○ Interlude 4: Capstone

As Febbre Alta draws to a close, it stands witness to one of the most dynamic and tragic segments of Gunslinger Girl.  These episodes have seen the rise of Henrietta as an individual and the fall of Jose as a good man.  It is the culmination of their story, an intense account of the lengths to which the girls will go to find acceptance and what the selfishness of their trainers has cost them.

Henrietta Unsettled

Henrietta's world is anchored in the belief that Jose cares for her.  This is her ultimate truth.  It is assurance of his love that gives her purpose and sustains her through an immensely difficult life.

Predicated on this core assumption she has interpreted Jose's actions as kindly ministrations; her devotion is so profound, the object of her worship must be equally so.  As such, while he asked many things of her Henrietta could be confident they were always correct, even if she didn't understand why.  Any troubles she experienced were a result of her imperfect implementation of his guidance and she looked forward to a future that, once she could be what he wanted, all would be well.

Beginning with Pasta this understanding began to unravel.  It was not merely that she was suffering, but what that suffering implied: something was deeply amiss with her reasoning.  She was trying her best yet her actions didn't seem to be leading toward fulfillment like they ought to.  Implicating Jose was still unthinkable, but this creeping dissatisfaction opened her to influence from other sources as she sought to find what was missing.

The first pieces came from Triela.  This big sister had always been there, comforting, guiding, and leaving Henrietta with a gentle glow simply for being in her presence.  Henrietta had of course never thought of being like Jose; he was her exalted guardian, not her role model, so she did what he said not what he did.  Yet Triela felt so right, inspiring emulation in a way he never did, and so subtly weakened her confidence that he was the only, or even the correct, way.

Triela: "It all depends on the person who's in charge of you and the conditioning..."
Henrietta: "The person in charge...?"

Further, listening to Triela brings with it the perils of truth.  Sitting at tea, Henrietta was confronted with a possibility that had never occurred to her before: Jose wasn't a loving protector but merely a warden, a handler, "one who is in charge of her."  He was just like the rest of the adults at the Agency whose only motive for being kind was to get her to do her job.  Improvement and happiness had never entered into it; she was being used.

It was a terrifying thought, for it struck at the heart of everything that mattered to her.  Such a direct refutation was too overwhelming for her to contemplate for long so she hid it away, a clandestine faltering of her faithfulness toward the man she loved.  But once broached such doubts can never be completely eradicated, and against her will she found herself observing his words and actions in a way she never had before.

The second person to disrupt her world was Elenora.  Henrietta had dreamed of being a good woman for Jose but had never been clear on exactly what that had meant.  She had followed his promptings on how to be a normal little girl, mimicking what she had observed in movies and magazines to fill out her own fantasy.  Along with servitude, she believed this would lead to the life that she wanted.

To encounter Elenora was a shock.  Intelligent, considerate, nurturing, and a true partner to the man she loved, Elenora's plain elegance left Henrietta dazzled.  Even more than Triela, here was a vision of everything Henrietta suddenly knew she wanted for herself... and yet which was nothing like where her current path toward the "perfect woman" was taking her.

If this were not enough, Elenora's genuine kindness stood in stark contrast to Jose's methods as a caregiver, and the comparison was not favorable.  Taking her desires into account and teaching her in steps she could follow, Elenora made Henrietta feel more supported and valued than Jose had ever managed with his unexplained demands; this is what having a guardian should be like.  It was at once soothing and confusing, for if Elenora had accomplished this in a single day, what did that imply about Jose...?

Henrietta Inconsolable

All these problems were disconcerting, gnawing at Henrietta's orderly world and filling her with doubts about its center.  On their own, thought, they might not have been enough to bring it down; she perhaps could have compensated, for with all her heart she wanted to believe.  It was Jose's catastrophic string of failures on Sicily that made this impossible, and so finally tore it all asunder.

