#matthijs van den berg

This is an appreciation for season four of Het Huis Anubis, because the fandom doesn’t give it the love that it truly deserves.

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Not only does this season tie with season two as their best. It also has the best subplots out of all the season finales!

While I still enjoyed the subplots of the other three seasons, I don’t like them anywhere near as much as I love the two from season four.

I appreciated how Marijke actively tried her best to stop the Club from getting out of the house. Like, sis was getting PHYSICAL with them kids! When the Club did eventually manage to get out, she lost the will to go after them and pretty much gave up.

After that, when she finally realized that Jacob lied to her and that the kids were telling the truth all along, you could see the regret written on her face as clear as day.

Then came the part with Danny having found Victor and bringing him back home, after Marijke had kicked him out for lying to her and helping the Club instead. It was very obvious from the moment she saw him again that she regretting doing that to him, that she felt really sorry for the state he was in, despite still being sad and angry, having felt betrayed by her own brother.

The best part of that subplot, of course, came at the end, with Victor telling Marijke that the Anubis House means everything to him, that it’s basically his whole life.

And then that scene with Marijke handing the papers, with the will written by their father, which said that Marijke could claim ownership of the house whenever she wanted, over to Victor, and him ripping them into pieces and becoming the owner of the House once again, was MARVELOUS. I also loved that he agreed to Marijke’s request to let them stay at the house until they could find a place of their own again. It was another testament to how much he has changed throughout the series, how he had become a much better person, despite how horribly he was treated since his childhood by those around him, including his whole family.

The other subplot I want to talk about is the one with the schoolpaper competition between Sofie and Mick. I liked this plot as a kid as well, but having re-watched the last few episodes of this season today, I have come to love it, a lot.

While I got annoyed with Sofie back then, I have now come to really like her character as well. Her stubbornness and refusal to admit defeat is actually entertaining to watch. The fact that she went to visit this paranoid, recluse of a man for an interview for the schoolpaper, despite having a bad feeling about it all, says a lot about how far she is willing to go to win. He could have been somebody dangerous for all we know, and yet she still went to visit the man that the whole neighbourhood is cautious of.

And she mainly did this just to piss off Mick.

Being an avid reader myself, I loved the reveal of this man being a famous writer who disappeared without a trace a few years back. 

His story about how he got recognized everywhere he went, and not finding any peace because of it, was honestly really sad to hear. The only place where he could sit down and write in peace was some depressing room with just a desk and a lamp, away from any prying eyes. And that eventually drove him crazy and turned him into a recluse. A recluse that hated journalists in particular, what Sofie basically is.

Van Ginkel’s popularity pretty much led to his complete downfall.

I’m still very bitter that B.J. Van Ginkel’s supposed books, ‘The murdered writer’and'The clouds that ate themselves’, aren’t actually real. 'Cause you can be damn sure that they would be on my bookshelf if they existed.

I love this little paragraph of the latter book that Sofie recited, with Van Ginkel finishing that last sentence:

“Behold, an empty sky.

A sky as it was intended at the beginning of creation.

A sky without clouds, like thoughts without hatred.

Sadly, just a fantasy.

The sky is perpetually riddled with holes, like the clouds that themselves.”

I don’t believe my translation brings any justice to how beautiful it sounds in Dutch.

Then we had that part with Mick and Robbie getting very worried about Sofie, going back to school in the middle of the night, finding out where she went off to and then going after her, thinking she was in danger.  

I really loved the scene with Mick admitting to Van Ginkel that it was all his (Mick) fault that Sofie visited him, and that he should take him instead of Sofie, after he and Robbie had broken into the house to ‘save’ her. 

Another scene I want to talk about is the one with Sofie accidentally saying the man’s real name, revealing his true identity to Mick and Robbie, and Van Ginkel not getting mad at her for it. If anything, he was happy to hear that someone referred to him by his real name, after having lived with a fake identity all these years. 

