So, a new cycle begins. This was very appropriate but it was a bit late in the game to be restarting... I thought this was going to be a huge waste of time, by the way this is not the final episode but it was not, 25th will be the final episode.
Subaru goes back to after the slaying of the White Whale (Gluttony) and informs his troops of what he learned during the previous cycle. After that we go to Emilia waking up, doing nothing but talk to Puck.
I swear I'm trying not to be biased against Emilia but every single one of her scenes in this episode completely drag down the pacing. Nothing happens during this scene, we learn nothing , there is nothing revealed, no character development or action.... beyond Puck stating that he will be on her side which we already knew from nearly the beginning of the show.
Wilhelm and Subaru visit Roswal mansion to clear up the misunderstanding about the note. Subaru is wearing a cloak to hide his identity and yet it is heavily implied that everyone EXCEPT Emilia is able to see through it. Fucking Emilia....
So they evacuate the villagers in time and are able to prevent the massacre of previous cycles (FINALLY)... following this, they stage an ambush against the Witch's Cult forces which , for how brief it is , was my favorite scene of the entire episode, not going to lie, I was half hard watching this glorious ownage.
Mmmm, Subaru being badasss is something we really don't get enough of. That was quite good and I wouldn't mind getting more of it, though I'd prefer to have some dose of Rem as well. That's fine though. They continue their strikes against the Witch's forces (offscreen for some reason) and apparently most of them are razed.
Once again the wolf guy doesn't get to do shit, the fighting he performs is done offscreen so we don't get to see it. Goddamnit.
Next up we see the final encounter, Subaru goes to face Beetelgeuse in his lair. But we get some reveals here; What "The Ordeal" is and what it is for, finally we are informed... a bit late in the game in my opinion but it doesn't matter. It was nice finally knowing what is going on and the writing, though a bit sluggish here, is still pretty good.
The trap set, he baits Beetelgeuse to the chase and draws him into a chasm, a very familiar chasm.
It's a nice touch and a good call-back to Subaru's Return By Death use when Rem died in a previous cycle. I like it and it makes the following dramatic scene a bit more meaningful. Julius waits to ambush Beetelgeuse and jumps down, using a technique from the previous cycle to aid in his combat against Beetelgeuse.
Julius uses his sense-link that he used in the previous episode to free everyone from illusions to use Subaru's sense of sight, which gives him the ability to see the Authority of Sloth, The Unseen Hand. Because of this Julius seems to be able to strike down the hands.
This strongly implies that Julius is much weaker than Wilhelm since Wilhelm was able to defeat Sloth multiple times without assistance. That's nice writing, but moreover, the fact that Julius and Subaru are working together makes it quite meaningful , functioning as both character development and character interaction.
I don't like how Sloth has been portrayed as so weak though, he only had one moment of glory and that was when he killed a small group of people in the previous cycle. He should have been shown to be nearly unstoppable rather than annoying. Anyway the episode ends with Subaru and Julius going in for the kill, similar to how in the previous episode Julius struck down Subaru;
So imagine the previous cycle except nearly completely reversed. It was also set-up so that Subaru prepared somehow to NOT be possessed but was not explained. It was done off-screen, we'll see next week in the final episode.
Final Thoughts;
This episode was not as good as the previous week's episode but it had some okay action and decent character moments. The worst parts were Emilia just sitting on her ass doing nothing and Emilia getting emo for no real reason. Emilia really is the worst part of the show, hands down.
That being said, this was bad as a stand-alone episode but this series is not meant to stand-alone, it is meant to be taken as a whole, this episode was purely reactionary to last week's fantastic sequences and partially as a set-up for the finale next week so it is a transitionary episode. Bad on its own but functions exactly as it should.
The best part was Subaru using his now-foresight to prepare for the events he knows will play out. It was very cathartic and exciting to see the enemy forces get decimated by a well-prepared militia led by Subaru.
Am I excited for the finale? fuck yes... but I hope we see Rem again... something HUGE is going to happen, and by this I mean, a character, a MAJOR character is going to die without being able to be resurrected. Oh god I hope its not Rem.
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