Sagas & Sass began covering the Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown in September 2022; this is our summary of book 2 – Golden Son – as it was written to introduce Sagas & Sass episodes 54, 55, 56, and 57.
AHOY! SPOILERS AHEAD!
As Golden Son begins, we learn that Darrow is now commanding a starship in the Society’s Academy. After the Institute (which teaches the Golds to survive and conquer) the Academy teaches “Peace and Interstellar Exploration” – oops, sorry wrong series! It teaches them war.
Now Darrow – along with Roque and Tactus from his time at the Institute, and a new friend named Victra – is facing his final test, which involves leading a fleet with dummy munitions to see which group of students can, well, last the longest. (Sound…familiar?)
Unfortunately for Darrow, the Bellonas sent their son Karnus – Cassius’s older brother – to the Academy with the order to, well, beat Darrow because the person he happened to have to kill in the Passage at the Institute was, ya know, Julian au Bellona, Cassius’s twin and therefore Karnus’s younger brother, as well.
And as it turns out, Karnus and Darrow’s fleets are the last two left in this final Academy test, and while Roque insists that they are flying into a trap, little does he know! Darrow has laid a trap of his own. For a moment it seems as if Darrow has won the day…until Karnus springs a second trap: one that involves ramming Darrow’s ship with a nearly-destroyed ship of his own. (Traps within traps within TRAPS, y’all.)
Darrow immediately orders an evacuation, but he knows that many of the lowColors under his command will die. As he is trying to save his valet, a Rose (aka a highPink) named Theodora, the collision occurs and they are thrown across the bridge. When Darrow comes to, the bridge escape pod is gone (because fuck you Tactus) and he has to carry Theodora to his quarters to his personal escape pod. They make it with the help of some Grays, but they can’t all fit in the pod, and Darrow has to argue with them about Theodora getting one of the seats, because to the Grays, she’s “just a slave”. Ew.
As soon as his pod is clear of the ship, Darrow has one of the Grays load him into a starShell, because he’s planning to launch himself at Karnus’s bridge…but before he can, the Proctors override his computer, and welp, that’s that. Game over, Darrow, you lost.
Back at Academy HQ, Roque tries to convince Darrow that coming in second place is something to be proud of, but Darrow knows it won’t be enough for Augustus – and he is also (rightfully) upset about the 833 men and women who died in their little “test”. He goes off on his own to soak in a hot spring pool in the Academy gardens…buuut there’s no relaxation to be had, as a buncha Bellonas show up to beat the shit out of him!
Granted, Darrow does try to put up a fight, but he’s injured, naked, and his only weapon is a stick…plus he’s one against seven, and soon he’s on the ground getting pissed on, because hey, guess we weren’t going to get through this book without that happening to someone! Heh, heh, heh.
So Darrow has been humiliated by the Bellona – and his trials are far from over, because between his loss at the Academy and, ya know, the whole getting peed on thing, Augustus is ready to offload his contract. Not only will this surely cause problems for Darrow professionally, it also means he loses Augustus’s protection, which will surely lead to the Bellonas actually killing him the next time they come around.
Obviously Augustus doesn’t care about any of this, and it probably doesn’t help that his Politico, Pliny, is there poking at Darrow and just generally making things worse for him all around. No matter what Darrow says, Augustus has made up his mind, and his contract will be terminated in three days, at which time it will go up for auction.
While many of Darrow’s fellow lancers take bets on how long he will last once Augustus cuts him free, Roque insists that he won’t be abandoned; meanwhile, Victra seems to have some sort of plan to help him out, though it does involve leaving the safety of the Citadel grounds for a little field trip to Lost City, where Victra leaves him with her contact, who happens to be…
…wait for it…
THE JACKAL!
And the Jackal being, well, himself, he quickly lays it all bare for Darrow basically right away: it turns out that he’s pulled a Disney-esque move, buying up a big chunk of the communications industry, and on top of that he’s become all buddy-buddy with a crime syndicate…and while getting rid of Pliny is the bait he dangles in front of Darrow, his TRUE end goal is to take down the Sons of Ares!
So yup, the Jackal believes that the Sons of Ares are on their way to becoming a dire threat to the Society, and he means to do something about it. That said, he needs a figurehead for his movement, and why of COURSE he wants that figurehead to be Darrow – and he doesn’t even care that Darrow is a laughingstock…granted, it would be entirely hypocritical for the Jackal of all people to care about that.
So Darrow agrees to be the sword to the Jackal’s scepter, but only on the condition that Mustang can’t be hurt…oh, and that he gets Sevro and the rest of the Howlers back from the far reaches where they were apparently sent by Pliny to split them up from Darrow. But before more plans can be hatched, they are interrupted by a Pink. And not just any Pink – it’s Evey, the winged girl that Darrow met at Mickey’s club back when he was still a Red!
(Except hey, Evey no longer has wings! Good for her…we guess.)
The Jackal insists that Evey take Darrow off to show him a good time; conveniently, this also allows her to save Darrow from the bomb she planted under the Jackal’s table! But Darrow slips away from her, and as the HC screens throughout the bar show many other bombings occurring all over Luna, Darrow dives in and saves the Jackal.
Now, Darrow had ALSO grabbed a datapad from one of the Reds who was with Evey, and he uses it to track down their hideout, where he finds not just her, but Mickey as well! Darrow chastises Evey for the bombing, which killed a bar full of lowColors, and attempts to question Mickey, who Darrow notes seems tired and vulnerable even before it becomes clear that Mickey isn’t there by choice. And then, when Darrow demands to know where Dancer is – and to know who is in charge – out steps another blast from the past (ugh, bomb pun): Harmony!
She tells him that Dancer is dead, and that Mickey is carving them a mini army so that they can really strike back at Gold. Oh, and now that Darrow is back, obviously she wants his help too – specifically with bombing the gala he is slated to attend. Darrow tries to refuse, but Harmony presses him, eventually revealing that she has the full recording of Eo’s death, which shows her last words to her sister Dio – those being telling Dio to hide the crib that she was building for her and Darrow’s baby!
Because yes, Eo was pregnant when she was hanged, and in hearing this, something in Darrow breaks…and then he has a different kind of “Red Rising” moment when it’s ANGER that takes over, at which point he agrees to do “whatever Ares wants”. After touching base with the Jackal, he returns to the Citadel, where he spends his days locked in a haze, tryin to forget his babe…
What? Too soon?
No, but really, Darrow does spend the days leading up to the gala withdrawing from his Gold friends, while Augustus is made to answer for how the heckity heck the Sons of Ares spread from Mars to Luna. As the gala and his impending bombing draw every closer, Darrow wonders if he can sacrifice Roque of all people, and it is only when his valet Theodora spills wine all over his white gala suit and he doesn’t know how to respond to her obvious worry and concern that he realizes…no, he can’t sacrifice Roque, his much warmer friend who would have had the proper reaction to this situation.
