In episode 1 of Drops of God Season 2, Issei and Camille reunited at the Chassangre Estate to celebrate their birthday. The half-siblings, Thomas, Philippe, Marianne, and Hirokazu, were in a happy mood. But Talion wasn’t, because he was about to retire from his job as the family lawyer, and as a parting gift, he had decided to finally reveal what Leger had left for the winner of the competition that happened in Season 1. What was it? A wine bottle and a letter. The bottle didn’t have any label on it, and the letter from Leger stated that whoever could correctly identify the origin of the wine would be considered superior to Leger himself, since he had failed to do so in his lifetime. Camille didn’t want to embark on another quest, but since Issei felt that, after losing to his half-sister, he didn’t have a sense of purpose, he wanted to accomplish his father’s final task to prove to Leger and himself that he was worth something. So, while Camille went about her job, Issei embarked on a journey, searching for this elusive wine. When he hit a wall, he decided to go free-diving in Marseille, which was something that he had already been doing for a while, and he almost drowned. That prompted Camille to join hands with Issei and find that wine with him, because if he was allowed to do this on his own, he’d probably end up killing himself. Well, what happened next? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Camille Retrieves the Elusive Wine Bottle
In a moment of frustration caused by an interview with a nosy journalist, Camille had dumped all that mysterious wine, and the bottle as well. But now that she has agreed to search for its origins with Issei, episode 2 of Drops of God season 2 starts off with Camille running after the garbage truck to get the bottle back. As she’s returning to the estate, she notices Hirokazu leaving with Marianne. Camille tells him to stay, because Issei would certainly like to have his father around while he’s recovering from such a devastating incident. But the pace at which Hirokazu leaves with Marianne to get to the airport shows that he doesn’t want to hang around his son, as he chooses to fulfill his biological father’s last request instead of spending quality time with the father who was responsible for his upbringing. Going back to Camille and her bottle, Thomas and Philippe ask her why she has gone to such great lengths to retrieve an empty wine bottle. She points out that the wax that has been used to seal the bottle is sticky, which means that it’s not resin but beeswax. Since the use of beeswax is rare, Philippe theorizes that his bee-loving friend, Raphael, can help them narrow down the places that still use that material to seal wine bottles.
Camille Gives Issei an Update
Camille goes along with Philippe to meet Raphael, who happily partakes in this little experiment; however, unfortunately, he comes to the conclusion that it’s impossible to locate the origin of the beeswax because it’s made from the wax created by common bees, not the rarer ones. Raphael does suggest an alternative, though: he tells Camille and Philippe to send the beeswax to a lab and get a microbiological analysis done. That’ll help them identify the type of pollen that’s in the wax, which’ll reveal the flowers that that pollen has come from, and that’ll give them an idea of where the beeswax might’ve originated. This is where Philippe’s friend in the Aix-en-Provence lab comes in handy. While Philippe deals with that, Camille makes a pit stop at the hospital to have a chat with Issei. He is confused as to why she’s taking this convoluted route to finding info about the wine. That’s when Camille reveals that she had thrown all the wine down the drain in a moment of anger, which is why there’s no way to do any scientific analyses on the liquor itself. That undoubtedly irritates Issei, so Camille tries to change the topic to Hirokazu’s departure. When she sees that that’s not working, she takes off and tells him that she’ll contact him.
Hirokazu Returns to Tokyo
Issei thinks Camille is hijacking the search for the wine, especially because he is incapacitated, and trying to prove to Leger’s spirit that she is still the best sommelier. Camille makes it clear that that’s not the case at all, and she’s just trying to help. When she notices that that’s not going to change Issei’s opinion of her, she leaves. That’s when Issei calls up Hirokazu to ask him why he’s leaving so suddenly. Hirokazu clearly states that, when Issei was just a child, during a vacation in Okinawa, he had almost drowned, and Hirokazu doesn’t want to hang around to see Issei redoing that deadly stunt, literally and metaphorically, to deliberately inflict some kind of pain upon himself. It’s interesting that Hirokazu tells this story to underscore the fact that Issei is purposefully drowning in his miseries by doing Leger’s bidding, but Issei’s takeaway from it is that maybe the wine has something to do with Okinawa. Regardless of what Camille has told Issei, and what she is telling herself about her motivation behind finding Leger’s mysterious wine, the fact that she has started shirking her responsibility of meeting people for her winery is a major hint that she does want to one-up her deceased father. She gets so immersed in her research “for Issei” that she forgets to even have a meal or meet her family for the whole day. While Marianne complains that her vacation at the Chassangre Estate has been a complete waste because she has not been able to spend a single proper second with her daughter, Thomas focuses on getting some food into her belly. Philippe tries to pacify Marianne by saying that Camille is doing what she’s doing for Issei, but Marianne says that, while Philippe can convince himself that that’s the only reason why Camille is searching for the wine, she knows that her daughter is doing it for herself; after all, Camille has Alexandre’s narcissistic traits coursing through her veins.
