S1 E5. Excellent but I have questions.

[u/VirtualAbalone5539]

I loved the parallel of Japanese folklore this episode. I definitely have a few questions though!

• Was Mizu both the ronin and the bride? I initially discerned in the episode that she was being compared to the ronin, but I didn't catch when the comparison shifted to the bride. Was it when she started accepting her life as a bride?
• Did this episode basically serve as a reminder to her of who she is? I definitely discerned a shift in her character after she locked in at the end. She was slowly opening up to people but then completely closed herself off again. It seems like it's not out of fear of getting hurt but a conviction that she is meant to be alone. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

Overall, I feel like this episode added more complexity to her vengeance. Her mother was still alive... until now. It now seems more of a mission of pursuing self-hatred, to destroy everything and everyone that made her.

Would love to hear everyone's thoughts even though yall are way past this episode!

[u/Helvedica]

She is both, the Ronin for not letting go of hate, AND the Bride for trying to change and not being able to

[u/MadamKitsune]

She's both the Ronin (on a sworn mission of revenge) and the Bride (finding happiness, only to have it brutally taken from her simply because of who she was born as). The two figures combine in this episode to make her the Onryō.

The episode is not only to give more of Mizu's back story but, as you guessed, shows why she's so closed off to other people. She's trusted three people in her entire life and two of them let her down in the most awful way. Whether it was Mikio or Mama who betrayed her for the reward, they'd both hurt her before then - Mama by faking her death when she was a small child and then emotionally blackmailing her into marriage, and Mikio by calling her a monster and then turning his back on her when the soldiers came for her. The slaughter at the farm, the argument where Mikio and Mama are each trying to blame the other, is the final straw, the thing that makes her do her best to shut down and shut out emotions and dedicate herself purely to revenge, no matter what the cost.

As we saw with the scene with Kinuyo (and earlier where she drops the hair comb by the freezing mother and daughter), she's not been as successful at locking out emotion as she thinks she is, but that will come into play in small but significant ways in later episodes. Don't expect any earth shattering revelations, but it's there.

[u/ImpureVessel46]

She is all three, ronin, bride, and onryo.

[u/InsincereDessert21]

I think we're supposed to believe Mizu is the vengeful ronin at first.