So Darrow pays Roque a visit just before they are supposed to leave, and after a very moving conversation between the two of them – including Roque admitting that he is going to try to buy Darrow’s contract – Darrow drugs his friend to keep him from attending the gala. It’s a betrayal, of course, but one that Darrow believes will keep Roque safe…even though by doing this it means that even if he does survive the bombing himself, everyone will know whodunnit.
However, from the moment they arrive for the gala, things are already out of whack. First, the Augustus troupe is forced to ::gasp:: share a lift with another family, the Falthes…and then on top of that, they’re told they have to leave their Obsidian and Gray guards behind. No one is happy about any of this, but Augustus points out that they don’t have a choice but to attend, and so up they go to the roof of the Sovereign’s tower.
Once there, Darrow is first accosted by Antonia, who he brushes off with a rude comeback courtesy of their former House Mars Proctor, Fitchner…and then, oddly enough, Darrow decides to sidle up to Karnus au Bellona. Ya know, the very man who beat him at the Academy…both in the final test, and literally. Yet in this moment, even nasty Karnus is…well, not friendly, but he apparently knows better than to pick another fight right now. Instead, he merely draws Darrow’s attention to the arrival of someone important…
Guys, it’s Mustang, and she’s escorted by none other than Cassius. In, err, more ways than one.
Darrow is understandably upset, but he also knows Mustang isn’t the type to be with his enemy out of sheer spite…and so he stalks out of the gala, taking a lift down to a forested area where he can be alone with his intrusive thoughts. (Yeah, so dramatic, right?)
In this case, though, those thoughts actually help him – because he realizes (fuckin’ finally, yeesh) that bombing the gala is wrong – that it isn’t what Eo would have wanted. Instead, he decides to shake things up in his own way – by inciting something that terrifies the Golds more than anything else.
Darrow, you see, is going to start a civil war.
Okay, so Darrow stalked out of the gala on Luna to have a little tete-a-tete with his intrusive thoughts, but this led to him deciding that he would not in fact be a big party pooper and bomb the Golds per Harmony’s demands…and so he stalks back into the gala – in the middle of the Sovereign’s speech, no less – to enact his new plan.
Whiiiich apparently begins with him jumping right up onto the Bellona’s table to make a speech of his own – one that highlights the crimes House Bellona has committed against House Augustus and against Darrow himself. And because everything is legal in New Jersey – oh sorry, wrong story, but dueling at least IS in fact legal on Luna – Darrow demands satisfaction in the form of a duel with Cassius.
First, though, he has to get the okay from Augustus – not that it’s super difficult, because all Darrow has to do is play to that man’s pride by suggesting that he be KING of frikkin’ MARS.
Listen, this doesn’t seem like the best thing to put into the head of someone like Augustus, but Darrow gonna do what Darrow gonna do. So he gets Augustus’s blessing, and even though Mustang tries to stop him – because remember, everyone has been poking fun at Darrow’s lack of talent with the razor, while Cassius legit dueled his way into the Morning Knight position – she ain’t gonna stop him now, cuz he’s in a duel mind…set…
Okay okay that doesn’t work so well. AAAAANYWAY, obviously Cassius wasn’t going to apologize after Darrow demanded satisfaction, so duel commandment number one is off the table. And there are no seconds in Society duels, and they duel to the death, which also negates duel commandments two through four. Also, this one has to happen Right! Now!, so there’s no waiting until morning, but seeing as they’re at the top of a tower, at least they’ve got the high and dry part of commandment five down.
Damn, sorry, digressed a bit there. Okay, back to the duel at hand, because as it begins the gala guests are getting quite a show. Darrow is probably lasting longer than anyone thought he would, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to survive this shit…until in a WHAT A TWIST type moment, it’s revealed that he actually trained with razor master Lorn au Arcos! (Which is kinda like getting lightsaber training from Yoda.)
So Darrow has actually been taking it EASY on Cassius, and now he finally reveals his own prowess, taunting the entire Bellona family as he goes. Their patriarch barely holds them back, even as their matriarch urges her kin to help her favored son…
And then…and! Then! The Sovereign makes a BIG MISTAKE! HUGE! That being, she reveals her favoritism by attempting to amend the rules, saying that the duel will be not to death…but to yielding.
As Augustus and some of his allies, including the Telemanuses – yes, THOSE Telemanuses, family to PAX AU (rip) – express their offense, Darrow, man of action that he is, presses the duel and straight up CUTS OFF CASSIUS’S SWORD ARM!
Of course a full-on battle between the two factions ensues, in which Darrow kills Cagney (yaaasssss), Victra protects Darrow from Antonia (yaasssss QUEEN), Mustang – separated from them all – commands Darrow to protect her father, aaaand Augustus’s fave Leto is killed when he tries to face down Karnus. (Let’s just say that the Jackal helped that happen, ugh.)
Everyone is trying to flee from the carnage, and while Darrow and his allies do escape, there are more consequences to his actions than he could have ever imagined. Other family feuds are finding their own satisfaction, and as they escape the tower they witness members of House Falthe annihilating House Thorne…even stomping in the heads of the CHILDREN. (WTF)
Upsetting as all of this is, at least there’s a moment of relief when Darrow et al. make it to their hangar…uuuntil they realize their ship is gone, and are then set upon by a whole fuck ton of Praetorians…aaand the Rage Knight, who is none other than FITCHNER!
Unfortunately he’s no ally this time around, as he stuns both Augustus and the Jackal and insists that Darrow has to come with him to attend the Sovereign. Fitchner does at least assure Darrow that his friends won’t be hurt, as the Sovereign can’t exactly execute an entire house prior to AT LEAST trying them for treason, and so Darrow agrees to go with him.
Not that he’s given any decent choices when he confronts the Sovereign. They meet in her office, with Fitchner, Mustang, the Protean Knight – aka the Sovereign’s Fury and so-called sister, Aja – and her grandson Lysander in attendance. The Sovereign wants Darrow to join her, and when he refuses, because hell yeah HE IS NO TROPHY, she brings out the box.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX? WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
…Welp, they’re these things called Oracles, horrifying Carved animals that are part pit viper and part scorpion and who TF knows what else, and they latch themselves onto the arms of both Darrow and the Sovereign, ready to strike if either of them lies. So a game ensues, in which they ask each other questions and reveal allllll sorts of information…until Darrow gets to ask his final question, that being:
“Tonight, at the gala, during the sixth course of the meal, did you plan to allow the Bellona to assassinate ArchGovernor Augustus and all those who sat at his table?”
And this bitch, even with the Oracle attached to her arm, SERIOUSLY HAS THE GALL TO ***LIE***, saying, “No…I did not.”
