Mid-Season Finale — Still Stuck on March
I know it looks bleak in the face of the dead on evidence against me right now, but I’m not giving up hope yet. Here’s part one.
We’ve got three chapters to look at since I wanted to wait for the season finale, or mid-season finale rather. They’re pulling an Attack on Titan over us. Wonder if that means this is the last season?
Anyways, not much happened in Loathesome Lies, except almost all his speech bubbles were red. This one is of specific interest. How did you find out about this? “I got close to one of the guys involved in planning. Told them I’d help them dodge police eyes. Led them straight to us instead.” (that or, I planned the whole thing. he might even be the “more competent than VII” guy the PS was talking about in a previous chapter. PS doesn’t know the identity of the Leader. March could still very well be “infiltrating” as himself.)
More lies in Paralyzing Parallels: Any idea where they’re planning to hide this stuff? “They wouldn’t trust me with that information. Since the Devil’s was taken, I have no idea.” (he does in fact have an idea and they would trust them, he know,. he might even have picked the spot.)
We need to stop the snipers. Hawkes and Ladell here, we’re on it. “Okay, I’ll cover for you.” He is not covering for them and in fact goes below decks. He goes below decks to wait all this out!
And Seething Sword, our mid-season finale is where most people will abandon ship for good, but here something we have to keep in mind. Lauren is busy having anxiety and being kidnapped. She’s not here to sort out the lies from the truth. She can’t cross off the wrong answers for us.
“The Phantom Scythe has indeed changed the location of the delivery. And I had the honor to participate in creating this plan alongside the Leader himself.” Leading the fire away from himself? Lauren might not have even been able to hear that one, even if he is the Leader.
“But why would I tell you who he is? It’d be a shame to spoil the secret. I despise you bunch of hypocrites. (talking to the APD) I’ve plotted against you for far longer than you can imagine. I will forever be proud of my contribution to the Phantom Scythe… And everything we’ve accomplished!”
Our traitor has been shot from afar. Well, we can’t have a dead Leader, or can we? March is smart. He would have seen Lauren’s suspicions of him growing, and especially in these last few chapters, the other’s have too.
And if this mid-season finale is leading up to the end like AoT, the Leader would need to be free to do his own thing, not stuck in the precinct under the watchful eyes of his suspicious companions. So, he dies.
But does March just fall down and die?
Time to abandon ship, take a shot at another theory, right? (all puns intended)
Wrong! Not giving up hope yet, top four ways to fake out death: explosions, cave-ins, falling, and water. Think about every way Murdoc dies in MacGyver.
Okay, so nothing as incredibly damning as the ship exploding like I thought, but falling into water is just another possible way to do fake out deaths. There’s no body, I don’t trust it. Of course, if they dreg his cold corpse out of the sea in the next part of season 3, then I’ll have to start figuring out who to hound after next. Probably Dakan if anyone.
Anyways, I don’t think I’m just grasping at straws here. It just seems strange to have all this build up, to kill him off without any payoff.
And here’s something I thought of that’s really cool. Lauren started running back in Paralyzing Parallels. She knows March is lying about what and how much he knows. She very highly suspects that he’s working with the Phantom Scythe. What she doesn’t know, is that he’s “dead”. And now she’s been kidnapped by the Phantom Scythe.
Imagine with me, beginning Season 3 Part 2: Lauren wakes up, maybe tied to a chair in some empty room. March enters the room. Lauren, still wanting to give him to benefit of the doubt, asks him to free her. But the longer he hesitates, the more her hope drops.
March silences her, promising her freedom and safety as long as she can cooperate, but not in a threatening way, more of a pleading. Like, “Lauren, I can guarantee your safety, but only for so long until you’re not a threat. You are so much like me, you see the oppression of the royalty on the people. We have the same goals. (intentional same words as Kieran when he and Lauren started their partnership.) Join us (the Phantom Scythe).
Like how cool would that be. We as the audience know that March is supposed to be dead, but Lauren doesn’t. I think that’s an actual thing in writing, dramatic irony maybe, don’t quote me.
Just looked it up, yeah, that’s dramatic irony.
No body, I don’t trust it and I won’t trust it until they drag him up out of the water, or, maybe my proposition.
Full recap — 69 Moon Maiden “You may think you enemies are hidden in the shadows. But he is closer to you, more similar than you might think. (Just honestly, go reread that whole chapter, it’s the thing that started this whole theory for me)
But he is closer to you, more similar than you might think. In 82 — Solid Stand, Lauren thinks of the people closest to her: Tristan, Dakan, Kieran, Kym, and Will. March is not on the list, but he mentions being friends with her parents in 147 — Right Reward, he’s in her 8th birthday party photo in 118 — Valuable Visitor. Over the course of the story, he constantly stands up for her against Hermann.
He’s smart, he’s a detective like Lauren. He’s lost his closest family. His wife was killed by the criminals who’ve been plaguing Ardhalis far too long.
Lauren assumes those “criminals” are the Phantom Scythe. It would be only natural, but after 147, we know March agrees with Snapdragon, might have even been in it. He never gives Lauren a clear answer, but he does allude to their destruction at the hand of the royals, something we, as readers through Lauren’s eyes know, but the general public of Ardhalis does not. These “criminals” he spoke of could have very well been the royals when they massacred the peaceful Snapdragon at Orion&Sons. March might have made it out. Annabelle did not.
Another thing I thought. “more similar than you might think” What if March was Snapdragon’s Lune, gathering dirt on the royalty to use on the pamphlets, just like how Lauren and Kieran put together folders under the name Lune for the APD. He would have been in the perfect position to do so, being a detective and all with the Sinclairs who were high up in the royalty.
Back to the story, next thing we know, March is lying left and right. Like Lauren, we don’t know what the right answers are most of the time, but we know he’s not telling the truth. On top of that, he’s one of the few successful double agents the APD is finally able to place. One of the few who isn’t killed instantly by the Phantom Scythe, for some reason.
And when we finally find out he’s a real Phantom, he’s “killed” in front of our eyes. Or is he?
To become the Leader full-time, avoiding the suspicions of his colleagues who were at the moment, ready to arrest him. March might have faked his own death.
I am open to the idea that he might be an Apostle and someone else is the Leader. As long as I’m still right about most of the backstory stuff, I don’t care much, but I still hope I’m all the way right. And I don’t think he’s dead.
We’ll just have to wait for Part 2 to find out.
— * —
It’s July now, and we’re still waiting. I hope the story comes back soon. I still think about it a lot. I really want to know if I’m at all right or if I’m completely out in left field. If I am, maybe I can write my own mystery.
So if I’m wrong, and hopefully we’ll know soon, though I don’t think I am, please forget everything before you read my mystery book that I may eventually write.