Issei Tastes Wines With Camille
Camille tells Thomas that even if they find the location of the company that has produced the beeswax, they’d still need to unearth the source of the grape. Thomas advises her to go to Vassal, because it’s the world’s largest bank of grape varieties. Camille likes that idea, and she goes to Vassal while stringing Thomas along with her. The director of the Vassal Research Center gives the duo a brief tour of the place, and then Camille and Thomas subject their taste buds to 123 grapes that have been vinified. This is contrasted by Issei having some bland hospital food whilst chatting with Natasha about their mutual friend, Dai. Their conversation is interrupted by a call from Camille, who gives him an update on her research, and Issei’s response to that information is very dry. However, as soon as Camille hangs up, Issei discharges himself from the hospital and essentially orders Natasha to drive him to Montpellier because he wants to get in on that wine-tasting action. En route to the Vassal Research Center, Natasha tries to get a read on Issei’s dynamic with Camille, and even though Issei makes it seem like he is going there because he doesn’t trust his sister to taste all the wines properly, Natasha senses that he’s competing with Camille. Issei neither confirms nor denies that allegation, which means that Natasha is on the right track. Anyway, Camille and Thomas are shocked to see Issei before them instead of at the hospital, and while Issei joins them in the wine-tasting process, Natasha takes everyone’s leave and supposedly returns to Marseille after calling up Dai and telling him what Issei is up to. When the trio is down to the last 10 wines, they strike gold—which is illustrated through some beautiful visual storytelling where the room, which is usually filled with files and folders, becomes covered in shrubs and grapevines—after tasting the one that’s labeled Herbemont.
Hirokazu Runs Into Honoka
Apparently, Herbemont is a grape variety that is not just forgotten, but forbidden, because the wine made of it is infamous for driving people mad. The Vassal director assures all of them that that’s just a legend, and the real reason it is “banned” is because it doesn’t require any chemical treatment. So, if everyone made wines with that grape, then the pesticide industry would go bankrupt; hence, wine production with the Herbemont was prohibited by the French government in 1935 (which is surprisingly true, by the way). The Vassal director says that nobody uses it to make wines anymore, but somebody clearly did in the fictional world that Drops of God exists in, and as per my cursory online research, it’s gaining popularity in real life as well. Amidst all this wine searching, we get a brief look at Hirokazu’s run-in with Honoka. The couple has clearly separated, and that too on extremely bitter terms, which is why even though Hirokazu thought about calling Honoka and informing her about Issei’s mishap, he didn’t, because he knew that Honoka wouldn’t pick up the phone. But now that he has accidentally met her, he gives her a detailed explanation about what Issei has been up to over the past few days. Hirokazu advises Honoka to give Issei a call; he knows that Issei won’t pick up the call, but he assumes that it’ll at least put Honoka’s mind at ease. On that note, they part ways, and as Honoka drives away, it becomes evident that she’s still as lonely and miserable as she was in the previous season.
Issei and Camille Travel to Greece
Camille informs Issei that the wax analysis has arrived. So, they can look into that first and then search for the Herbemont. Since she has interrupted the doctor’s analysis of Issei’s vitals, the doctor says that while Camille is free to go wherever she likes, Issei has to take some rest, because that’s what his body needs in order to recover from that near-death incident. Camille and Issei both know that nothing’s going to stop him from finding that wine. So, once the doctor is gone, they travel to Raphael to get his inference of the beeswax analysis. After a thorough look at the documents, Raphael says that they should give the Acropolis hill in Athens a try, because that’s where the flower, whose pollen that was in that beeswax, has originated. Raphael thinks that there’s a chance that they’ll hit a dead end there, and yet, they should give it a try because if the beeswax exists, then the flower that has seemingly “disappeared” must also exist. They go to the Agricultural University of Athens, and, with some help from one of the professors there, they learn that there are beehives around the Agios Georgios Church that are managed by “someone eccentric.” Since the journey to that spot is a bit hectic, and Issei’s lungs don’t work like they used to before, he tells Camille to go ahead while he takes a breather. In the time it takes for Camille to find the church and learn about the history of the beekeeper, Alexi Pipia, Issei accidentally runs into said beekeeper. Heck, Pipia even takes Issei to his home, and they have an extensive chat about making honey and beeswax. Pipia cites environmental reasons for why his profession is dying, along with the bees, but he states that even in these conditions, he’s making honey, and he sends the beeswax to the monastery in his village, which is in the Kartli region of Georgia (the country). Issei asks Pipia if this monastery makes wine and uses his beeswax to seal the bottles, and Pipia confirms that they do.
Issei Almost Abandons Camille
In the ending of Drops of God Season 2, episode 2, Issei calls up Dai and tells him to connect him with someone in Georgia who is trustworthy. Camille catches up with Issei, and when she sees that he has already booked a cab and is en route to Georgia, she assumes that he was about to abandon her and get a lead in this “race.” Issei says that he had no plans to leave Camille behind and head off to Pipia’s village, but as the half-siblings board the cab to reach the airport, I am hit with the feeling that Issei is lying. I think he had every intention of getting to Georgia before Camille. I mean, think about it. He had already booked the cab. Am I supposed to think that had Camille not found Issei before the cab arrived, he’d have waited for her? The first person that he contacts after learning about the monastery is Dai, not Camille. Camille luckily finds Issei; if she hadn’t, he’d have jetted off to Georgia without her. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that Issei is extremely serious about finding the origin of this wine and proving that he’s better than Leger because it’d mean he’s better than Camille, thereby nullifying the result of Season 1’s competition. Is this at all necessary? Well, no. At the same time, I understand why he’s doing all this. Hopefully, Issei will understand that Leger is dead and he shouldn’t allow him to toy with his life anymore. He should cherish the people who are alive and who love him; the rest is just irrelevant. What do you think will be the outcome of Issei’s mission? Let me know in the comments below.
