Drops of God continues to deliver one amazing episode after another. Last week, the show took Camille and Lorenzo to Fede Galizia’s hometown in Italy. They spent the whole time looking for winemakers who used quinces, jasmine, and peaches in their blend and kept hitting dead ends. It was only after Elisabetta Fossati, the owner of the hotel Camille and Lorenzo were staying in, talked about the dark side of the Léger Guide that Camille realized that the link between the painting and the wine wasn’t the ingredients; it was rather familial in nature. Issei didn’t take such a long-winded route and accidentally came across Léger’s notes with the name of the wine written on them, after spending a romantic night with Katase. Since Issei didn’t search for the wine and yet boasted about knowing its name, Camille started to hate him more than she already did. Issei essentially severed his ties with his mother, Honoka, after she admitted that she had an affair with Léger. Luca severed his ties with Camille after she refused to helm the Léger Guide. Today’s episode deepens those rifts while bridging the divide between Camille and Issei.
Spoilers Alert
Camille And Issei Travel To Paris For The Third Test
After watching the results of the second test, I said that since Camille put in the effort to find the link between the painting and the wine and Issei didn’t (because he was busy with the stuff about Léger, Honoka, and Hirokazu), he missed out on an opportunity to get closer to his actual father. After learning that Marianne had created resentment between Alexandre and Camille, she wanted to know him better, and she did. So, even if she was bitter after what Issei did, the experience of finding out the meaning behind that phase of the test, the wine, and the painting was permanently seared into her soul. In today’s episode, we see Issei coming to that exact realization as he complains to Katase about not being as good as Camille, who tells him to chill out and be a little less robotic about something that he loves so much.
When it comes to Camille, one of my three assumptions was that Luca was using the Léger Guide for his own benefit and wanted to continue doing that via Camille. When she rejected the proposal to be its poster girl, he got angry because he could foresee all the money he was about to lose. And in today’s episode, Lorenzo confirms that something like that is at play. According to him, his uncle is buying various vineyards at nominal prices and then putting them in the Léger Guide because he owns a significant share of the annually released book. So, naturally, the value of those vineyards is going up, and he’s making back all the money he has spent and then some. However, without a Léger, the guide isn’t going to have any value. Since Camille has jeopardized that, Luca is trying to get his revenge by robbing her of her inheritance. There’s also the possibility that Luca is aware that Issei is technically a Léger. Therefore, if he wins the tournament, he can continue his scam.
Talking about the tournament, Camille gets an invitation to take a private plane to Paris. Issei joins her after having a massive argument with Honoka, which ends with Honoka disowning Issei since he refuses to apologize to Noboru. Issei does try to apologize to Camille because he eventually realized that it was wrong for him to even write down the name of the wine for the second test because he had found out about it accidentally. But Camille is in no mood to listen to him because she despises him and is clearly still reeling from Luca’s betrayal. And while the siblings travel together to Paris, Honoka strolls around her son’s apartment, which actually belongs to her. When she sits down to have Elisabetta Fossati’s fine, she remembers the time she had it with Alexandre, and he told her that people shouldn’t have wine by themselves since that robs them of the opportunity to create a memory out of that session. Sure, that’s a romantic thought, but sometimes people just want to have a drink by themselves, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Yes, in Honoka’s case, it’s a bitter reminder that channeling the hatred she has for Alexandre towards Hirokazu and Issei has made her lonely.
Camille Goes Through Hell While Issei Sails Through The Tests
After reaching Paris, Camille and Issei are made to dress up in matching black suits and perform the first part of the third test in front of the press. Both Camille and Issei are uncomfortable in this setup, and they question the lawyer about making such a spectacle out of Alexandre’s death and Camille and Issei’s weird grieving process. But it becomes clear that Luca is the one behind all of this because he sees this as an opportunity to boost the sales of his restaurant company while trashing Camille’s image in front of everyone. Now, the first part of the third test is a rapid-fire round where Camille and Issei have to answer wine-related questions. The one who gets to correctly answer the most number of questions will be the winner of this round of the third test. Since Issei is clearly the kind of wine scholar who has robotically learned everything there is to learn about the history of winemaking, he aces it. Camille only manages to get a few answers right because her memory is stacked with practical knowledge about wines that she can only access after tasting or smelling them.