At a time when his honesty was becoming suspect, he gave her explicit reason to doubt.  Already Henrietta had the unsettling sensation that he was feeding her excuses; whether it be for stargazing, touring Siena, gifting a camera, or going on a surprise vacation he fell back on the same explanation: because she was doing a good job.  Repeated this way it became arbitrary, eroding her confidence that he was telling her the truth about himself.

Confirmation of duplicity came when he gave her one explanation for her disarmament, and quite another to Pietro and Elenora for theirs.  Here was an undeniable example where she had heard for herself his shifting narrative.  Now she knew: Jose could lie to people he ought to be honest with, and she could not be sure who was being deceived.  It shocked her into withdrawal, unable to face the momentous implications.

Concurrently he compromised her faith in his good intentions.  The emotional wrenching she experienced at his hands when he demanded her weapons was nothing short of cruel; he had been kind to her only to manipulate her and now it was obvious.  When she objected with reasonable concerns he crushed them with the force of his authority.  That he later allowed Pietro and Elenora to interrupt her cherished holiday without so much as an apology further spoke to how little he valued her feelings.

This lack of parity was thrown into sharp relief by Elenora's relationship with Pietro.  Just as Elsa was unsettled by seeing the attention Jose bestowed on Henrietta, so too was Henrietta presented with the incompleteness of her own condition.  Able to scrutinize all the small signs of affection this couple exchanged she found no such evidence for them in her own life.  Her relationship with Jose looked nothing like the loving partnership of her dreams... it looked like a trainer and his pampered hunting dog.

Henrietta was now on the brink.  She had experienced what felt right with Triela and Elenora and knew that this was wrong.  Something had to give, and that is what happened in her bedroom after dinner.

Jose had always asked of Henrietta one thing: be a normal little girl.  Henrietta was never sure what it meant or why it was valuable; it was simply what Jose wanted, and that was enough.  She endeavored to be it with all her might, yet she could never quite achieve it to his satisfaction, the vision of his open affection always seeming to be just out of reach.

"Say Henrietta, don't fly into a rage like that again.  You're a girl, so you shouldn't be violent all the time.  Understand?"

Now Elenora inadvertently suggested the same.  Be a normal little girl.  But to Henrietta's ears, so long accustomed to Jose's requirements, it was followed by a ghostly, "Otherwise I won't accept you.  Understand?"  It pushed her over the edge to hear it from the woman she had come to revere, and fearing that Elenora too would expect this, Henrietta's secret and deepest sorrow was torn from her: she knew she was not a normal little girl.  She had known for some time but had refused to accept it for it could not be.

This admission was the final blow.  Jose had lied to her, but maybe it was for a reason.  Jose had overridden her desires, but perhaps he knew best.  Here, though, Henrietta could no longer deny that he had led her astray.  The task to which he had set her could not be accomplished, and as such he had demanded the impossible as the price of his love.

In this moment, Henrietta knew why Elsa had done what she had.  They were the same after all, and when faced with the awful reality that their handlers did not love them, and may never love them, they were moved to dramatic action.  To convey such deep sincerity and pain normal measures would not suffice; these men, who had avoided it for so long, had to be left with no other recourse but to recognize the affection of their girl.  That was all that mattered, to be acknowledged as one who loved them.

For Elsa, her answer was to murder Lauro and so prove she was more than her programming in an act of defiant love; it was all he had left her.  For Henrietta, who had Jose's feeble kindness on which to hope, her answer was to lay out a test.  She would threaten to kill herself, to show that his love was more valuable than life itself, and wait for him to come for her.  If he did not, then she would have died immediately as a result, free of an existence which no longer held any value in her mind.

This is Henrietta's desolation.  Her dream of a meaningful life in which she served and was cherished in return has been shattered.  Jose demands the irrational and the impossible, leaving her to manufacture reasons to believe that he was ever motivated by love.  With his competence and benevolence undermined, Jose, the shining center of her world, no longer makes sense.  And without him, neither does she.

