The following contains spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, set to hit Netflix on December 23.
In a short time, Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc of Knives Out fame has become a modern classic character of American cinema. This is all thanks to writer and director Rian Johnson's intelligently crafted wordplay paired with Craig's electric portrayal. But every famous franchise character eventually becomes known for their greatest tropes and characterizations they repeat in each installment. And Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery may solidify what those reoccurring attributes may be for Benoit Blanc. Thankfully, Blanc's potential calling card has been both brilliantly executed and hilariously uplifting in each of the two films.
In Knives Out, Blanc recruits Ana de Armas' Marta Cabrera to help him solve the larger mystery shrowding over Harlan Thrombey's death. In the follow-up, Glass Onion, the world-renowned detective utilizes and trains Janelle Monáe's Helen/Cassandra Brand to help them find a sense of justice. While it may be too early to call this pattern a character trope, it's clear that Johnson believes it's a tactic and mindset that makes sense for Blanc.
Benoit Blanc Picks Up Impromptu Assistants
Where Sherlock Holmes has a definitive partner in Dr. Watson, Benoit Blanc tends to do things alone. Thanks to context clues in both installments, it seems the cases Johnson has shown to audiences so far are an exception. In Knives Out and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which could've been called A Benoit Blanc Tale, this detective with a drawl finds his partner within the confines of the mystery instead of bringing them along.
Knives Out follows the story of Harlan Thrombey's death and the sense of family secrecy surrounding it. Ultimately, Blanc finds a confidant in Marta, Harlan's nurse, who happens to be an integral piece of the case's inciting incident. With Marta agreeing to help Blanc, he is able to get access to information that he would be pretty helpless without. But outside of the case, it seems that both grow and benefit from their relationship and teamwork. Marta can get justice for the treatment she faced from the Thrombeys despite being the one most devoted to Harlan. Blanc needing to seek the help of a living lie detector shows him that despite having brilliant problem-solving skills, he sometimes isn't able to get all the answers alone.
In Glass Onion, Blanc is in a bit of a dry spell, seemingly thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, until he is unexpectedly invited to billionaire Miles Bron's annual get-together with his old friends. This year's trip happens to be a murder mystery party, so there are naturally nefarious plots afoot. Blanc ended up on the island, all thanks to Helen Brand, who came into possession of a complex invitation after the sudden death of Cassandra Brand, her sister and Bron's former business partner. Thanks to Helen's intuition, she is led to believe there is more to her sister's death than what the authorities think. Between the two of them, they are able to see to it that Bron gets the bad karma he so deeply deserves.
Blanc Brings the Skills, While Marta and Helen Bring the Heart
Like de Armas' Marta in Knives Out, Monáe's Helen must take matters into her own hands to get closure from a traumatic event in Glass Onion. Both must go undercover and play multiple angles, some harder than others, in order to inch closer to their goal. For Helen to find the truth, she had to face her recent loss head-on by playing her late sister. When comparing the two characters, it seems that Blanc and his partners portray the two sides of justice: the pragmatic and the personal.
Rian Johnson has guided his freshly unique detective through two dense yet energized mysteries. If he carries on with this structure in the third Knives Out installment, it would be great to see which new actor could fill the role of Blanc's right hand. That being said, it would also be a wild ride if Benoit Blanc brought his real partner, revealed to be played by Hugh Grant, to help him get to the bottom of the next murder he has stumbled across. Yet, if Grant's charisma shatters that pattern, the trope of Blanc being mysteriously invited to the crime scene might be there to take its place.
To see another exciting Benoit Blanc case, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery arrives on Netflix on Dec. 23.