense.

I try to imagine what Miss Moore must have been like as a girl. Was she obedient? Cruel? Rebellious? Shy? Did she have a good friend and a secret place where she found a retreat from the world? Was she ever like us?

Yes. Was the woman who told you about the Order, knows about goddesses and magic, and keeps talking about choices and regret ever like you and your group of magic users who call yourselves the Order, Gemma?

Moore asks what they’re reading. The question is apparently a formality because she snatches the book before they can react. In the process of eying it the porn falls out and the girls dash to grab that and Moore seems to ignore that, despite the fact that visually porn tends to attract the eye and Moore’s attentive enough to snag the comparatively boring diary already.

They say they’ve been reading from it. Moore says she’d like to take part, and they can’t say no without admitting anything.

Here’s where it goes stupid.

“Of course,” Felicity croaks. “I’ll show you where we left off. We’re almost to the end, I believe.”

Moore has no idea how far you were in it. You know this. And you know that the part you’re at is all about the Order and doing magic.

Look, obviously the author wants her to read from the later part. But this is not the way to do it. Have it already open and Moore say that they seem to be at the end or something like that. It’s not like it’s hard to think up a reasonable way of doing this. The author just didn’t even try. (Mind you, even if the author did it still doesn’t fix the broader plot hole of the girls not reading the whole thing as soon as they realized it’s talking about real magic.)

Anyway, so she reads from it, and it’s the final entry. In it, Sarah and Mary lure Caroline to the east wing of the school with the promise of a doll.

The child struggled hard against me, terrified as she was, and I pressed my hand more firmly against her small face, trying to shush her, to block out my own fear. Then slowly I raised my hand and covered the small nose there as well. She knew what I intended then and she fought me. But it was her life for ours, or so I saw it. I held fast to the child till her struggling ceased and she lay still on the floor of the East Wing, her eyes wide open, dead to the world. A terrible realization came over me at what I had done.
“The creature shrieked in anger. ‘I needed her whole! Your sacrifice is worthless to me now.’
“‘But you promised . . . ,’ I whispered.

As you see, the stupidity that we started with has infected the rest. I was assuming that smothering the kid was Mary’s rebellion, stopping her friend, but no. For absolutely no reason, Mary decides to murder the kid instead of giving it to the shadow, somehow confused about how it works despite the fact the shadow must have told them. But while we’re on the no reason issue, there’s no reason to be doing it in the school either. Nor, for that matter, was there reason for Gemma’s mother to lie about not knowing the kid’s name, she should have just given a fake one. I mean, what if Gemma had just asked the kid because she was curious?

Also wtf with that comma there.

Also Gemma what sort of failure of a racist Victorian are you if you can’t even tell the kid is a Gypsy?

Anyway Sarah assumes Mary betrayed her, which honestly makes more sense than Mary deciding “live sacrifice = kill the kid”, so I’m going to have to give that one to Sarah. This sure does look like she’s trying to get Sarah eaten by the shadow.

Mary rushes off to get her mentor Eugenia, who presumably is Spence. That actually makes a lot of sense. I was thinking it was weird how the girls’ school had a thriving witch community and Gypsies without any of the administrators trying to get them run off the grounds. If an Order woman was running the place, it sheltering the others suddenly works.

Anyway Eugenia rushes off to the Winterlands. Sarah’s already being warped by the shadow and her eyes are turning black. Eugenia then shows why women can’t be trusted with power.

Eugenia trades herself for Sarah, which will empower the creature far more and it’ll eventually be able to break out, so to fix that she then also has to lock the realms up for everyone. All this to rescue a girl who’s already been corrupted and immediately starts trying to yank the door open again.

In conclusion, women are stupid idiots who will fuck up everything because their feelings make them irrational. There is absolutely no other way to interpret this. Eugenia makes a superpowered monster and destroys magic for a generation, in order to rescue a murderer who’s now the still-living extension of the monster and let it out to fuck things up in the real world. Good going there! And you did this because the girl’s murderer best friend asked you to, and then trusted her to seal the realms after you. Because someone who was willing to murder a child for her friend will definitely agree to keep the realms closed when her friend asks her to open them again.

Mysteriously, Mary does not do this, but I’m going to assume it’s just terror because god knows it isn’t a conscience or even rational self-interest because she demonstrably lacks both. Sarah comes at her with a lit candlestick and the place goes up in flames and Mary runs off.

<i>ran hard for the woods and watched as a strange light filled the sky over it, watched the flames burn and my dearest friend with it. So the magic of the Order and the realms is gone now. I can feel all traces of it slipping from the world with the harsh first light of morning. It is gone and so is Mary Dowd. She no longer exists.</i>

So. Gemma’s mom is presumably definitely Mary, if only because it’s Sarah who has the strange name that can’t be remembered and Circe and Mary are opposed.

This is the final entry. Moore coolly closes the book, thanks them for sharing, and heads off. Moore being Sarah certainly works, although she’s not really reacting to it. But then, she’s not reacting period, which she should do regardless of who she is unless she already knew the whole story and was a really good actor.

This doesn’t explain where “Virgina” comes in. The realms are closed to everyone, not everyone minus Gemma’s mom, so how does a sixteen year old create an entire fake life that’s enough to get her married to some upper-class guy?

“I can’t believe Mary killed that poor little girl,” Ann says when we’re alone again.
“Yes,” Felicity says. “Who would do such a thing?”
“A monster,” I say. She no longer exists . It’s what my mother said. Something about that creeps inside me and won’t leave. I don’t know why.