Jose

Jose knew how Henrietta felt from the beginning.  It was the cardinal problem that Bianchi identified, Pietro excoriated, and Marco foreshadowed: Jose never lacked awareness but the will to act on it.

At first he struggled against his weakness.  He knew what he was doing was wrong and that he wasn't caring for Henrietta like he should.  To salvage his self-image he staged small rebellions, refusing to conform to the standards of the Agency.  For Henrietta, this meant special treatment and inconsistent gifts.  They were genuine apologies, desires to make up for his failings and repay her for what she had lost.  As a benefit, such behavior also made him feel better in the process.

In time, these compensations became substitutions for true effort.  He lost sight of Henrietta, and so too did he forget the original purpose of consoling her.  No longer seeking to fix what was broken, he now desired only to convince himself he was right and that she was happy under his care.  After all, none of the other trainers treated their girls so conspicuously so he must be a good man.

"I do want to make Henrietta more confident."

Steadily, he became comfortable with this arrangement.  Henrietta was his excuse.  Sorrow over her state allowed him to rationalize his self-absorption, making her feel better was his cover for doing what he wished.  He came to need her as she was: an obedient doll who would predictably be overjoyed when he gave her attention or rewards.  That he undercut her confidence and effectiveness in the process, ensuring that she would always need his support, passed unremarked.

"It would be better if you were more greedy."

When his old methods began to fail him he still refused to face Henrietta's maturation.  He knew she was suffering from a want of affection, but persisted anyway, now trying to force her into accepting what he offered rather than giving her what she needed.  It was all too convenient, being able to elicit her superficial contentment while not requiring that he change.  What had begun as kind half-measures were now no more than manipulative distractions, served up when it suited his needs.

Then there was Elsa.  On that rooftop a line was crossed.  Jose knew Elsa, for he knew Henrietta.  Presented with saving her heart or acting out of expedience, he chose the latter.  He had become too accustomed to it and when the time came that his needs could not be reconciled with a cyborg's it was the inevitable result.  With Elsa's sacrifice there was a whisper: just as he had done this to Henrietta's foil, so too had he done this to Henrietta in small steps.

"You're so good-natured it becomes the opposite."

Jose's last opportunity to change course was Sicily.  He had all the motivation to do so, aware of the deadly ramifications for both himself and Henrietta should he fail.  But it was too late; his burden had always been that he knew what he was doing, and now after having practiced so long at ignoring the consequences he found that he was incapable of behaving otherwise no matter the threat.  His habits had become his character, and the good man that he once was, was gone.

Capstone

Having reached the limit of the relationship between Jose and Henrietta there is only exhaustion.  While the possibility of her being saved from the inevitability of her short and troubled life had long since withered, there remained the hope that maybe Henrietta could still grow and happily seek after her dreams in what had been granted to her.  It seemed like Jose could have done that at least.  These last few episodes have shown that it was not to be.

In Henrietta's quest there is a quintessential human tragedy.  If she had been less she would have dreamed of less and perhaps been content.  Instead she is so full of humanity and in her earnestness she sought out the truth, not suspecting what pain it would bring.  She never lacked the will, always taking the hard route to pursue what she believed was right, but what had seemed within her grasp has now slipped away for reasons that were never within her control.

For Jose, there is only regret.  Before him was the possibility to rise from his previous mistakes, learn from them, and become better in light of his girl's love.  The components were there; with his native reflectiveness and sensitivity, it was never beyond his capacity to be a truly good man.  Instead he hid from his potential, choosing the convenient path of appearances over reality.  It was ultimately his faults that defined him, leading to a fate that he could foresee but did not prevent.

With nowhere else to go after these reveleations, they both retreat: he from his conscience and she from her reflection.  It is the quiet end of Henrietta's search for Jose's love; this is all he can provide for her.  Now they continue to pretend as she clings to what little she has and tries to forget that she had ever wanted more.

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