The Origin Of Anomaly And Its Role In ‘The Girl In The Mirror’ Season 1, Explained: Who Was Nico?

Netflix’s recent release, “The Girl in the Mirror,” is a Spanish-language thriller directed by Sergio G. Sanchez. The series mainly focuses on a mythological demon called Therion, who has the power to transfer his soul to younger people to survive within the mortal realm. Apart from this, we are introduced to certain anomalies in this series. Now, what is an anomaly? In simple terms, an anomaly is something that deviates from a regular occurrence. Here, by regular occurrence, we mean, in the series, when a soul leaves a body, the servants of Therion plan to enter it. But, the anomalies interfere in this process, and they transfer their souls into the empty vessel before the shadows (the servants of Therion). This phenomenon does not occur at random. The anomaly uses a particular device to know which bodies the shadows will be targeting to take possession of. So without wasting any moment, let’s discuss the anomalies in depth.

Spoilers Ahead


‘The Origin Of Anomaly’ Explained: What Was Their Device? How Did They Know About The Future?

Centuries ago, there was a fort that is now in ruins. In the fort, the White Sisterhood lived. Many younger seers find themselves traveling long distances to get here after seeing glimpses of it in their dreams. They all arrived, heeding the decision of Enora, their teacher. Within the fort’s cellars was a powerful device that could transcend time and space. Some might compare it with a time-travel machine, but there was no mention of it. The device is called a hexaspeculum, an esoteric navigational tool employing six mirrors containing magical properties. These mirrors revealed to the seers the events or the tragedies through which the shadows used to go into human bodies. In doing so, it’d additionally provide the younger seers with the opportunity to shift their spirits into a brand new body. The pictures discovered in the mirrors might, for all time, help to modify the future of those younger seers. Sometimes these extraterrestrial powers result in the death of the younger seer. The hexaspeculum was always used to alternate the seers’ destiny, beginning the massive door of immortality for them. An anomaly also possesses a mark within itself. So, this was their way of seeing the future and interfering with the events.


What Inspired Lara To Gather All The Memories? What Drove Deva To Take Over Alma’s Body?

We see a flashback in the series where a young seer, Aurora, comes to visit Enora and is taken inside the device. There she saw two identical sisters (Lara and Alma) from the future. She saw the mark of the anomaly in their hands. Enora explained to Aurora that the device had revealed her future to her to protect the lives of Lara and Alma from the shadows. Aurora understood the importance of her duty as she learned that Lara and Alma would be playing a very influential role in the events of Therion’s possession of a younger body. So, she needed to protect the sisters and find them before the shadows. Lara had a brain tumor, and when she lost all hope in science, she turned to mythology. She believed that if she could enter the hexaspeculum, she could alter her future. But, when Lara took the trip to locate the device along with Deva, Alma, and Tomas, what she saw in the mirrors changed her decision. She did not want to swap bodies to gain immortality. She just wanted to remain in the mortal world, even as a ghost. Why? While Lara was searching for answers, she met with Aurora, and there she learned that the spirit of a human would only exist in the mortal world if their close ones remembered them. One of the reasons why Lara made memory maps for everyone to remember her.

But the problem grew even worse when Alma and Deva also went inside the hexaspeculum. Deva tried the device before the accident and found out about her death. She saw that some shadows consumed Alma’s body. She did not understand any of that and left the device trembling in fear. When the accident occurred moments before, Deva realized that what she saw was happening right then. She could not stop the accident, but when she died and left her body, she found herself beside Alma’s soul. Lara’s soul came to bring Deva with her and told her that Alma had more time to live in the mortal world. Deva was not ready to die, so she refused to go with Lara. Soon, the shadows came to take possession of young and powerful vessels. As one of the shadows was approaching Alma’s body, Deva jumped on it and took possession of her body. Thus, Alma was struck as a soul in the mortal world. Later, when Deva took control of Alma’s body, she did not know what was happening around her. Alma tried to make her leave the body but failed in every attempt. Looking for the answers, Alma (possessed by Deva) ended up in the Hexaspeculum, and there she saw how Ricardo, Deva’s mother’s boyfriend, was attacking her. This makes her very confused, and as time passes, she realizes she is in Alma’s body.


Was Nico, The Century-Old Anomaly, Dead?

Later, we are introduced to another anomaly named Nico. We see a flashback through the stories told by Efren, Bruno’s grandfather, and he is already possessed by a shadow. There we see an event from 220 years ago, where an anomaly named Scribe was transcribing the words of the priest who could see the fortune. Then the priest said that five youths, two males and three females, would be surrounding the heir in the cave. Therion would rise from his throne and overpower him during the sixth full moon, 220 years from that time. The Scribe, or the anomaly, had a symbol on his wrist that denoted the number of vessels he had changed. For Scribe, it was III in Roman. Nico was its eighth vessel and was running away from the shadows.