Thankfully for her (but not anyone else, ptuh ptuh), Fitchner is fast enough to save her. Mustang, however, is enraged, demanding to know why the Sovereign lied when she said she promised she would not hurt Mustang’s family.
The Sovereign tells her that the removal of House Augustus needs to be a reminder – because supposedly the Sons of Ares have spread outside of Mars, and it’s Augustus’s fault because ya know, HE’S the one who hanged the very woman the Sons have used to start ::waves hand:: alllll of this.
Mustang considers this, and then admits that the man she knew as her father is – if not literally, then figuratively – dead, and that the Sovereign can do with Nero au Augustus “as she likes”.
Darrow is escorted to his quarters, left alone….ohhhh wait nope, there’s a Pink lounging on his bed, not that he’s about to do anything about – or WITH – her. As he scoffs at the opulence of his rooms and tries to ignore the naked Pink, his thoughts are interrupted when another Pink arrives with a box containing a holoCube. Both Pinks leave, he activates the holoCube, and as it turns out it contains a message from Mustang telling him to take cover!
The power goes out, and then he hears it – HOWLING. It’s Sevro and friends, come to rescue him! Oh, and Sevro’s brought a present – a bag rather than a box this time, not that we get to find out WHAT’S IN THE BAG just yet…
Instead, they fly back to the villa occupied by House Augustus…but they don’t like what they find. It seems empty, deserted, until they stumble upon a room where more than twenty Pinks, Browns, and Violets tried to hide…and they’ve all been murdered. Still, everything seems silent….but turns out, it’s just a whole buncha jamFields, silencing the fighting that is going on elsewhere.
Darrow, Sevro, and the Howlers fight their way through a fuck ton of Grays and eventually confront an Obsidian and a Praetorian. Darrow demands to see Aja, who is just chillin by a lagoon, because apparently the remaining members of House Augustus are hiding at the bottom of it.
Good thing Darrow has brought some leverage, though! After getting in a few pokes at Aja, he opens the bag Sevro brought him…and pulls out Lysander, heir to the Morning Throne! Darrow gives his ultimatum – let him and his allies leave Luna, or he will kill the boy – because hey, Aja would kill an entire family to ensure the safety of her Sovereign…all Darrow has to do is kill one boy to ensure the safety of his friends.
With this hanging over her head, Aja allows the Howlers to rescue the members and allies of House Augustus from the lagoon. A ship is already there, and they all ascend to it, though there’s a catch – the Sovereign speaks through Aja, threatening Darrow, and as the last Howler – Quinn – begins to rise, Aja grabs hold of her and beats her within an inch of her life.
Now OF COURSE Darrow dives back to scoop up Quinn, but weirdly enough he’s beaten to the punch (oof, WAY too soon for that cliche, probably) by the Jackal, who transports Quinn into their escape shuttle and immediately begins attempting to treat her. Which all seems super out of character, but hey, he’s apparently trying to help out, and let’s be real, Darrow has other things to deal with.
Granted, Tactus stops Darrow and Sevro on their way to the flight cabin and kinda talks a little shit about Quinn’s situation, which leads to Sevro RIGHTFULLY SO beating the shit out of him. Eventually Darrow makes it to the cockpit, where we get to see Kavax loving on Mustang because AWWWW; meanwhile Augustus actually has the balls to question Sevro’s loyalty – but Sevro doesn’t really take offense and is just his snarky self. (gosh we love him)
Lysander is there too, of course, but Augustus apparently doesn’t want him around for the hashtag real talk, and asks Victra – ya know, the only woman present other than Mustang – to take the kiddo to the passenger hold. Tactus actually offers to do it instead, which Victra is obviously grateful for. BUT before the powers that be can really start discussing their next steps, a light starts blinking on the console, and it only takes a moment for Darrow to realize why.
Fucking. Tactus. Is. Escaping. With. Lysander.
We’d pause for dramatic effect, but what’s the point? This means they have a couple of minutes at best before they’re set upon by the Society’s warships. Darrow is kicking himself for not knowing that Tactus would betray them like this, but he quickly formulates a new plan and orders the Blue who is piloting their shuttle to take them near the Vanguard – aka the biggest ship hanging out in orbit.
Because hey! Now he’s finally going to get to do what he wanted to do to Karnus’s ship back in the Academy – load himself into a starShell and get shot right onto the bridge of an enemy’s warship. But not alone this time – Sevro is with him!
They’re launched through space. Darrow sees the shock and fear of those on the Vanguard’s bridge. And then they smash through its glass…
As Darrow and Sevro burst into the Vanguard’s bridge, Darrow realizes his weapons are damaged, and also, OOPS, he doesn’t feel so hot because there’s something wrong with his arm and he TOTES has a concussion. But they persevere, ridding themselves of the Obsidians, Grays, and Golds who stand in their way.
At this point Darrow knows that he has control of the Bridge, because he and Sevro are there to enforce that control…but he also knows that he needs to do something about everyone else on the ship, because he and Sevro are just two dudes and the shuttle full of their allies needs a safe place to land.
So he sends out a message, announcing that the ship is now called the Pax (insert necessary PAX AU TELEMANUS yell here) and that he has claimed the ship as a spoil of war. He reminds the lowColors on board that normally, when one has captured the bridge of an enemy-held vessel, they would simply vent the ship….but instead, he believes that those who actually run the ship can be his salvation – that if they choose Darrow as their commander and overwhelm the Golds who think they are expendable, he will reward them.
And – deep breath here because WOW – the lowColors listen.
They. Fucking. Rise.
The problem is, there’s still a group of Golds and Obsidians trying to cut into the bridge. But then Darrow receives a communication request from an Obsidian – a Stained, nonetheless, so the best of the best – asking if he is a god, and how he took the ship if he isn’t even a Praetor. So Darrow introduces himself, and replies that he took the ship by flying in from the Abyss with just one companion.
When Darrow looks back at the HC monitor, the Obsidian he spoke to – larger than any Obsidian he has ever seen – is cutting down his enemies. By the time he’s done, the hole that has been burned through the door is large enough for a face-to-face introduction…and y’all, this Obsidian is Ragnar Volarus, a much-celebrated fighter, and he offers Darrow his Stains!
Darrow has his concerns, but he accepts Ragnar into his service – and his first command is that Ragnar save his friends…and in return, Darrow will owe him a debt.
While the lowColors are rising and Darrow’s new servant is off to keep his allies safe, one question that remains is who is in charge of the bridge. There’s a lot of “me me me” nonsense from the Blues who are present, but in the end it’s a Blue named Orion who catches his attention. Apparently her Sect intended for her to be a boy – which is why she ‘has a boy’s name’, as Sevro notes – she apparently surprised them, and while her fellow Blues claim she is emotional and not fit to run a ship, Darrow and Sevro like her as she is, and so she assumes control of the Pax.