What’s confusing you? The diary entry even mentioned the girl being given Mary’s pinafore and you’ve said the little girl is wearing a pinafore that’s too big for her over Gypsy clothing.

Instead, Gemma runs off to see Kartik.

I want him to know that I am good, not like Mary and Sarah. I would never do the horrible things they did. For some reason, I desperately want him to like me. I want him to wake from dreams of me, sweating and alive. I can’t say why. But I do.

Oookay. So she asks him what if, you know hypothetically she could totally show him how awesome magic is and that his group just doesn’t understand?

His eyes widen. “Tell me you haven’t done what I think you’ve done.”
I step forward. I don’t recognize my voice, it is so desperate and near tears. “There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s beautiful. I’m . . .” I want to say “beautiful,” but I don’t because I’m on the verge of crying.

FEMINISM

She tries to grab him and says she’ll take him and they can look for his brother. So she’s not even trying to sound reassuring, she’s literally trying to drag him into hell. Kartik very understandably freaks the fuck out.

That said, his phrasing may be important.

It’s not for me to see. Not for me to know.

Is this a girls-only club? The Order seems to be made of women and at the least it’s implied only women get the power, so can men even be brought in?

Gemma, instead of anything useful, starts emoing about what if Hot Indian Boy thinks she’s a disgusting abomination instead of wanting to have sweaty dreams about her and runs off.

Returning to her room that night, she’s caught by Brigid, who’s quite understanding and believes her when she claims to just be wandering because she can’t sleep. Right then Brigid remembers what name Sarah used to use: Circe. Yes book I already figured it out.

Sarah Rees-Toome, who did not die in a fire twenty years ago, but who is alive and well and waiting for me. She is no longer a shadowy enemy but flesh and blood. Someone I could get to before she gets to me. If only I had some idea where she could be or what she must look like.

Um…but we don’t know that. All we know is Mary made it out alive. Sarah may have burned to death, it’s not clear. Honestly, the fact there’s a shadow monster active on this side when no one can access the realms and the rest of the shadow monsters are still stuck behind the seal makes me think Sarah’s dead.

But Gemma’s thought it like it was fact and not her speculation, so I suppose we can assume it’s true? Gemma decides to track down the photograph for real this time.

But first she’s going to bed because I guess it’s not that serious.

Next chapter she then goes to class, because again, not that serious. She screws up her French because she’s sleepy and empty of magic. Later she passes the Circe tidbit on to her friends.

“So Circe is Sarah Rees-Toome. And she’s alive.” Felicity shakes her head, incredulous.

Why the hell would the fact Circe was Sarah’s other name mean she’s alive? What sort of logic is this?

They tell the teachers they lost a glove to give them an excuse to search everywhere. Gemma spends a whole hour searching and doesn’t find it! Because an hour is terribly long. Sure, someone’s trying to kill her and drag her into the hell dimension where she’ll be corrupted and hollowed out, but on the other hand, it’s hard work.

She stares at the existing pictures. The 1872 one is rippled from what she figured last time she saw them was water damage, but when she picks it up now she sees the back is perfectly smooth. Since the front is still ripply, she realizes the back must be to a different photo. My, it sure was lucky she decided to check out the water damage for no real reason.

So yeah, for some reason it’s hidden in the other one instead of just gone. Why? Who the fuck knows. Somehow someone hid it and then convinced everyone else that, if anyone ever asked, they should claim there was no photo. This does not make sense.

But finally Gemma has the photo. It’s useless for Sarah, as it turns out, because her head is turned right at that moment and the whole thing’s a blur. But next to her is, shockingly, Gemma’s mother because oh my god Gemma’s mom is actually Mary.

How stupid does this book think we are? The only question was which girl she was, and I was holding out hope it might somehow be Sarah just because that’d be unexpected.

She’s looking directly into the camera with her wise, penetrating eyes—eyes I’ve known my whole life.

I have the sense the author has forgotten that Victorian photos aren’t in color. A big deal has been made about Gemma’s mother’s shocking green eyes and how Gemma shares them this whole book. This would not be a distinctive feature in a Victorian photo. The book doesn’t even try here – I’d have even grudgingly accepted an “even without the color, I could still…”

Ugh. I feel like the further in we get, the more the plot falls apart.

With the Order in shambles, who covered for the kids and lied about the bodies found? With the magic gone, how did they manage to hide themselves and make new lives? It really isn’t easy for a sixteen year old girl to do this kind of thing under normal circumstances, let alone a high society girl angling for a good marriage. Why did Mary randomly decide that the right thing to do was actually murder Caroline? How the fuck did the whole trade-and-close-the-realms thing seem like a good idea?

I guess maybe Kartik’s group could have helped with the coverup part, but why would they if all “Virginia” is good for is producing a kid to reopen the realms, which they don’t want? Why not just kill her then? It wouldn’t even have to be an ends-justifies-the-means thing, they can just kill her for committing murder in the first place! Murdering a little girl is still wrong if you’re doing it to give your friend the freaky blood-powered magic instead of yourself.

Also, why isn’t anyone paying attention to all the weirdness? Stuff teleports around and no one notices? And Kartik was so good at stalking he jumps her every time she has an accidental vision, but she’s dragged magic out and reopened the whole place, then gone back for a second dose of the stuff, and he’s completely blindsided? Then just looks scared instead of trying to do anything, like say kill her? It’s not even clear when she’s talking if she’s already opened things or if she’s just planning to, he might still have time to save everyone with a well-placed knife! What the hell is he there for if not stabbing?