When we were last delving into the House of Fata Morgana, it was made clear that the previous door was a lie. We were then shown a door of the true events of 1099. But… we don’t have the whole truth of everything, do we? After all, Giselle bore witness to the events of the past, so what was her perspective on it?

Well, shortly after Michel was disappeared, a disembodied voice spoke onto Giselle: the witch Morgana. The fourth door did indeed tell the truth that Morgana made a deal onto Giselle, but now, we get the full context…

For one thing? Giselle became trapped in the house. For centuries, she just wandered and cleaned, settling into the maid role that Morgana wishes of her, never even stepping outside of the dark, cursed with a horrible immortality.

The second issue? Morgana is the damn Joker. She takes delight in Giselle losing her mind and identity over the years and is just kind of an annoying asshole about it. Morgana also wants Giselle to stick around to act as eyes to bear witness to the suffering of other reconstructions fated to settle at the manor, because to her, that’s cinema. Morgana would post on imageboards if she stuck around to the modern day, assuming that the current Michel isn’t already of the modern day.

Eventually, the seeds of suffering start to sprout. Hayden Rhodes, the grandfather of the children of the first door, arrives at the manor on his travels and settles in as the first master of the manor in centuries. Giselle, whose only company was a ghostly troll, has yet to adjust to the role of the enigmatic maid that appeared throughout the doors, so Hayden coaches her on how to do things. He’s actually a pretty good contrast to the other masters and certainly way better than Michel’s father, coming off as a stern teacher that isn’t straight up hostile to the maid. Friendly and welcoming, even.

But you know, good things aren’t meant to last, as shown often. Rhodes gets poisoned by his son and is badly paralyzed, setting the stage for his grandchildren to soon move in. In his last hours, knowing that Giselle’s being weighed down by something she never divulged to him, he gives her some sincere advice: to construct a cocoon for herself and become someone else to not have to deal with the pain she’s been grappling with. It’s the Michael Jordan of Drunk Driving principle. Though, he advises not to stick too much to the shell, lest she fall into emotional pain anyway. He winds up strangling himself the next day – honestly, RIP to a real one.

And so, the coccoon she forges for herself is to fully become the Maid we’ve been accustomed to. Everything goes swimmingly… until the White-Haired Girl appears. Over the centuries, Giselle’s been trucking on with the hopes of reuniting with a new version of Michel in her heart… even if she doesn’t fully remember him. So, we’re shown a fresh new perspective, adding onto the previous scene of Giselle talking to the White-Haired Girl in the garden, asking her if she remembers her. The White-Haired Girl does not know her, and insists that she’s actually named Michelle. Close enough in Giselle’s eyes to make her feel pained.

The events of the first door come and go, and the Rhodes family just kinda fell apart after all that. Yukimasa soon arrives, and after he murdered that merchant, he asked Giselle to chop the guy up and make him into stew because he’s as much of a Joker as Morgana. He attacked Giselle when he thinks she’s hesitating, but is stunned by her immortality, reminding the reader that even the Joker can feel fear.

In acquiescing to Yukimasa’s desires, Giselle became bolder, and when his version of the White-Haired Girl – still a Michelle – arrives, she gets up in her face to ask about her being a reconstruction of Michel. Giselle’s frustrated enough by the interaction she straight up wants to channel Yukimasa’s aura and kill her. But Giselle doesn’t. In fact, the reason why the Maid feels like a ghostly observer in the second door is because she made an active decision to stay away from affairs because she doesn’t want to lose it and kill Michelle. Thankfully(?), the angry mob at that time made the decision for her.

Finally, Giselle’s spirit broke in the third door with the third Michelle not recognizing her. And Morgana? She’s loving this shit. And so, Morgana took things one step forward, moving from girlbossing to gaslighting. I was convinced that the Maid was Morgana, and it turns out, Giselle was also gaslighted into thinking that she’s Morgana. She’s made to believe that the actual Morgana’s just a voice in her head, and that Giselle was never real; the shell Hayden advised her to make for herself fully becomes her. Giselle, now thinking of herself as the witch, stands by Jacopo until the very end, and much like Giselle’s wait for the white-haired boy, Jacopo waits for the white-haired girl. Unlike Giselle, he’s given the mercy of dying of natural causes. Giselle, viewing herself as the witch, just waits on and on and on and on and on and on…

Present Giselle finally steps back, fully reawakened to her trials, and admits to her pain of waiting for so long and is actually frustrated that Michel truly just appeared to her now. She straight up hates him… and the first interactable element appears. If Michel does not deny that Giselle hates her immediately, she’ll push him into a void in the house, resolving herself to be a miserable servant of Morgana forever.

But if you’re quick in getting Michel to stance up to Giselle, he tells Giselle that she does not truly hate him. After all, Giselle would have given up on waiting for him a long time ago and wouldn’t have asked Michel to stay in the manor with her when she was still wearing the mask of the Maid. Michel only found his way to the manor because she heard her call to him. Giselle then breaks down, remarking that Michel didn’t need to come to that horrible cursed place and could have moved on to someone else, but he’s not having any of that. He resolves to escape the manor with Giselle, and they actually have a little goofy banter reminiscent of their good days behind the Fifth Door. It’s cute.

But yada yada, good things aren’t meant to last, especially when Morgana hates that shit.

Morgana finally makes something of a physical appearance, dragging Giselle away, because how else could she witness kino without her camera? Michel demands that she let her go, since Giselle finally accomplished her goal. Morgana agrees… if Michel can bear witness to a fresh set of suffering for her.

And so, that chapter of the House in Fata Morgana ends. A big overarching villain has made herself known, and by god, she loves to watch people struggle. Now, a big question is: who is Michelle, since she’s clearly a reconstructed person of sorts? Had Giselle actually been meeting Michel this whole time and Michelle was actually a pre-transition Michel, so he wasn’t fully cognizant of her because he didn’t even know himself yet? Or is Michelle just someone else?

Anyway, my big prediction for the next part is that we’re going to bear witness to past variants of Mell, Yukimasa and Jacopo. They’re presumably the other reconstructions Morgana’s been talking up and we might see how they became targets of Morgana’s unlimited hatred. She’s got that Odio in her, that’s for sure.