With the ship in hand, Darrow and Sevro finally get to go meet up with their friends. Sadly, Quinn didn’t make it, and Roque and Sevro – who both loved her – are understandably upset. Darrow isn’t sure what to do next, but Mustang tells him that Sevro needs him – and while he questions this (because Roque probably does as well), she insists that it’s Sevro he should go to.
Now, there’s a lot Mustang doesn’t know, but in this situation, she was right. Darrow finds Sevro in a washroom, where they talk about Quinn a bit, but Sevro soon changes the scope of the conversation…because while Mustang sent for him and the Howlers, he was contacted by someone else on one of his layovers. He tries to make Darrow guess, but no, it wasn’t Lorn, wasn’t Fitchner, and Sevro tells Darrow that trust goes both ways, and he has to take a leap.
Pause for dramatic effect…
It was ARES! So Sevro knows that Darrow is a Son, and he also brought a message that reveals how Harmony betrayed them and is running her own bullshit campaign. SURPRISE SURPRISE. …Not.
The fact that Sevro knows who and what Darrow is – because oh yeah, he also knows that he is a Carved Red – is such a HUGE release for Darrow that he breaks down sobbing. After they have their long talk, though, Darrow also ends up having to face Victra. He finally begins to see the depth of her feelings for him, but he’s all hot and bothered for Mustang, so he turns Victra down by referring to her as a sister.
This obviously isn’t the greatest response, but he actually patches things up by insisting they reintroduce themselves, telling her that contrary to popular belief, he doesn’t eat glass, and loves music and dancing and is very fond of fresh fruit, especially strawberries. In turn, Victra offers up that she likes the way stone smells before rain falls, and she actually hates the color gold.
After they part, Darrow moves on to the mess hall, where he – SURPRISE – finds Mustang. A Brown serves them huge brinner – aka breakfast for dinner – platters, and while you’d think they would discuss what needs to happen next, their conversation instead involves Mustang bringing up her thoughts on the terrible treatment of lowColors and the revelation that inter-Color love is a thing that has always happened – the Society just silences it in every disgusting way they can.
In the end though, their conversation concludes with a simple warning – Mustang telling Darrow that she knows he is in league with her brother, who can’t be trusted. Which, like, DUH, but then when Darrow returns to his quarters, who is waiting inside but THE JACKAL! They reassure each other of their alliance, and their conversation ends when Darrow claims that he thinks he knows how to fan the flames and spread the war, and asks, “What can your network tell me about the shipyards of Ganymede?”
WhAT cAn YOu tELL mE AbOUt ThE sHiPYarDs Of GaNYmEdE?
So Darrow and friends might have escaped from Luna and captured a V.I.S – Very Important Ship, that is – but it turns out that it only takes a short amount of time for a good bit of Darrow’s work to be undone.
A month, in fact, and the ArchGovernor is already whining about how they are “undone”. Why, you ask? Well, because Nero is surrounded by foolish sycophants, of course, and they squeeze out anyone they think might “steal” even the tiniest bit of their power.
But hey, don’t worry, Darrow and Mustang have a plan! And even though the Telemanuses don’t seem to have inside knowledge of it, it’s a good thing they’re around, because Kavax and Daxo’s input certainly lends a hand to what Darrow and Mustang are trying to accomplish: they need to bring the families of the Rim into their fold, because while commerce binds the Rim to Luna, they hate the Sovereign due to her Ash Lord’s destruction of Rhea.
However, because of that destruction, those same families will not easily join the ArchGovernor’s alliance – but that’s okay, because Darrow wants to steal not just the Moonbreaker flagship they’ve been building on Ganymede…but ALL of their ships.
And here’s where Mustang plays her part – that being to question Darrow’s sanity. All nasty comments by her father and Pliny aside, her questions and cautions do their job – rather than make Augustus QUESTION Darrow’s plan, they elicit a conversation that leads to the foregone conclusion – they win, or they die. (Oh hey Game of Thrones reference!)
So Pliny is outmaneuvered, Augustus decides to lead the raid on the shipyards of Ganymede, Mustang is ordered to take who and what she needs to basically kidnap the students from the galaxy’s Institutes, and everyone but Darrow is dismissed to go about their business…because Augustus has a special task for him!
Buuuut first Darrow has to reassure the Boss Man that he’s not a demokrat or a Reformer. When it comes down to whether or not Augustus can trust him, for once Darrow plays a decent long game, because he knows what Augustus needs him to do: win Lorn au Arcos to their side.
When Darrow is finally able to leave Augustus, the Telemanuses are waiting in the hall to remind him that because of his friendship with PAX AU, they are and always will be his friends as well. And sure, it helps that just as Darrow is about to call in his first favor, Kavax’s pet fox Sophocles miraculously finds jelly beans in Darrow’s pocket…but really, they would have agreed to help Darrow anyway, though it seems we aren’t going to learn how just yet…
Most things are coming up Darrow again, with the exception of one – his friendship with Roque is severely damaged, and not about to be fixed anytime soon, as they’re already setting a course for Europa…which means we basically just see Darrow jump from one super awk convo with Roque to the NEXT super awk convo with Lorn.
Seriously, all Lorn wants to do is chill out on Europa with his fam, and while he clearly has some love for Darrow, he kinda sorta really hates Augustus, and even tells Darrow alllll about his boss’s history – which sure, involves Augustus’s whole family being murdered when he was just a little kid, but ALSO involves Augustus doing a not-so-subtle revenge murder of his first wife on their wedding night. (WHAAATTTT)
On top of that, Lorn simply doesn’t want to fight another dang war…buuuut unfortunately for him, the Sovereign knew that Darrow would go to Lorn for help…so she sent Aja and a Praetorian death squad to nip that in the bud…but by now we know Darrow and his plots and plans within plots and plans, and of course this is another one of those situations.
But HOW did the Sovereign know what Darrow’s next step would be? WELP, because Darrow made sure PLINY knew as much, and at this point everyone kinda knows that Pliny is a backstabbing little shit. So as Darrow promised Augustus, he isn’t giving Lorn the option of refusal. The Howlers – including a good number of new recruits – were waiting in the ocean to take care of things, Darrow dropped landmine spikes throughout the garden as he and Lorn were talking, and while Aja is allowed to escape, the rest of the Praetorians are taken care of.
…wiiiith the exception of Tactus, because OH YEAH, he was given quite the promotion for his little stunt with Lysander, and it doesn’t take Darrow and Lorn very long to figure out that he has been ordered to deal with – aka kill – Lorn’s grandchildren.
Unfortunately for the Sovereign, Tactus might have been the only person left for this job – but he truly is the wrong person for it. As much as he wants to please his let’s be real TOTALLY AWFUL family, we learned not that long ago that while he might be an asshole, he’s absolutely NOT a baby killer.
