I had a feeling this episode was going to ramp things up, but there was no way I could have predicted a scene like the rabbit one. I’ve seen my fair share of fictional horror deaths but this had to be one of the more disturbing ones.
This was a really intense episode and it had a lot going for it. I’m glad that Subaru went to confront Roswaal, and while we have even more questions, we at least got one answer. Beatrice is not a witch cultist and what she has is actually not a Gospel but actually a book closest to the Tome of Wisdom, the tome being a book that tells the true future and there are only two copies of it in existence. What the cultists have as their Gospel is a defective version of the Tome, and the reason Beatrice called it a Gospel was because it lacked an official term.
Hmm, there are two of those books. I sure wonder who has the second copy of it. Yeah…it could be Roswaal. Roswaal reassures Subaru that he’s an ally of his but it still doesn’t sit right with me. He did give another part to that “question”, and I still don’t know if it’s a good thing or not. But now we have more questions. If Beatrice has nothing to do with the Witch’s Cult, then how does she personally know Betelgeuse? Who exactly was her mother for her to have this important and powerful book in her possession and what happened to her? How are these Gospels even made? At least it’s nice to know that Beatrice isn’t an enemy, though I didn’t really think she was even if she were possibly a cultist. There’s still a lot we still don’t know about Beatrice but I never suspected her of being an enemy. With her book being able to tell the future, then could it be possible that she’s aware of Subaru’s power. With me suspecting that Roswaal also can see the future somehow, either being because he’s a cultist or he’s not but is in possession of the other not-quite Tome, then it’s possible.
With that out of the way, we run into Garfiel and things took a turn for the worse. It was heartbreaking seeing everyone get killed like nothing, especially Otto since he and Subaru had a nice moment last time. I couldn’t really write out why Otto calling himself Subaru’s friend was a big deal last time, but it’s plainly obvious for my stupid brain. Considering Subaru was alone for so long and lost all his friends before back in his world, it meant a lot to him that he met someone that outright would call him his friend since he hasn’t had that feeling in so long. So seeing Otto sacrifice himself to save Subaru hurt my heart. And best girl Patrasche too. And because of Subaru’s death, who knows if we’ll get a scene like this again. Grr! Garfiel’s beast form was massive and powerful, nothing like Frederica’s. Could the difference really be in their difference of beast blood, and the difference is that much? And here I thought Frederica’s was powerful.
I don’t want to talk about the rabbit scene because it honestly disgusted and terrified me, but what in the hell was that? What is this crystal and why did that even happen? Why would he be sent to a different world/future/illusion??? to get killed like that. We know that Frederica is innocent in all this and it doesn’t seem like she’s tampered with the crystal pendant, so it just begs the question…WHAT? And WHY? And HOW? Who’s behind all this and what do they want?
The last portion of the episode with Echidna was a cathartic moment. There’s been lots of moments in the series where Subaru’s been able to confide in people and let out his thoughts and emotions, but he’s never been able to tell anyone about his traumatizing Return by Death ability or else they be killed. Finally, after so long he’s able to let his heart out and tell someone what he’s had to go through. In the physical sense, Subaru hasn’t been alone but on the other hand he’s been too alone and exhausted from keeping this secret to himself. Dying numerous times in numerous ways, having to solve these conflicts on his own, and just the emotional stress is enough to make anyone want to give up. I can’t imagine the relief Subaru feels of finally having the ability to be able to tell someone all the pain and trauma and suffering he’s had to endure all this time on his own. I’m glad he can have this moment.
Question is, what’s going to happen now? Will things go like how they did in the previous timeloop or will something else happen? I have no clue so I’m ready for whatever the show is going to throw at us next. Except…those demonic rabbits. Not that, please not that again.
Berry, that was a fantastic write-up. It had never occurred to me to think about how Gospels are made. This episode again raised more questions than it answered.
I also wonder what exactly has happened to Frederica’s crystal. It seemed to have teleported Subaru to the future because there was evidence that the people of Arlam lived there, but it was clearly deserted for some reason. Maybe Emilia passed all three trials and liberated the Sanctuary residents after Subaru got lost teleported, possibly being lost in time for a long time after he disappeared. Given that Frederica does not know of this function, it begs the question, “Just what kinds of things can this crystal do?”
Could Roswaal have tampered with the crystal since Frederica was not wearing the crystal when she greeted Emilia and Subaru in episode 2 of this season? Maybe that is why it teleported Subaru to someplace within the barrier but not quite at the testing site the first time. Is it a sense of distress or another emotion that causes it to activate? Subaru thought the crystal was dangerous the first time, so he did feel some distress or an impending sense of doom about the crystal. The second time, he was about to be mauled by an enormous tiger, so he was feeling distress or an impending sense of doom. Given that the crystal’s normal function is to react to the barrier, glowing in the process, I don’t think there’s anything inherently suspicious about the crystal glowing when someone reaches the barrier, but teleporting should not be a normal function of the crystal if Frederica is to be believed. I see two possibilities here. Either the crystal was tampered with or the crystal actually has a mind of its own, and I believe the first possibility to be more likely. An inanimate object having a mind of its own is improbable although I grant that it’s still possible given that Re:zero has yet to show us all this fantasy world has to offer.
