The fictional world of “Carnival Row,” where humans and numerous other half-humans dwell together, is a metaphor for our own society. Similar to our reality, discrimination towards these numerous species is prevalent in this world. In the city of the Burgue, immigrants—particularly magical beasts—are frequently tormented and degraded because of their physical and financial disparities from the locals. People of the Burgue frequently lose sight of the fact that these Critch are also living beings that were the victims of injustice. Nonetheless, there lived in this Burgue city a wealthy family known as the Spunroses, who were politically liberal and well-educated.
The Burgue’s genius engineer Simon Spunrose was the first to employ fauns as housemaids and in other positions. He was sometimes referred to as an anomaly because of his unusual approach. Yet, as we’ve seen, the Burgue’s humans were exceedingly hostile toward the Critch, making the Critch a helpless group without any power of their own to object to these abuses. The Spunroses shared the same prejudices as the rest of humanity. Ezra was a misogynistic, egotistical person, whereas his sister was a vivacious, independent woman who relied on chance. At first, when she spoke to her servants, we could see her harboring the privilege of being a haughty elite in her heart. Yet she started to think otherwise as a result of Ezra’s inability to maintain their financial stability. Imogen came into contact with Agreus Astrayon, a Puck who happened to be in the affluent neighborhood of the Spunroses. However, as the plot develops, we observe her letting go of all the hatred she harbored against the Critch community. Although she initially approached Agreus in order to make a bargain, the two of them eventually narrowed the distance and became closer to one another.
Agreus, a wealthy bounty hunter or skipjack, built his success on the blood of his own kind. He was a traitor who kidnapped the Critch to get a hefty reward from the humans. In addition to generating money, this gave him dignity and independence, setting him apart from the Burgue’s slave Critch. Agreus welcomed Imogen for two reasons: first, since he also fell in love with her, and second, because having a relationship with her would give Agreus social status and an invitation from the human social circle to engage with them. Yet Imogen felt attracted to him without even knowing who he really was. Ezra Spunrose, who chose prejudice and hatred over the happiness of his sister, became a menace in this couple’s life.
After catching Imogen with Agreus, Ezra became violent and got into a fight, in which Agreus had to knock him out. Ezra was a terrible person, yet Agreus couldn’t kill him, given the fact he was the brother of a woman he loved. Therefore, taking Imogen with him, he left the Burgue for good. On their search for a distant land, they wound up at Ragusa, where the Pact’s rebel group, the New Dawn, was emerging. But Ezra followed the trail and arrived there to put an end to the relationship between Agreus and Imogen. He had a preconceived notion about Imogen that was partly true and might be the reason why Imogen fell for Agreus without trying to know the source of his substantial income. Following the invasion of Ragusa by the Pact army, when Agreus, Imogen, and Ezra fled, Ezra warned Agreus that Imogen was a poison herself. She couldn’t stand other people’s happiness. Any lady with whom Ezra had a relationship had been promptly chased away by her, and for this, Imogen had received criticism from everyone in the neighborhood for her eccentricity and toxic views.
When Agreus appeared in the neighborhood, she was desperate to meet him because he was the only one who was unaware of her bad reputation. Imogen implored Agreus not to trust what Ezra was saying, but Agreus recognized that Ezra’s claims weren’t entirely wrong. Agreus, though, wasn’t capable of judging Imogen because he had once been a treacherous person in the past. He revealed to Imogen that he had been betraying his own people, which changed Imogen’s opinion of him. But at that precise moment, we could see that Imogen had never really changed; she still possessed the knowledge necessary to safeguard herself and secure her own gain. She didn’t hesitate to kill her own brother in order to hide from the Pact army and protect her relationship with Agreus, which left Agreus shocked. But because he loved her so much, he handled the situation without passing judgment on her. Imogen rejected Agreus’s solace despite the fact that she had turned into a killer whose hands had not shaken during the killing of her own brother. She started to think that Agreus would dominate her just as he had dominated his own kind, but that wasn’t what he intended.
Throughout her entire childhood, Imogen was under her parents and older brother’s influence. She was a well-bred woman who knew little about the external world and had always been encouraged to keep her feelings to herself, concealing her opinions and herself at home. Imogen, who was a well-educated and intelligent woman, also craved freedom and would not want to be in the power of either her brother or the person she had fallen in love with. Agreus maintained his composure and offered Imogen all the support she needed, even though he never intended to take control of her. Instead, he just wanted to give her the solace she deserved in the wake of her devastating loss. Imogen may have had an idyllic view of Leonora—a free-spirited lady who made her own decisions and controlled a group—but her illusion was eventually shattered.
Imogen, who had been dispatched to the Burgue to represent New Dawn and deliver the peace treaty, acknowledged that Agreus was right about Leonora. She might be a leading woman, a revolutionary leader, but she was also nothing but a cold-blooded killer hungry for power. Imogen was terrified of the group and anxious to see Agreus alive ever since she first spotted his broken horn dispatched by Leonora. Finally, after the war was over and Agreus held Leonora at gunpoint, causing her to commit suicide, he returned home and reunited with the love of his life. A few moons later, the couple proudly introduced the Burgue’s electricity to the community while also flaunting their relationship. This fictional couple ultimately had a happy ending, or what we might term a “happily ever after” moment in the story. They were like the romantic couple we have all heard about in fairytales. Since the show has been canceled for a number of reasons, season 2 of “Carnival Row” signals the end of their journey; therefore, we won’t be able to enjoy their romance for a third season.