So while he has found the children, he hasn’t actually done the deed by the time Darrow and Lorn arrive…and Darrow is heartbroken, seeing Tactus’s beautiful face marred by his bombs – and knowing how much his friend is hurting, and how Tactus has been abused and manipulated, he offers him an out.
“I know there’s good in you…You’re not a monster. Come back to me,” Darrow says, promising Tactus that he can be one of his lieutenants again.
What happens next is nothing short of heartbreaking. Darrow reminds him that everyone makes mistakes, and Tactus says, “I want to come home.” Darrow tells him to come home, and they embrace, Tactus sobbing and apologizing. The children are escorted from the bunker, and eventually Lorn, Tactus, and Darrow are alone.
…At which point Lorn simply looks at the two much younger men and says, “Now that the children are gone, consequences.” He stabs Tactus, severing an artery to kill him, and then walks out without a word – leaving Darrow to hold his friend as he dies. And so we will never know if Tactus would have done better, which is honestly fucked up.
Anyway, after his foray to Europa, Darrow rejoins some of the fleet with Lorn & Co in tow. With the help of Ragnar, the Telemanuses claimed all ten of the Bellona ships that had been sent to deal with the Europa situation, and while Darrow does well in his offer to compensate them for their losses, he oversteps when he dares ask if Ragnar could lead “absent a Gold”.
He dials it back immediately, but as soon as the Telemanuses have left the room, Orion – ya know, the Blue he straight up put in charge of the Pax – chides him for his error. Darrow notes that she is observant, and she says she had to be, because it’s the only way to beat the monsters.
“It’s not the only way,” he tells her. “You can always become a monster too.” But Orion insists that there are a billion paths to choose…aaaaand then Darrow is saved from having to respond to that because Mustang is arriving on a shuttle.
Why on a shuttle? Welp, turns out that Augustus’s foray to Ganymede did NOT go as well as Darrow’s to Europa. He’s been captured, and Mustang only escaped with the help of her brother…because good ol’ Pliny started a whole-ass coup, and they’ve now lost control of the better part of their fleet.
Not only that, but Pliny approached Mustang immediately after her father’s raid failed, saying her house had fallen to ruin but he would divorce his wife and marry her, because he “had always had his eye on her”….so LOLOLOL Mustang took one of his eyes, which she unceremoniously plops onto the ground.
Discussion and plans follow, but before they all disperse, Darrow sees Sevro loitering around the discarded eyeball, because, uh, he wants it. Mustang squints at him but allows that it’s “all his”, and Sevro grins, saying he hopes to “collect the set”.
Seriously, nothing like some good Goblin Sevro humor to break up what is clearly a rough situation.
After a brief funeral for Tactus – during which Darrow learns that Tactus took back his sale of the Stradivarian violin Darrow had gifted him and was practicing in secret, hoping to surprise Darrow with a sonata – Mustang reminds Darrow that he needs to fix things with Roque, who is more upset than ever, both about losing Tactus and because Darrow let Aja escape. Darrow knows he has to fix things, but he has a hundred other things to fix, as well…
And it doesn’t help that his friends and counselors can’t help but argue amongst themselves…and Victra is the biggest victim of their ire. No one trusts her because her mother was one of the first to betray Augustus and ally with the Sovereign – no one except Darrow and Roque, that is, and they fight for her inclusion in their plans, which include taking back their fleet, and then taking back Mars.
But the real question is, HOW will they do these things?
That’s another answer we don’t get right away, because next thing we know, Darrow is trying to sleep but someone is ringing his doorbell – and that someone is, not surprisingly, Mustang! Ragnar tried to chase her away, but Darrow lets her in – to his room, anyway. They converse, but it’s in circles, and in the end when Mustang tells him that he should ask her to stay, he can only think that if she gives him her heart, he will break it…but really, it’s more about his fear of her rejecting him when she discovers what he really is. And so he doesn’t respond fast enough, and then she’s gone.
As it turns out, their plan is to sneak into Pliny’s ship via a supply vessel called a camel ship, and during the trip, Darrow has a V.I.C. – Very Important Chat – with Ragnar. He tries to tell Ragnar that they are brothers, but Ragnar is confused because he thinks of Darrow as his master. So Darrow cuts his finger and smears the blood on Ragnar’s Sigils, and then his own, trying to prove that yes, they are the same.
But Ragnar still bucks this idea, because he doesn’t understand how they could be the same when Darrow is a Gold and “comes from the sun”…and this is when Darrow bares it all, admitting that he was born six inches from the earth, that he was deceived as Ragnar has been deceived, and that the Sons came for him, gave him a second chance. He wants Ragnar to choose – to choose to be Darrow’s friend, to rise with him.
Darrow leaves Ragnar without waiting for him to answer, but when their camel ship arrives in the bay of Pliny’s flagship, Ragnar is behind him, along with Lorn, Mustang, Kavax, Roque, Sevro, Daxo, and Victra. The lowColors don’t stand in their way, and they immediately release the prisoners Pliny has taken.
Weeeeellll…not before Sevro makes each of them thank the Reaper for saving them, including the Jackal…who also apparently has to play along with Sevro’s “what’s in my pocket” riddle, though Darrow helps the Jackal along by pointing to his eye BECAUSE OF COURSE SEVRO STILL HAS PLINY’S EYEBALL IN HIS POCKET. Lolz.
The crew eventually positions themselves just above Pliny’s conference room. They have taken over the ship’s speakers, and Sevro sings…
If your heart beats like a drum,
And your leg’s a little wet
It’s ‘cause the Reaper’s come
To collect a little debt
Darrow mounts the LeechCraft drill that they brought along and burns through the floor, slamming into the middle of the conference table with Lorn, Mustang, and Sevro following close behind.
Obviously the Golds – who let’s be real kinda stupidly aligned themselves with Pliny – FREAK THE FUCK OUT, and it doesn’t help that when Pliny screams for them to seize the traitors, Lorn simply says, “If anyone comes within two meters of Darrow, I kill EVERYONE in this room.”
Honestly HAHAHAHA FUCK U PLINY NO ONE IS RARING TO CALL LORN AU ARCOS’S BLUFF. Seriously, one young dude almost tries and his neighbor STABS HIM IN THE BACK.
The TL:DR is that Pliny STUPIDLY assumed that Aja would kill Darrow on Europa, and like…never fucking followed through to make sure that happened? As Darrow says – the Jackal failed to kill him, Antonia failed to kill him, Proctors Apollo and Jupiter failed to kill him, Cassius failed, Karnus failed, Cagney failed, Aja and her Praetorians failed…
Darrow doesn’t kill Pliny then, though. He merely gives him a good slap across the face and leaves him to his “friends”…whooo of course immediately murder him.
The Peerless Gold go with the wind, chasing power, and Darrow knows he cannot trust them, but he also knows he is once again their leader, and so he announces that he is bound for Mars, and calling for an Iron Rain.
