Aahana Swrup
Netflix’s ‘Devil May Cry’ is a fantasy anime show set in a world that is shielded from the demonic realm through a precarious fence. When this fence yields to small fluctuations, allowing low-level demons through, demon hunters—like the ever-elusive Dante—take up the job of demolishing the hellbound creatures. However, a threat unlike one ever seen before enters the picture when a mysterious man with a White Rabbit’s face saunters into the human world, stealing a coveted historical item. Thus, in order to prevent the villain from opening the literal Gates of Hell, a secretive dimensional organization called DarkCom sends out its best, under Lieutenant Arkham’s command, to find Dante. As the possible end of times looms on the horizon, the demon hunter with a unique destiny may be the only one who can save his world. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Devil May Cry Recap
The Dark Realm Command or DarkCom is an independent dimensional security firm that monitors activities between realms, particularly Earth and Hell. As a result, when a menacing figure—White Rabbit—breaks into the Vatican to steal Sparda’s Sword of Force Edge, the organization takes notice. Since they are already aware of demons as a distinct but parallel evolutionary species to homo sapiens, the attack remains concerning for them. For the same reason, they interrogate a group of hunters to learn about the Rabbit’s next move. Thus, they learn the shared folklore about Sparda’s sword and its connection to the Hellish dimension. Thousands of years ago, when the two realms were infinitely connected as one, a Demon Knight named Sparda sided with the humans in their battle against demons.
During this time, Sparda used the sword to build a barrier between the two realms that kept them separate from one another. Over the years, small glitches in the barrier have allowed low-level demons to slip through, bringing demon hunters into the ecosystem. Consequently, Fisher and Baines, the Vice President of the US—one of the private funders behind the organization—theorize that Rabbit must be looking for a way to reopen this interdimensional rift. This brings them to Dante, a peculiar demon hunter who is on the rodent rogue’s radar due to the family heirloom pendant around his neck. As a result, Baines puts out a bounty on Dante amongst the demon hunters and sends out his own elite task force helmed by Lieutenant Mary Arkham.
Although Dante puts up a commendable fight, Mary’s wit and lethal skills get the better of him. Consequently, he finds himself in the back of DarkCom’s high-security truck. Furthermore, after witnessing his startling strength and superhuman healing, the Lieutenant concludes that the hunter must be part demon—much to his own surprise. Eventually, with the help of a mole, Rabbit manages to catch up to the team—luring Dante into a trap by stealing his precious pendant. Simultaneously, he leads Mary and her team into his own dangerous layer, crawling with hell-blooded people and his own soldiers. However, much to Mary’s surprise, in the middle of Rabbit and his lethal booby traps, she comes across refugee families who were brought into Earth from Makai—the Hellish realm—for unforeseen exploitation.
Meanwhile, Dante confronts his own fate as he discovers that he’s the son of Sparda and has the ability to turn into a full-fledged demon at will. Thus, as the hunter and Lieutenant fall back into each other’s orbit, they figure out that Rabbit needs the son of Sparda’s blood as well as his amulet in order to destroy the interdimensional barrier. For the same reason, Mary attempts to prevent a confrontation between the two, which is ultimately rendered moot. In the end, it all culminates into an epic battle wherein Rabbit momentarily gets a taste of victory. Nonetheless, a groundbreaking revelation helps Dante prevent a dark fate for humans. Even so, in the aftermath, Baines, whose evil has been brewing in the distance, ends up introducing human’s personal brand of Hell to the citizens of Makai.
Devil May Cry Ending: Why is Vergil Fighting For Mundus?
Initially, Vergil’s introduction into the narrative arrives as a backstory-building element for Dante’s storyline. The two brothers grew up alongside one another under the care of their mother until one tragic demonic attack snatched the would-be hunter’s family away from him. All this time, the younger brother had assumed Vergil and his mother were killed during this attack—a key point in his childhood that compelled him to fight hellish beings as an adult. However, the recent unwarranted excitement in his life reveals that the attack had been a result of his yet-unknown connection to Sparda. Before defecting to the humans’ side, the Demon Knight served under Mundus, the ruler of Makai who wanted to enslave humanity.