Of course, that’s actually not even the biggest question this episode. We see throughout the episode, that Subaru wasn’t even wearing the crystal, but somehow the crystal teleported to him when Patrasche through him to the barrier, and it glowed as suspected since it’s supposed to react to the barrier, but then it teleported him to the future? How did the crystal teleport to him? Once again, the crystal wasn’t on his body after he finally woke up when it was winter, so it appears the crystal can selectively make its way to him in particular. What kind of magic is this?
Subaru really is kind of dumb. Up until this episode, he had seen three different types of mabeasts, the Ulgarm, the White Whale, and the mabeast that attacked the mansion that was in the Frozen Bonds OVA that I can’t remember the name of. All of them had one horn at the top of their heads, so the lone horn on the top of the head should have clued Subaru in to that rabbit-like creature actually being a mabeast, but he stupidly touched it instead of running away.
Roswaal is still highly suspicious. He wants Subaru to ask Beatrice, “Roswaal said you are to ask the question” and said Subaru needs to respond to her question with “I am that person.” How does Roswaal know that Beatrice will help Subaru if that is the case? Did Roswaal and Beatrice roleplay this out before or something? Or does Roswaal know this will work because this is what the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom said would happen? Given that Elsa knew the exact day Subaru was returning to the mansion in the first loop, whoever Elsa hired has something that allows for you to get a glimpse of the future whether it be a defective Witch Cult Gospel or the not-quite-Tome of Wisdom. I think she’s more likely to be acting on the information gleaned from a Witch Cult Gospel since she expected Subaru to return to the mansion at the same time in the second loop even though he didn’t, meaning whoever hired her is likely a member of the Witch Cult.
I wonder if Subaru will have a new save point after this since he has been invited to yet another witch’s tea party. Subaru appeared to have literally gone insane this episode as he was smashing his head on the ground violently as opposed to that time he faked insanity as Petelgeuse told viewers in season 1, but it seems Echidna has somehow taken a liking to him and stopped him from killing himself. I wonder what is the qualification for being invited to a witch’s tea party given that Subaru met the qualification. Does getting getting teleported by the crystal give you the qualification? Subaru was invited to a witch’s tea party shortly after both times he got teleported by the crystal. Or is it something trivial like you can meet the witch if you’re in the right place, and she wants you to meet with you? That would make witch’s tea parties merely plot conveniences if that was the case, and I hope hinging the qualification on being the whim of the witch would not be a good way to tell the story.
This episode was loaded despite merely having only 4 events, Subaru’s talk with Roswaal, Garfiel’s attack, the teleportation to the future (?), and Subaru’s second tea party with Echidna.
I thought I had written all I had to write about the episode, but nope I had forgotten something. I saw a mark on the rabbit mabeasts and wonder if the mark means that they have an owner. The mark is located on the right side of the mabeasts close to the rear end. I wonder if this means that these rabbit mabeasts have an owner. I remember the White Whale had a strange halo above it, and I don’t know whether the halo is the same as the mark on the rabbit mabeasts (I’ll have to go back and check out episodes 20 and 21, but maybe a mabeast having a mark means someone owns you. I think Lye Batenkaitos, the Sin Archbishop of Greed, said that the White Whale was his pet in episode 1 of this season, and maybe the halo was a mark that indicates it had an owner, with that owner being Lye.
I’ll give Subaru the benefit of the doubt and say that after seeing his friends get killed in front of him he wasn’t quite thinking when he reached out to the rabbit, especially when it was the single living thing he saw. But still, yeah it was dumb. I wouldn’t be surprised if they all had an owner and a mark representing that makes sense.
I assumed the whole time that Subaru had the crystal on his body the whole time but he wasn’t necessarily wearing it. So maybe it was in his pocket or something and it conveniently popped out to teleport him. My money’s on the crystal having been tampered with as well, and it could be Roswaal’s doing or it could even be by a character we haven’t seen yet. Though if I had to make a guess Roswaal makes the most sense. After all, he’s the most suspicious person so far this season and he just keeps getting more sus by the minute.
I’m not quite sure the qualification to meet Echidna either. Being teleported by the crystal is a good guess, but I feel like it’s maybe she just wants to but I hope there’s a better reason. I don’t think Subaru’s save point is going to change since he’s already resurrected and with such a significant scene he had with Echidna it’s probably safe to say that Subaru might live through this one, but don’t count my word on that.
EDIT: Actually, looking at the OP more carefully and actually slowing it down, the blue-haired girl (forgot her name) could possibly be the owner of those rabbits. And going back to the Ryuzu stuff from last week, in the OP it shows one black-robed Ryuzu with many white-robed clones it looks like. I can only wonder what that means.
It just seems strange to me if the crystal was in his pocket or something because it seemed to show up from the front of his body, and it made a click sound when it first appeared, showing up when Subaru passed the barrier. It’s like the crystal wasn’t there and then suddenly was there, making that click the first sign that it was there.
Or do we know that Subaru’s wearing it but the anime just doesn’t show it? The crystal showed up after Patrasche threw him in the air so that’s why I thought it just slipped from his pocket or something. It is strange that it showed up in front of him so I’m not too sure now lol
I also accidentally called Lye the Sin Archbishop of Greed when he’s actually the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony. My bad