And next we know, the Iron Rain that Darrow called for is happening, which means it’s a Big Darrow Speech Moment! He insists that while the Cities should be taken and the Golds who will not bend should be killed, the lowColors should be protected. They will not collapse the minds, rape the cities of Mars, despoil her verdant grounds – they do not want to take a corpse, they want to take her BACK.
Whites come around to errr basically “bless” the Gold warriors prior to battle, after which said warriors recite the names of their chief enemies, and then Darrow takes his leave of Roque, Lorn, Mustang, and Theodora – the latter two kinda sweet, even if the former two were more on the bittersweet side of things. That said…Darrow does get a lil’ morale boost on his way to the hangars with Sevro and Ragnar when Sevor points out that a bunch of people have painted SlingBlades on their armor.
And it doesn’t stop there – even as Darrow is wondering aloud to Sevro whether this might be a Gold trick, whether Ares even exists at all, Sevro lets loose a howl and the entire bay howls back in kind…and then the standards of the separate legions fall – even those of the Augustus lion – and are replaced with wolves and SlingBlades! “Act like a god, get followed like a god,” Sevro insists.
Oh, and there’s a couple quick blasts from the past as well, because it turns out that Proctor Jupiter has been spying for Augustus and comes ‘round to inform Darrow that last he knew, all of the Bellona were in Agea, and oh! “A peculiar series of heavy shuttles” landed just last night!
This is followed by a quick chat with Milia, one of Darrow’s first recruits at the Institute, and then they’re all in spitTubes waiting to be launched into space, through Mars’s atmosphere, to land on her ground and win her back. The playful banter between Darrow and some of his friends is cut short when Roque announces, “Let fall the Rain”…
AAAAND they’re OFF! Silence reigns as Darrow and his legions rip through the space battle, seeing the Telemanus war party launch from Victra’s ship, which then plunges into the Bellona formation – something that WOULD be a very bad idea, except SURPRISE! Victra’s mother switches sides, and soon Darrow loses sight of that engagement and has to focus on what comes next – making landfall and slipping under the gap between the city’s shields and the ground.
However, Darrow’s landing party ends up much farther from their goal than they had anticipated and now have to travel 300 kilometers – something that is at least a bit easier than it could be considering they all have gravBoots. While their trip isn’t without its troubles, they eventually meet up with Mustang’s group – which of course landed much closer to their goal and let’s be real that’s probably because it’s MUSTANG, ha – at which point they are hailed by Roque. And boy does he have NEWS for them!
Orrrrr does he? Because when Darrow finally flies up into the clouds to get beyond the jammers and the storm that is raging around them, Roque ends up revealing something Darrow apparently already knew…
The Sovereign is on Mars and trapped behind the shields in Agea!!!
Roque is clearly angy with Darrow for not letting him in on this little secret, but while Darrow does look forward to revealing that this is why that let Aja escape from Europa – because they could use his bomb’s radiation signature to track her and therefore the Sovereign as well – he kinda has bigger fish to fry right now. They arrive on Olympus (yes, the Institute’s Olympus, which their foes had been using as a base) and face basically zero resistance, also discovering that the students have already been evacuated…so, ya know, insert IT’S A TRAP realization here.
But what KIND of trap? They don’t really have time to figure this out as more than anything, they need to capture the Sovereign. This involves ignoring the battle raging around Agea’s defensive wall and instead swimming under that wall, through the opening that was cut by the Sons of Ares at Darrow’s behest. Once on the inside, Mustang departs to finish her task of taking down the shield…but then Darrow is distracted.
A little Brown girl is there, just standing in the mud, and she has something in her hand.
Sevro moves to shoot her, but Darrow knocks his hand aside.
Darrow looks up and sees Bellona knights and Obsidians floating above them, beyond the range of the EMP globe in the little girl’s hand.
She presses the globe’s button, and Darrow and his people begin to die.
That globe? It was an EMP, y’all, and it took out all of the electronics for Darrow’s team, causing them to fall either into the muddy riverbank…or the river itself. Their protective starShells are now their coffins, but this isn’t the first or even the second time Darrow has been left in the muck and mire to die – it’s the third, and this time he at least has a razor. It is curled around his arm, and now it could save his life – possibly for the price of a limb, just as the slingBlade could have when he was “just” a Red Helldiver in the mines of Lykos.
But it is because Darrow was a Helldiver that he is able to carve (pun not intended but still, heh) his way free of his starShell prison. He only has time to save one other, and so he swims to the largest starShell he sees – which happens to be Ragnar’s coffin, such as it were. Darrow cuts his friend free, and they swim to the surface, seeing their allies buried in the mud around them as Grays move through the field, methodically murdering everyone in sight.
Darrow and Ragnar cake themselves in mud, and then Darrow finds a razor and hands it to Ragnar, who drops it “like it’s made of fire”. Darrow reminds him that Golds aren’t gods, and then the two of them scuttle amongst their enemies, killing as many as they can as the moments tick by, and all Darrow can really think about is how much time his friends have before their oxygen runs out…
Eventually they run into some Golds, who try to take the time to recite their names and accomplishments…uuuuntil Darrow tells Ragnar to just kill these fools, who immediately prove they are absolute fools by calling Ragnar a dog. “I am a MAN!” he roars, and cuts them down.
Darrow and Ragnar ferry their people from the bottom of the river, but only Sevro, Clown, Pebble, Screwface, and Thistle are still alive (of the Golds), along with just eleven of fifty Obsidans. So many others are dead. And when Thistle sees Ragnar holding a razor, she snaps at him to drop it – which he does, looking to Darrow in panic.
But now’s not the time, because the Howlers are mourning their own. Rotback is dead, Harpy died before they hit the ground, and then there is Weed, who Pebble and Clown and Sevro mourn over in such a visceral way that Darrow actually wonders for a moment if he has lost Sevro.
“Are you with me?” he asks. “Sevro?”
Sevro is crying, his voice cracking, but he insists, “Always, Darrow. Always.”
There’s no more time for mourning, and there are difficult decisions to be made. Darrow picks a discarded razor from the mud and hands it to Ragnar, telling not just him, but the other remaining Obsidians, that it’s a man’s duty to choose their own destiny – and they must choose theirs.
Ragnar takes the razor, but Thistle once again balks at this, asking Darrow what he is doing, threatening “Give me the blade or I’ll cut away the hand that holds it”, even trying to rip the razor from Ragnar’s hand after Sevro tells her to shut up.
Because he’s is having NONE of this ABSOLUTE bullshit, and threatens to cut his fellow Howler down. And still Thistle looks to her fellow Howlers to back her, but Pebble and Clown aren’t about to mess with this nonsense. When Clown essentially asks Darrow what’s going on, Darrow simply reminds them of their time at the Institute – how he bleeds for those who follow him, and does not take the allegiance of slaves.