Therefore, Sparda’s momentous action of creating a barrier that kept demons out of Earth served as an act of great betrayal for Mundus. For the same reason, thousands of years later, when his kids are born—while the Knight still remains missing—the demon takes revenge on his family. However, his minions bring the boy back to Makai instead of killing Vergil. As such, unbeknownst to Dante, his brother grows up all alone in the Hellish realm, embracing his Demon form. In fact, he is a benefactor behind Rabbit’s scheme, having willingly supplied him with his own half of the amulet and blood—other crucial ingredients for destroying Sparda’s barrier. Yet, even his involvement in Rabbit’s plans doesn’t directly connect him to Mundus.
However, in the end, once Baines and his army have staked their self-righteous claim on Makai, Vergil makes his allegiance to the Demon King clear when he rescues the prisoners from their confines. He frees the Makains with the explicit purpose of having them serve under Mundus as repayment for their salvation—which strikes as strange considering he’s the demon who was behind his mother’s death. The possibilities thus include a reality where Vergil perhaps is unaware of the demon’s involvement in his mother’s death. Inversely, it’s also possible that, regardless of that knowledge, he’s working with Mundus as a way to accumulate power—which would fall in line with his previous characterization in the overarching franchise.
Vergil was a helpless kid when his family and world were taken away from him in exchange for Makai’s toxic air and cruel social hierarchies. He has had to adapt to his more demonic sensibilities in order to survive in this world. Therefore, he might have felt compelled to submit to Mundus, the ruler of the realm, to escape his own exploitation. This would suggest he’s playing the long game when it comes to Makai’s politics. On the other hand, it can also be argued that his allegiance to the Demon King is a fairly new development. Perhaps Vergil has been forced into this corner in the wake of Baines and the US army’s inhumane occupation of Hell. Either way, this introduction to his storyline certainly adds a layer of intrigue to his character, which promises great things for the show’s future.
Does Mary Leave DarkCom? What Happens to Dante?
Among the many mysteries surrounding Vergil, his opinion and feelings toward Dante also remain ambiguous. Does he view him as a tragedy, a betrayer, or a mix of both? While the answer to this is unknowable for now, the younger brother’s emotions about Vergil are much more transparent. All his life, Dante has believed his brother to be dead. As such, the revelation that he’s still alive, which arrives thanks to Rabbit’s plans, unlocks something strong within him. Despite all his recklessness and devil-may-care attitude, the hunter has always had a soft side, which remains most evident in his connection to his long-lost family. Therefore, now that he knows his brother is alive out there, he’s willing to do everything in his power to get him back.
Consequently, on the heels of defeating Rabbit, Dante reveals his plans to venture into Hell and save Vergil. Furthermore, he extends an offer for a partnership between himself and Mary, no doubt having grown fond of the Lieutenant. The soldier had a tough childhood, which compelled her to grow fearful and hateful of Demons whose existence indirectly ruined her family. As such, she ended up at DarkCom, fighting their anti-demon cause with blind hate for the species. However, her recent experiences make her realize that there is more to Demons—the Makians—than she had previously seen. Furthermore, seeds of doubt have also begun to be sowed in her conscience about Baines’ morality, especially once she realizes her task force is just collateral fodder for the man.
Still, Mary doesn’t really know how deep this immorality runs in the fabric of DarkCom. Even though she’s capable of seeing the Makains as people who are worthy of empathy and a helping hand, she still believes in her own self-righteous cause to eliminate the evil she strongly believes inherently lurks in Demons. For the same reason, she can’t allow Dante—a son of Sparda—to walk around with perhaps the most damning weapon in existence. Her life has programmed her to trust Baines and his rule above all else, including her new tentative friendship with the hunter. As such, she takes advantage of Dante’s trust to incapacitate him and deliver him to DarkCom. This decision is sure to bring a cruel reckoning for the Lieutenant once she’s confronted with the capacity for evil that humans themselves possess, something most perfectly embodied in Baines.
Are the Gates of Hell Opened?