And then the best bit came; when Van Ginkel handed the last page of his last written book, ‘The murdered writer’, which had never been published, over to Sofie, giving her the permission to put it in the schoolpaper. Something that Van Swieten was all too happy to read about later in that episode, being a big fan of the book himself.

The romance in this was so minimal, almost exclusively restricted to that bit with Mick and Sofie in the very end, that it seemed more of a background thing in this finale, unlike with the other seasons, where it played a bigger role. With them not spending an unnecessary amount of time on the romance, it gave way for other, and imo, more mportant, things, like family issues, friendships and, of course, the whole mystery. 

Speaking of, I’m not going to spend my time here talking about how good the mystery plot was, ‘cause I could write a whole essay about that.

What I do want to say is how this was the only finale with the possibility of a character death.

Not just one (Noa), not two (Noa and Rosa), not three (Noa, Rosa and Nienke), but SIX (including Fabian, Amber and Appie) possible deaths. The latter four could have easily drowned if they hadn’t found a way out of that closed swimming pool in time. And who knows what Jeroen would have done if Noa and the whole Club ended up dead. The death tally could’ve been up to eight, because there is no way that he would’ve let Jacob and Matthijs get away with it, dude was losing his mind as it was already.

Jacob van Den Berg was legit ready to kill fiveteenagers just to get his wife back. Matthijs and him would’ve given their lives without a second thought if they could have, but that never was a possibility because of the curse of immortality that Anchesenamun had placed on them.

A tragedy, is what it is.

Chapters from the books: translations

Book-original events & events that happened differently in the series: [2/?]

[note: english is not my first or second language, nor is dutch. therefore you are bound to see spelling and translation errors. this isn’t a ‘word for word’ translation either. i changed up the order of a sentence or three and sometimes mixed two together to make them sound more comprehensible when translated.]

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Book 7:The Curse of Ankhesenamun

┇

「Chapter 2: The meeting with Matthijs」

﹎

Nienke stepped outside again, just as the sun began to break through the clouds. She lifted her face to the golden light.

“Are you ejoying the rays of Ra?” Nienke turned around. There stood Matthijs.

“Hi. Sorry for being late. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t being followed,” he excused himself.

“Followed? By whom? What are you talking about?” Nienke asked, but Matthijs didn’t answer. He beckoned her to the gate. “Let’s go there. Otherwise I won’t have a coat left.” He pulled the tip of his dark blue wool coat from the mouth of a black and brown goat.

When they arrived at the gate, Matthijs gallantly held it open for her. Nienke felt herself getting angry. 'Why did he keep the gate so neatly open for her, when he belonged to such a horrible Society? Why was he so nice?’

He took her by the elbow to lead her to the bench just behind the gate, but she pulled away. “I can do it myself,” she said bitterly. He followed her in silence and sat down next to her on the green bench.

“Now I want to know everything,” she said firmly. “From the beginning. What happened to Fabian, what you guys did to Noa. Everything.” She drilled her gaze into Matthijs’ eyes. He nodded. “I’ll tell you everything,” he said. “From the beginning.” Matthijs stared across the path, as if history were in the bark of the trees.

“Fabian shouldn’t have been there,” he began.

“Where?”

“In the Anubis house. During the rehearsal for the Christmas musical. My father… He went to the House to give the poison to Noa, but then Fabian appeared out of nowhere.” Nienke didn’t understand it at all. “Your father? And he poisoned Fabian?”

“By accident!”

“How can you poison someone by accident?” Nienke became increasingly angry. “Let me explain,” said Matthijs quickly. He nervously rubbed his palms together. “The poison was not meant for him. That’s why we took him from the hospital. To get the poison out of him.”

“And then you thought: let’s just tell everyone that he’s dead?” scoffed Nienke.

“We had to - no one was allowed to go look for him,” said Matthijs. He looked pleadingly at Nienke, as if he wanted her to forgive him for what he had done, but Nienke was furious. She felt her cheeks glow. “How is that possible? How can you just declare someone for dead?” she said in a cracking voice. “My father works as a doctor at the hospital. He was able to forge everything and took Fabian to our house.”