The shadows required the third female to incarnate Therion with Martin’s body. To protect that from happening, Nico was hiding from them. Nico had already met with Deva before the accident, and they had a very intimate relationship. As Ricardo sexually abused her, she would find comfort in hanging out with Nico. Nico told Alma (possessed by Deva) to stand up for herself and forget all about the real Alma so that her spirit would never come to her again. Soon, Rogue and her sister found out about Nico and killed her. Some shadow took over her body, and then, according to the priest from 220 years ago, two men (Bruno and Rogue) and three women (Rogue’s sister, Laura, and Nico) got together to continue the rituals.


The Role Of The Anomaly And Character Analysis Of Deva, Lara, Nico, And Alma

According to the book of prophecies, there would be a six-fingered hand, the hexaspeculum, and an anomaly that would be a part of the ritual. The five shadows would surround the heir, and then only the ritual would be completed. It is depicted in the series that whoever turned into an anomaly in their past has very much dealt with some kind of fear and insecurities.

Deva was the most troubled character in this section. Deva was physically abused by her mother’s boyfriend, Ricardo. When she wanted to talk about this with her mother, Lucia, she ignored her completely. She started to hate herself and her body. She was more intimate with her girlfriends. However, Tom made her feel very comfortable. Deva liked Tom very much, but Tom, on the other hand, was in love with Alma. When Deva discovered the truth, she was conflicted. She confronted Alma but later confessed that she would place her before Tom. When the accident happened, Deva had already seen the future in the hexaspeculum. She did not hesitate to decide that she must possess Alma’s body to survive. She had never been loved before, and here was her chance to take over a body everyone loved. Alma was beautiful, charming, and friendly. The boy Deva loved was in love with Alma. So, it was not hard for her to decide whether she should possess Alma’s body or not.

Now, Alma and Lara were identical sisters. Lara was better than Alma in every aspect. That sometimes made Alma feel a little insecure. She used to confuse it with jealousy, but she never disrespected Lara for any particular reason. She even helped her in her mythological explorations. When Lara was diagnosed with a brain tumor, Alma kept it a secret because Lara wanted it as such. Lara was a free spirit, while Alma was a bit conservative. It was not like Alma did not want to mingle with people; she was very friendly, but she used to restrict herself to a specific group of people. This, too, might come from her insecurities about not being as cheerful as Lara.

On the other hand, when she learned that Deva was in love with Tom, she refused to back off. However, she respected her friendship, so she did not want to express her feelings toward Tom in front of Deva. Lara, being a free spirit, never wanted to die early. So she kept looking for answers, and when she learned about the Hexaspeculum, she tried it. From Aurora, she already understood that immortality comes with a great price, and it is always a curse. She then decided to remain as a ghost, as, according to Aurora, a ghost can stay in the mortal world as long as close ones remember him or her. This is why Lara always tried to capture memories and highlight them.

Nico was living a vagabond life and sharing an intimate moment with a stranger. That stranger told her the secret of immortality. The stranger was not old, but he was older than Nico. So, the anomaly of possessing the stranger’s body decided to change the vessel as Nico showed her interest in being immortal. The anomaly then swapped the vessels, and Nico became an anomaly herself. While she was escaping from the shadows, Nico and Deva became close. Nico even visited Alma (possessed by Deva) once in the hospital. There she understood that Deva was there inside Alma’s body. Soon after, she helped Deva to remove Alma once and for all from her life. Nico’s character depth is somehow vague compared to other anomalies. Maybe in the next season, we will learn more about her.


Final Words

The anomalies are going to play a very crucial role in season 2. We have already established the roles of the six-finger hand and the anomaly. However, we have not seen their impact on the rituals. It is obvious that Alma would stop Therion from doing any harm and help Martin get back to his body. Alma would reunite a front to fight against evil. During her walk through the memories, she had seen that she would help Rogue get back into his body. If that is possible, then rest assured that Alma would definitely be the leader who would destroy Therion once and for all. It is now only a matter of time when other anomalies form an ally to fight against Therion and help other spirits return to their bodies.


See More: Who Was “Therion” And His Five Shadows ‘In The Girl In The Mirror’? Did The Shadows Bring Therion Back?


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Shovan Roy
Shovan Roy
Shovan Roy is a creative content writer. Formerly he used to write film reviews on an international film festival website named Beyond the Curve International Film Festival. He also interviewed global directors. He also interviewed one of the characters from the show 'Trailer Park Boys', Mr. Bernard Robichaud, platformed in Netflix. Shovan tends to write through the third person narrative and he loves to do psychoanalysis. He can't say that he has mastered it but that is some sort of hobby of his. Film is a platform where he loves to spend most of his time learning.

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