Throughout the story, the most imminent danger that looms over Earth remains Rabbit’s plans to open the literal gates of Hell. His motivations are carefully nuanced and add overwhelming substance to the narrative, yet remain nullified due to the sheer magnitude of damage Hell can bring to humans. Even though a convergence of the realms will be a miracle for many low-level beings in Makai, it will also become an opportunity to exploit the likes of Mundus. As such, even though Dante understands part of Rabbit’s actions—and even doubts his opposition to them for a moment—he ultimately decides to stop him. This isn’t an easy feat, especially once his enemy returns from near death with a demonic upgrade.
Nevertheless, Dane and Mary manage to defeat Rabbit in the end, with the help of Enzo’s crucial sacrifice. Still, as the dust clears, the duo fails to clock in the whereabouts of one very important item: Rabbit’s interdimensional travel device. The device is the single thing that allows him to jump between Earth and Makai and bring his evil enforcements through to the other side. In the end, it ends up in the hands of Anders, one of the newest recruits in Mary’s task force and one of the last-standing survivors. Rabbit had been holding the soldier’s family hostage and using them as leverage to make him do his bidding. Therefore, when Anders pockets the device, it’s with the intention of rescuing his family.
However, in the aftermath, as Baines and his men take Anders away from the screen, he ends up inadvertently bringing the device to the Vice President. Over the course of the past few days, Baines has only grown more self-righteous in his ideas. He believes God has put him on the path to root out all evil from the world, which includes Makai and its population. Thus, once he gets his hands on Rabbit’s ingenious device, he uses it for the same purpose. As such, even though the overarching Gates of Hell aren’t opened for Earth, a different kind of torment is unleashed upon the Makains. Rabbit’s device allows easy travel for beings like humans and low-level Makains but prevents higher-powered Demons from entering Earth. Consequently, in Baines’ hands, it becomes the ultimate weapon, allowing him and his army to wage war on Makai and its innocent lower-wrung demons for their own sanctimonious purposes.
Who is the Rabbit? Why Does He Want to Open the Gates of Hell?
Rabbit and his storyline remain central to this season of ‘Devil May Cry.’ Even though he’s introduced as a demonic being, his existence brings up several questions from the start. Due to the nature of Sparda’s barrier, higher-powered demons aren’t allowed to traverse onto Earth. Therefore, Rabbit stands as an eccentric possible exception due to the scope of his schemes and the ammunition he is equipped with. Although his depiction of his own Hellish powers remains limited, he has several demons under his command. Moreover, he is in possession of Vergil’s amulet—a token willingly given but still intriguing to possess. Therefore, his origins remain eternally curious.
Fittingly, the answer that arrives is well beyond anyone’s assumptions. As it turns out, Rabbit is actually a human rather than a Makain-bred demon. Orphaned in his childhood, he grew up surrounded by bullies and abusive foster parents. During this time, he found respite in books—particularly ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.’ Thus, when he saw a flicker of a portal out of his window one night, he was eager to go down that rabbit hole. However, instead of Wonderland, he arrived in Makai, which is a place fraught with tyranny and toxic air. Even so, the kid found kindness in that realm among a family of low-level Makains.
Although this family lived in scarcity, they found a way to be happy and accepted Rabbit as their own. Unfortunately, a few years down the line, one of their young grew sick with illness and passed away without any proper access to care. Witnessing this cruel death—while Mundus and his stronger demons lazed away in gluttony—unlocked something in the human kid. Therefore, he tried to find a way to build a portal to Earth and put together a transmitter that located glitches and widened them for controlled travel. Rabbit began using this device to secretly smuggle in refugees from Makai to Earth to give them a safer home in the forests.
Nonetheless, Rabbit eventually ran into incredible trouble when DarkCom, particularly Mary’s team, caught one of his portals on their radar. Therefore, they ended up killing all the refugees in a firefight caused by confusion and mayhem. Somehow, Rabbit manages to survive this bloodbath and gets contemptuous of humans and DarkCom in the aftermath. Therefore, he started to detest Sparda for his actions that directly fed Mundus and the higher demons’ power, subsequently resulting in the other Makains’ exploitation. As such, he set off on the venture to destroy the barrier. While on this path, he committed some sins against the Makains as well—the ones he called his own—including their exploitation and inhumane experimentation to make them into soldier fodder. Still, his need for vengeance and hatred for the world’s current order compelled him to stay on his destructive path.