Let’s be real, Darrow’s right – the Howlers shouldn’t be surprised by this, and maybe only are because it’s “REAL LIFE”. And Clown isn’t wrong when he points out that it’s a slippery slope, but then Darrow and Sevro play not-so-Secret Santas and give all of the remaining Obsidians razors and send them off to fight, and only Thistle still seems to still be questioning this decision…
At this point, Darrow knows that Thistle will not follow him after this, but as usual with Darrow, that’s another problem for another time. For now, he orders the Howlers to remove their armor, because they need to move fast, and while there deeeeefinitely aren’t enough of them to actually deal with the Sovereign and her Praetorians and WHO KNOWS WTF ELSE, they have to be on their way as quickly as possible.
Sevro moves ahead to help guide their way, and after several forays into enemy territory he returns to report that Ragnar got the gates open. Their men are pouring in, the Wind Knight is dead and Cassius was nearly cut down, but Darrow and his remaining forces are still struggling to reach their goal: the Citadel.
And when they do, it’s anything but triumphant. Those walls are high, y’all, and Sevro is the last member of their party with uhhh sorta working gravBoots. He’s only able to set Darrow atop the wall, and then the shield falls…which means Darrow is left with a choice…
And he’s done with allowing his friends to sacrifice their lives for his cause. Despite Sevro’s protests, he runs, faster than he ever has, because he’s, ya know, Darrow, and he can’t accept that the Sovereign might escape his grasp.
Darrow might be fast, but he’s also not exactly in tip-top shape after the EMP and the race through Agea and ::waves hand:: allll that. So while he makes it to the Citadel, it’s just in time to see the Sovereign and her entourage taking off in a shuttle.
Whiiiiiich he promptly boards by leaping into the air, barely catching the lip of the ramp and holding on for dear life as the ship rises and the ramp continues to close. Against all odds (or maybe not, because again, this is Magical Boi Darrow we’re talking about), he actually makes it into the bay, but LO! The Sovereign is still chillin’ right there with all her peeps!
(Seriously though Darrow. How are you shocked that in that wee span of time they would have already settled in elsewhere?)
Now, Darrow DOES have a pulseGrenade, so for about half a second it seems like he has the upper hand…oorrrrr not, because Octavia orders the pilot to do a barrel roll and OPE there goes Darrow’s grenade. SIGH.
So it’s once again time for Darrow to fight for his life, as he faces down the Sovereign’s groupies, including Aja, Fitchner, and Karnus…and Karnus being Karnus, he’s the first to charge, despite Octavia ordering that Fitchner be the one to take Darrow’s head. But with a flip and a stab, Darrow takes out Karnus. Bye asshole, no one will miss you!
Not that Darrow escaped unscathed – he’s even MORE injured now, and the Sovereign once again commands Fitchner to deal with him. At this point Darrow absolutely believes he’s gonna die, but as he speaks what he clearly believes are his final words – that he wants Fitchner to tell Mustang – err, and Eo somehow, for some reason – that he loves them – he doesn’t quite get the response he expected.
BECAUSE OH YEAH IT TURNS OUT FITCHNER IS ARES AND TOSSES A SONIC GRENADE AT OCTAVIA AND HER MINIONS AND HOWLS AS HE LEAPS FROM THE SHIP WITH DARROW IN HIS ARMS!
LIKE…HOLY SHIT Y’ALL!
Let’s be real, Darrow was in hella rough shape after the whole Iron Rain/EMP/race through the city/getting attacked by Karnus stuff, so he sleeps for like a week, but when he wakes up it’s to Mustang in the bed with him, so he’s got that going for him, at least.
Ever the Politico, Mustang immediately fills him in on all the things – including the fact that Roque captured more than 80% of the Bellona fleet, the Jackal’s media is questioning Roque’s loyalty to Darrow, Sevro has been hanging out with Fitchner a bunch, and Lorn and Victra are all buddy-buddy now.
Their conversation has some serious undertones, and while at first Darrow is trying to keep things light, soon he starts thinking about how he might never have seen Mustang again, which leads to him sobbing in her arms, which leads to him finally letting go of his restraint and them actually having THE SEX, y’all. Again, we guess? Maybe? Probably? Okay, anyway, moving on…
It seems the Jackal’s pundits might be right about Roque, because while Darrow tries to apologize for like, all the things, the Poet doesn’t seem overly interested in hearing him out, and Darrow ends up not even having the time to press things because Sevro interrupts them, pulling Darrow away to reveal that the Jackal has captured Harmony, Evey, and Mickey.
BIG rut-roh moment, for sure.
This leads to Darrow paying the Jackal a visit under the guise of bringing gifts to him and Victra, who for some reason is hanging out with the Jackal in his new digs. But of course Darrow’s visit also allows him to sneak Sevro and some Sons into the Jackal’s stronghold so that they can recover his prisoners.
The plan goes off without a hitch, and then Darrow finally gets to spend a bit of time with the people who made him what he is – perhaps more literally than figuratively, but maybe that’s besides the point. He is finally reunited with Dancer, who, as a reminder, is totes not dead like Harmony said he was (grrr, Harmony), and even gets to see Mickey again…Mickey, who is not in the best of shape after the Jackal’s torture and is super emotional and grateful that Darrow saved him.
But most importantly is that finally, F I N A L L Y, Darrow gets to have a conversation with Ares himself, now that he knows Ares is Fitchner and Fitchner is Ares, and all. But how and why did this come about? Welp, turns out that the tl;dr is that Fitchner fell in love with a Red woman, married her, she was carved so that they could have a kid, that kid being Sevro, which means Sevro is half-Red! Color us not super surprised, really?
Unfortunately (because this is Red Rising and we can’t have nice things) Fitchner and his wife, Bryn, were found out, and while Fitchner and Sevro were away their home was raided and Bryn was captured and then killed for her so-called crimes of loving a Gold and getting Carved and giving birth to a half-breed or whatever gross words they use to describe a child of two Colors.
So Fitchner started working against the Society and has been doing so ever since, and now he is trying to put Darrow in place to, welp, inherit the whole dang empire.
This…isn’t an idea Darrow is in love with, and he also doesn’t like that he has to continue to hide who and what he really is. He kinda has to agree to the plan as is – at least for now – but first he insists on one thing.
He wants to visit Lykos, to see his family…but the real kicker? He’s gonna take Mustang with him to tell her his SECRETS ::insert dramatic music::.
True to his word, Darrow makes his way to Lykos, where his arrival surprises – and probably kinda scares the poo out of – those who are “in charge” of the mine.
First things first, Darrow demands that Ugly Dan – the very Gray who used to terrorize him – bring him to the bubble garden. Only now that Darrow has actually Been Places and Seen Things, the garden seems a sad, paltry place. He knows that Eo, like the garden, also wasn’t as perfect as mere memory allows for, but before he can move on he has just a couple more things to do.