Issei and Camille are given the impression that they’re going to have lunch and then go for the second part of this third test, but the lunch turns out to be a part of the evaluation process. That said, while waiting for the food to arrive, Camille and Issei seem to break down the walls between them as Camille congratulates him, and Issei says that it’s a case of rote vs. meaningful learning. With that out of the way, Issei and Camille are presented with three dishes, which they have to eat, and then select the wine that best compliments them. Drops of God takes this opportunity to highlight the lives that Camille and Issei were living prior to this whole tournament. Although Camille comes from a rich family, she didn’t have much access to it because her mother taught her to lead a simple life. So, she isn’t used to all these exquisite foods and has a hard time digesting the five-star stuff. On the flipside, Issei has marinated in his wealth and probably eats the kind of food that’s being presented to him in the tournament all the time. However, both of them manage to find the wine that they think is appropriate for the meal.
The first part of this third test relied on facts. That’s why Luca didn’t have to directly meddle with the process to make Camille lose the round. But since the second part relies on not just the subjectivity of the participants but also the subjectivity of the judges (which includes Luca), he becomes vocal about how much he dislikes Camille’s wine choices. He even tries to express his disapproval to the rest of the judges so that they can rate Camille poorly as well. However, I think it seems odd to at least one of the judges that Luca is being incredibly unprofessional. Can they do anything about it, though? No, I suppose not, because he’s technically the organizer of this whole event. He can do whatever the hell he wants to do, and nobody can stop him. Issei is clearly not charmed by all this, and Camille has given up all hopes of winning because Luca is going out of his way to prevent her from taking the lead. That doesn’t mean she is backing down as she goes up to Luca and cements her enmity with him. I do want to point out that the results of this second round aren’t announced. I guess it’ll be revealed after the third round.
Can Issei Analyze Wines Like Camille Now?
Before moving on to the third and final round of Alexandre’s third test, which will give the keys to everything associated with him to the winner, Camille and Marianne have a little heart-to-heart conversation. Marianne essentially admits that it was wrong of her to distance Camille from her father because, ultimately, this whole tournament has brought Camille closer to him anyway. This allows the mother-daughter duo to bury the hatchet because none of them wants to have yet another estranged relationship in their lives. Since this conversation comes as a form of relief for Camille, she thinks she can double down on it by resting for the night. But she’s requested to board a minivan that’s waiting to take Issei and her to the Chassangre vineyard. There, it’s revealed that Issei and Camille have to taste a mystery wine and then recreate it using all the things that are available at Chassangre’s place. Thomas and Philippe will be silent observers throughout this process to ensure that there’s no partiality at play.
Of course, this is Camille’s home ground, and it’s all a little foreign for Issei. I mean, technically, it isn’t because Issei’s family history is intertwined with the place since Hirokazu and Honoka visited it as students, and it’s where Honoka fell in love with Alexandre. So, while Issei takes the time to take in the vibes of the place, Camille rushes to recreate the wine. At the end of episode 7 of Drops of God, as well as the tiresome day, Camille and Issei have a pretty nice moment where Issei admits how he found out about the wine in the second test. That reinstates the sweetness of Camille’s victory because she realizes that all that effort was worth it. While talking about the latest wine, Issei tries to understand how Camille recognizes wines. She says that she’s a nepo wine baby, and it’s because of her genes, which she has received from Alexandre, that she can identify wines by tasting or smelling them. To be specific, the ingredients appear in front of her in holographic form, through colors, and even in symphonies. Issei tries to access the genes that he shares with Alexandre, and it seems like he fails. But just before the credits are about to roll, an imaginary strawberry (or some kind of berry) appears on the table for a split second. Issei doesn’t see it, but we know that he is starting to unearth his wine Jedi powers.
I am genuinely excited about how the finale is going to go down because Luca has failed to create a divide between Camille and Issei. So, there’s a good chance that, even if Issei is given the ticket to the estate, he’s going to push Luca out of it and join hands with Camille because they really respect each other. The only thing that can cause any kind of issue is Issei’s lineage. Camille used to see Alexandre as a flawed individual. But due to this whole tournament, she has begun to love him, and it seems like she sees him as a great man. That can be shattered by the knowledge that Alexandre cheated on Marianne with Honoka, and Issei is the product of that affair. If Camille manages to look past that piece of information because it’s all ancient history and Alexandre is dead, then Luca is going to lose. If she freaks out, then Luca is going to win. It’s a dicey situation, and there’s no easy way out of it. In addition to all this, I want to know what’s going to happen to Hirokazu and Honoka. Are they going to reunite, or will they live the rest of their lives in solitude? Well, with one more episode to go, let’s wait till next week to see how Season 1 of Drops of God wraps things up.