Nienke let Matthijs’ last words sink in. 'He was able to forge everything and take Fabian to our house.’ Unbeknownst to her, a tear rolled down her cheek. “Fabian. So he’s really alive,” she said softly. Matthijs gently took her hand. “That’s what I told you. He’s still alive. He’s at our house.”

“Can I see him?”

Matthijs shook his head. “No, not yet. My father…”

Nienke immediately withdrew her hand. “What’s the matter with your father? What’s the matter with you? What is it that you want? What is the Society of Ankhesenamun? Is your name even Matthijs van Dijk at all?”

“My name is Matthijs, but not Van Dijk. It’s van den Berg. Van Dijk was a forgery.”

“But why. What…”

Matthijs put his hands up. “Listen, I know this is all confusing. I’ll start at the beginning. Did you see the sarcophagus in the basement?”

Nienke gave a nod. “With the cobra sign.” Matthijs rolled up his sleeve and showed the inside of his right wrist. Nienke was shocked: there was a cobra sign on his arm! The snake was pitch black, as if the drawing had been burned into his arm.

“That’s the cobra sign I saw in the hallway - and by Noa,” she said agitatedly. “What is it exactly?”

“This is the sign of Ankhesenamun,” Matthijs sighed. He was silent for a moment, as if searching for the right words. He then turned to face her. His eyes were tired and sad.

“I am cursed, Nienke,” he said flatly. “I’m cursed by Ankhesenamon. Have been for over two hundred years.”

┇

「Chapter 3:The last drop of poison」

﹎

Nienke’s mouth fell open in astonishment. “W-what did you just say?” she stammered. “That I have been cursed by Ankhesenamun - for more than two hundred years,” says Matthijs calmly.

“But - but that’s not possible.” Nienke shook her head.

“I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s the truth. You have to try to understand it, Nienke.”

“But… what happened to you? Are you two hundred years old?” Nienke couldn’t help it: she burst out laughing at this absurd idea. But Matthijs didn’t twitch a muscle. “I’m sixteen years old. Only for a very long time.”

Suddenly, what Appie had once said about Matthijs popped into her head: that he might be a vampire. She peered at Matthijs’ face. He didn’t look like a vampire - and they couldn’t stand daylight, could they? Or was it silver? Or garlic? She didn’t know anymore.

“Have you perhaps heard of Napoleon Bonaparte during history class?” Matthijs asked.

Nienke nodded. Of course she had heard of Napoleon Bonaparte - the French emperor who controlled almost all of Europe in the 1800s.

“He wanted to conquer the whole world - including Egypt,” Matthijs began.

“In 1798, he brought more than just his soldiers to Egypt. He brought along an expedition of archaeologists as well - the best in the world. He was a smart man, you know - always searching for ancient civilizations.”

“Did you know Napoleon?” Nienke asked, who couldn’t believe her ears. Matthijs burst out laughing. “No, not personally. Although I did see him once - from afar. But I don’t think that counts.” His face turned serious again.

“What I wanted to say is: My parents were on that expedition too - and so was I.” Nienke swallowed. She could hardly get her head around it. She peered at Matthijs once again, at his face, his hands…. He didn’t look like someone who had been around for over two hundred years.

“The things we found… Have you ever heard of the Rosetta Stone - which allowed people to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics? I was there when it was unearthed - it was more than a century before Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered - and before grave robbers systematically looted the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs. If we had had more time, I’m sure we would have found Tutankhamun’s tomb as well.”

“But you didn’t…”

“No - instead we found a completely different tomb.” Matthijs’ face darkened. 

“It was in August and it was scorching hot. We had been digging all day and my father was just about to indicate that we should stop, when he found a stone - a keystone to a grave. We were overjoyed, of course. Our Egyptian helpers left - Egyptians are very superstitious and usually don’t want to be there when a tomb opens.” He gave a short laugh, but it didn’t sound happy. “In hindsight, a very good decision.”

“There were three of us - my father, my mother and I. It took all of our strength to lift the stone, but we were so excited about our find that it gave us extra strength.”