MineMagistrate Timony cu Podginus is waiting for Darrow when he exits the garden with a fancy cheese spread and a whole lot of fawning. Darrow realizes that, like Ugly Dan, Podginus was, uh, way more than a little bit built up in his mind and in reality is just a greedy SMALL man.
Of course Darrow has a viable excuse for visiting Lykos, and he quickly gets to the point – or rather, has Ragnar do so, reading from the datapad that he was very recently – and very quickly – trained to use. Turns out Lykos has had a 14 percent decrease in production in recent months, and Podginus scrambles to make excuses and then to insist that he’s been doing everything possible to increase production.
Side note: Oooof course their attempts to increase production include things like severe (and honestly, mostly random) punishments, increasing alcohol rations, pumping pheromones into the air so that the Reds “breed like rabbits”, and having the favored Gammas tamper with the other clans’ machines and maps.
But here comes “I always need to see the best in people” Darrow again, actually wondering whether Podginus in fact CARES about the Reds who work this mine. BIG DAMN SIGH.
So instead of firing Podginus or quarantining – aka moving the unruly Reds to more compliant mines and making Lykos unlivable – Darrow insists that they throw the Reds a feast with the food and libations he has on his ship, a feast that Darrow watches from above because as a Gold, of course there’s no way he could be part of it without making it, ya know, SUPER AWK for the people who are supposed to be having a good time.
While he’s watching from above, Mustang arrives, and even though she begins by teasing Darrow for being so mean to Grays, she quickly turns the conversation to how disgusting she finds the mine, and not just because it looks gross – because Podginus is reselling the supplies meant for the Reds for pocket change, and even then they have more than enough food in storage, but the population remains malnourished.
Still, she doesn’t quite understand why they are there – at first Darrow simply tells her that it’s the mine where the girl sang the Forbidden Song, and then he asks her to go on a walk with him. (And let’s be real, it’s not gonna be a romantic one, not in a place like this, heh.)
He leads her down into Lykos and through the township where he grew up, and he is actually afraid – Mustang isn’t stupid, after all, and even before he can reveal anything to her she is asking him how he knows where he’s going. But rather than act like a Real Person for once and actually Speaking the Words, Darrow hands her a holoCube, kisses her…aaand leaves her behind as he enters his childhood home.
It’s late at night and the household is asleep – except for his mother Deanna, that is, who comes into the room, stops, and stares at him for a moment – but of course she knows who it is despite the Carving that made him a Gold, because Darrow is her son and listen WE’RE NOT CRYING YOU’RE CRYING OKAY YEAH WE’RE TOTALLY CRYING.
To be fair (to be FAAAIRRRRR) Uncle Narol had apparently told Deanna that Darrow was alive, but not about the Carving. The mention of Uncle Narol brings them around to family news, which includes the reveal that Narol is “dead” (as in, he supposedly fell down a mineshaft but there was no body so Deanna doesn’t really believe he’s well and truly DEAD dead). Darrow also finds out that his sister Leanna married a Gamma (ptuh ptuh!) and that his brother Kieran’s wife died and Kieran ended up remarried to Eo’s sister Dio.
Okay that’s a lot, pause for breath…
Darrow tries to explain the whole ‘break the chains’ plan to his mother, but she is kinda side-eying him because truth be told, what DOES happen if he takes down the Society and the Reds are led out of slavery? Thankfully Darrow knows better than to assume he knows better (ha!) – the women are the strong ones, truly, and also, he understands it will take a whole metric fuck ton of brilliant minds to figure out how to set things right in the end.
Too soon, though, he has to take leave of his mother – not just because one of his nieces comes downstairs and he can’t be seen by anyone else, but because he knows that Mustang left after viewing the holoCube.
OR DID SHE?!
…okay, she didn’t, though she did trick Sevro into thinking she had, and SHE’S RIGHT BEHIND HIM, ISN’T SHE?
Yes, yes she is, and she is Not. Happy. In fact, she has a gun trained on Darrow throughout her line of questioning, and even though he answers everything she puts forward, it definitely seems to be touch and go throughout their conversation…and perhaps even more so when Ragnar shows up and threatens Mustang.
Seriously, it’s quite the stand off, but thankfully Ragnar eventually stands DOWN. He explains that he earned 44 scars for the Golds who enslaved him, but never one for the family members he lost, and that he intends to live for more. But when Darrow asks Mustang what SHE lives for, she merely turns and walks away…
Granted, we only find that out a little bit later when Darrow recalls her exit as he rides his victory chariot in the Triumph parade that rolls through Agea, because she’s not there. Nor is she – or Fitchner – at the ceremony that follows the parade, in which there’s a whole lot of ‘we are Golds and we did this Conquering Thing and now Darrow gets a Laurel and here’s a Monument to How Cool we all are’ type stuff.
Probably more important to Darrow’s Bucket List, though, is what happens after the ceremony. Augustus leads Darrow to the throne room (cuz lol of course he does, Nero brings the drama, eyeroll) to chastise him about letting Obsidians hold razors…but also to tell Darrow he wants to adopt him (oh, and Augustus also wants him to marry Mustang, but for now we’ll focus on the adoption thing).
Oddly enough, apparently the Jackal isn’t just okay with it – it was his idea! Weird flex, but ok. And if this wasn’t our biggest red flag re: Darrow’s relationship with the Jackal, I don’t know what was.
Of course Darrow agrees to the whole adoption thing, because really what choice does he have right now? And then it’s on to their exclusive little Triumph celebration party! Strange, though – Fitchner still hasn’t popped in, and Sevro is actually worried about Daddy Not-So-Dearest, so Darrow tells him to take Ragnar and go looking for Fitchner…which means they miss what happens next…
Because while this party is SUPPOSED to be about Darrow receiving his Triumph Mask, instead he receives a stab in the back – or rather, a prick in the wrist – from Roque. He falls to the ground, paralyzed, and watches as Vixus and Lilath (yeah, those assholes from the Institute) remove their Pink fleshMasks and they, the Jackal, and others start straight up MURDERING EVERYONE AT THE TRIUMPH!
…and when we say everyone, we mean EEEEVERYONE, men, women, and children alike. Victra is shot down by her sister (Antonia, you bitch!). The incomparable Lorn au Arcos is cut down by Lilath and the Jackal (seriously, wtf). And when Cassius, Aja, and others arrive to take Augustus prisoner, he gets rude with the Jackal (rightfully fucking so, considering the Jackal reveals that he orchestrated the favored Augustus son Claudius’s death) and earns himself a bullet to the brain.
And then, as Darrow lies there paralyzed, having just witnessed so many of his friends and allies die, Roque shows him what’s in the box – the Triumph Mask box, that is…and when Darrow sees its contents, he knows they are undone.
Fitchner – Ares himself – has been caught and butchered.
And so ends The Society Strikes Back.
