#as opposed to. well. a woman as everyone else in the order for whom suzanne “cares too much” in mary's words

[sisterdivinium]

The closed window behind Mary is already reminiscent of prison, yet her comment is both a remark on how she can leave after visiting her own mother as well as a promise that she is definitely and defiantly going to leave Mother Superion to this jail all by herself — because, in this moment, Mother Superion is stuck there. Her own visit to Duretti has him coming in and later out of what is, to all intents and purposes, her cell, Swiss Guards on either side of the gate acting as her jailers.

She says she seeks guidance and, although Duretti says basically nothing, he does provide the moral guidance that completes the lesson received from Mary earlier. Mother Superion’s expression, as she turns towards us after seeing her “cell” being shut again, locking her in with her sense of obligation, her rigidity, her hierarchical position, her spiritual dead end, tells us all we need to know. Even the light comes in through the bars from the left of our screen, as it came through the window when Mary spoke: they’re on the same side, now, and the prisoner is freeing, if not yet her body, then her mind and resolve.

(here's part two)