“My father speculated about who the tomb belonged to - a Pharaoh perhaps… He went in first… It was an endless stone staircase leading down. There seemed to be no end and I remember being scared because I felt like we were walking to the center of the earth. Fortunately, my mother sensed my fear and she secretly held my hand.”

“Why secretly?”

“You have to understand - it was a very different time. My father was - is, a man of that time: strict and tough. He was really driven and didn’t like it much when I was scared.”

“But your mother didn’t mind?”

“No - my mother was… is… the sweetest…” Matthijs faltered and tears appeared in the corners of his eyes which he tried to wipe away as discreetly as possible. “At the end of the stairs were two sphinxes that we crawled under. My father is superstitious enough not to want to walk through the field of vision of two sphinxes. Behind the sphinxes were two stone slabs that we pushed aside. Then we came into a tomb…”

“It was unbelievable. I had never seen so much gold and valuables in one place, it sparkled and shone everywhere… My father couldn’t believe his luck and immediately went to the sarcophagus in the center of the room, surrounded by all that beauty. On the sarcophagus was a large cobra. I immediately got a strange feeling in my stomach when I saw it, although the cobra is a sacred animal to the Egyptians, but still…”

“My father tried to lift the lid, but it seemed as if the lid was being held back by a magical force… My father finally gave up and studied the hieroglyphs on the large coffin and read them aloud: Here lies Ankhesenamun… It was some kind of spell.”

Nienke could hardly breathe. “What happened then?” she whispered.

“Then… then Ankhesenamun appeared.”

Nienke’s breath caught completely. “It was her grave.”

Matthijs gave a nod. “It was terrifying: all the torches went out at once, and she stood there. She didn’t seem like a ghost; she looked real, but she looked so cold and deadly that I felt like my heart was about to freeze over. She was furious - claiming that we had disturbed her peace.”

“Did she say that?”

“Yes - and we understood her. That was the weird thing about it all - she spoke just like us. She kept saying: Give me the descendant of Amneris…. Destroy the descendant of Amneris….

We didn’t understand what she meant - no one knew about the love between Amneris and Tutankhamun at that time.

"Anchesenamon gave my father a vial of poison. Then she cursed us…. ”

“All three of you?”

Matthijs nodded. “My father and I got the cobra mark. We’ve been immortal ever since.”

“And your mother?”

“My mother - my mother… she turned to stone. She lies in the sarcophagus of Ankhesenamun - which is in our basement - waiting for us to destroy the descendant of Amneris.” Nienke’s eyes welled up with tears. “How awful for you - and for you father,” she said softly.

“Isn’t there another way?” asked Nienke hopefully. “To save them both?”

Matthijs sank his head into his hands. “And how awful it is for Noa… Do you understand now why we’re giving her the poison? We don’t have a choice - otherwise my mother will never wake up.”

“Do you know how long we’ve been working on this?” said Matthijs frustrated. “First we had to find out who Amneris was - then we had to look for her bloodline. We have traveled all over the world! It would have been much easier if we could have gotten our hands on the Grail that was in Tutankhamun’s tomb - because that automatically lures in the last one in the bloodline of Amneris.”

“You mean our Grail? The Grail we found in the Anubis House?” asked Nienke in surprise. “The one that finally showed us the way to the Love Tomb?”

He stared into the distance, into the past. “The worst part is that I can’t remember her face anymore. No matter what I do to keep it with me - it’s fading more and more with each passing time.”

Matthijs gave a nod. “Don’t you understand, Nienke? Everything is connected. Everything. The Grail, Winsbrugge-Hennegouwen, the Teardrop, Noa…. Do you think Noa just happened to show up on the doorsteps of the Anubis House? Of course not!”

“But - where were you guys then?”

“Looking for her, of course. Just as we have always been looking for the descendants of Amneris. We were tracking her down in Egypt - with her parents. She was only a baby then. But we lost her.”

Nienke was hesitant to ask, but she needed to know the answer. “Did you two kill Noa’s parents?”

