Mercy #2 is finally back and I’ve been burning with anticipation wanting to know what was coming next since the end of Mercy #1. While I kept spoilers on that review rather lightly. This review will be full of spoilers and personal speculations as to what can potentially happen as the first arc of the series comes to a close in Mercy #3.
As I mentioned in my review of Mercy #1, there was more than meets the eye with Lady Hellaine. The mysterious woman so has arrived in Seattle to do business. Who also holds an uncanny resemblance to Rory’s deceased mother. Mercy #2 takes the mystery and suspense from the first issue and ups the ante. We come across a mysterious woman named Rachel being chased by two individuals. In the midst of her hiding, she comes across a deceased body covered in “flowers” and as she grabs a petal she succumbs to some sort of infection.
The flowers themselves have been somewhat of a mystery since the first issue. We’ve seen them spurt out the little boy who Lady Hellaine killed prior to arriving to Woodsburg. We see them here with Rachel and this mysterious body (we can only assume that Lady Hellaine has something to do with this), and we seem them later on in this issue. But we’ll put a pin in that for now.
As part of her business venture and in her attempt to win the entire town over. Lady Hellaine throws a party and invites the best of the best. Those all worthy of being in her high presence. Lady Swanson is one of those worthy enough to be invited to Lady Hellaine’s party and while she is hesitant in attending, her children convince her to attend the party as they also want to tag along. There’s a small issue though, her youngest daughter wants to wear her favorite dress but cannot due to her tearing the dress the last time she wore it.
Insert Jonathan, Betsy’s brother who offers Lady Swanson a lending hand as he knows someone who can get the dressed fixed just in time for the party. That’s none other than Rory, the fostered girl who’s under the abusive care of her “uncle”. After much pushback, Jonathan manages to convince Rory to fix the dress as she will be very well compensated for the task. Despite getting the job done, Jonathan refuses to take back the dress as Lady Swanson has decided to suit her daughter in another dress.
This doesn’t sit well with Rory and she storms the party and Jonathan follows suit. Unfortunately for them, seeing as they aren’t part of those “worthy” enough to be invited to this party, they decide to stick around.
Remember back in Mercy #1 (and above) when I mentioned that Lady Hellaine has an uncanny resemblance to Rory’s mother? Well, we get that encounter in this issue as Rory crosses paths with Lady Hellaine and is immediately enamored with this person who she believes is her mother. In the midst of all this, Lady Swanson’s eldest son tries to woo Lady Hellaine as he too has fallen for her great looks, but Lady Swanson is not with it. There’s immediate tension between the two women. You can feel the burning tension through the pages of the issue and I was just sitting back waiting for someone to make the first move.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get any physical altercations but if looks could kill, both women would be six feet deep if you’re catching my drift. But here is where things really start getting suspicious and for lack of a better word, weird. When Jonathan makes eye contact with Lady Hellaine, her eyes and body react in a way she wasn’t able to control. She finds herself nearly speechless from this encounter but manages to ask Jonathan if they have met before. Have they? That we do not know, not yet as least.
After Rory and Jonathan are asked to escort themselves out of the party, Lady Hellaine is advised to remove herself from the party since the “lowlives” are a current distraction and she can make her exit unnoticed.
Outside in the blistering cold, Rory is making her way back home until she is met by Lady Hellaine. Now, this is where things get spooky, heartbreaking, but also exciting! First, this second encounter between Rory and Lady Hellaine pulls on the heartstring a bit because Lady Hellaine tries to kill/eat Rory (crying emoji). The only thing that stops Lady Hellaine from doing it is when Rory calls her mom!!!!!!!!!!!! O-M-F-G!!!! Mirka what are you doing to me!?!?!?!?!??!?!!!!
What also stops Lady Hellaine from killing/eating Rory is her “uncle” who arrives with “reinforcement”. Unfortunately for Rory, she gets beaten by her uncle for trying to make some money without his consent. As the uncle beats Rory, Lady Hellaine satisfies her hunger by killing/eating the uncle’s reinforcements. In the midst of his rage, the uncle attacks Lady Hellaine and he meets his very much deserved demise and in a truly deserving fashion and as messed up as it sounds I was so utterly pleased with this outcome!
This epic, heartbreaking, tearjerking moment doesn’t end there, oh no! Lady Hellaine approaches Rory again and asks her to call her what she called her before (mom). When she does this, Lady Hellaine’s heart starts pounding even faster and her physique is visibly shaken and moved by this. My personal speculation is, just like the title of this issue “it can’t be a coincidence”. There’s a clear connection between Lady Hellaine, Rory, and her deceased mother. And that connection stems deeper than just the resemblance in physical appearances.
I personally think that Lady Hellaine is a different entity entirely, but she needs a host to survive on top of her needing to feed off humans for food and energy. Or Lady Hellaine is Rory’s mother reincarnated but is still holding on to memories from her past life, or a combination of both theories. I really don’t know which one to land on but it has to be something along those line for Lady Swanson to have an immediate distaste towards Lady Hellaine, for Jonathan to have affected her even in the smallest degree; especially with how much she was affected when Rory called her mom a second time. It’s really interesting to me to see how deep this connection is and what else it can potentially lead to.
After the dust settles, this is something Lady Hellaine also mentions when she’s back at her home. She has taken Rory in, but is now questioning how were Rory and Jonathan able to affect “this body” and how there’s no way Rory can be her child. She even mentions how she still feels strange after those encounters.
One thing I haven’t mentioned in this review is the strange hunters we saw a few times throughout this issue. What is their business? I don’t know. But they sure as hell love eating those flowers Lady Hellaine leaves behind when she’s done consuming a human. Or could it be the remains of “The Strangers” Lady Swanson had nightmares about in the previous issue? Since these “strangers” were the ones who attacked her and her husband and crew in the mining incident. We’ll find out in the next issue whenever is releases.
Overall, Mirka has knocked it out of the park with this second issue of Mercy and I cannot wait to see how this first arc comes to close and what is to come down the line.
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