“We bribed someone to lock the brakes on their car so they couldn’t go any further - that way we could take Noa - but it went wrong. Her parents were never meant to die - do you think I’m thatevil?”

Nienke looked at Matthijs’ friendly face. She couldn’t imagine that he was bad. Otherwise he wouldn’t be sitting here. But his father… she wasn’t so sure about that.

“The big problem is that the last one in the bloodline is immortal. Only the poison can harm Noa, nothing else.” Nienke fell from one surprise into another. “So Noa can’t d…?”

“That’s right.” He gulped. “I’ll tell you exactly what happened next: on the day of the rehearsal for the musical, we were finally on her trail again. My father followed Rufus. He waited for the right moment to give her the poison. But he miscalculated. He didn’t expect Fabian to be there as well. Fabian threw himself in front of Noa and the poison accidentally ended up in his arm.”

“And now that poison is being extracted from Fabian and given to Noa?”

“Yes. It’s almost over. Just one more drop of poison and we’re done.” Nienke’s blood stopped flowing. “Just one more drop? And then Noa…”

“I’m sorry,” said Matthijs hiding his face behind his hands.

“No… there must be another way,” cried Nienke and she jumped up. “Did you really look for other solutions? Surely there must be another way to wake up your mother? Without killing Noa?”

“Sometimes there isn’t a solution that is right for everyone,” Matthijs said resignedly.

“You won’t know that if you don’t look for it!” cried Nienke. “There must be a way to save your mother andNoa!”

“Ankhesenamun was clear… Give me the descendant of Amneris…. the bloodline must be destroyed,” Matthijs said. Nienke put her hand on that of Matthijs and looked at him pleadingly. “Please… please… don’t give her the last drop… maybe we can find another way.” She could see in his eyes that he was hesitating. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. He wanted to say something, but at that moment a classical music sounded from the pocket inside of his coat: his cell phone was ringing. The look in his eyes changed immediately and he looked around nervously as he fished the cell phone out of his pocket. He looked at the screen and stood up resolutely.

“Sorry… I have to go,” he said. His shoulder hunched a little lower. He turned and wanted to walk away, but Nienke grabbed his arm. “Why tell me all this if there’s no hope left?” she asked.

Matthijs sighed and looked down at her hand, resting on his arm. “I couldn’t sleep thinking about how sad you were about Fabian,” he said without looking at her. “Because of the curse, I’ve never really had any friends…and I really do think you’re a great person.”

“Weare friends - That’s exactly why we have to find a way to save Noa!” pleaded Nienke. She attempted to make eye contact with Matthijs, but he kept his gaze fixed on her hand. Then he gently pulled away.

“My mother is far too important,” he finally said. “I’m sorry.” With his head between his shoulders, he walked away from the bench, away from her. Nienke felt all hope flow through her sneakers into the forest path.

“Please Matthijs…” she called after him. “Wait a little longer - I’ll find another way!”

But Matthijs walked stiffly on and disappeared from sight without looking back. Nienke had to restrain herself from running after him. She knew there was no point now. She sat paralyzed on the bench, oblivious to everything going on around her.. She felt like she couldn’t move forward or backwards anymore.

What should she do to save Noa? She didn’t know and she understood Matthijs. Of course he would sacrifice a girl he barely knew for his own mother, even though he hadn’t seen her for two hundred years. Nienke stared at the ground between her feet. There were so many things she still wanted to ask him: Where Noa was. Where Fabian was. Whether his father would release Fabian once he had removed the last drop of poison from his body.

Every time she thought of Fabian, her heart skipped a beat, but then she immediately felt guilty again. How could she be glad that Fabian was alive when Noa was in danger?

But she was happy. The news that he was alive had given her new hope. If this was true - the impossible - then they also had to find a way to save Noa. And Matthijs’ mother. Both of them. She felt the key that Sarah had given her burning around her neck. She was the Key Keeper for a reason - there had to be a solution.

Nienke got a determined look on her face, got off the bench and ran to her bike.