Hello, all. I hope you are enjoying your summer despite everything. If there’s one thing I’m appreciating, is that we are actually having a pretty mild summer here. And with just the perfect amount of rain. You know where it rains almost every day, but only for about an hour or so. Most of the time it’s nice and sunny but everything is all green and lush. If it wasn’t for well… everything… it would be a really wonderful summer.
How about you Crow? How are things on your end?
Aside from everything, not bad! I’m super grateful my job is something I can do 100% remotely. I’m also happy I bought my Acer Predator gaming monitor. Turns out it’s great for work, too! As far as the weather goes, we were lucky the derecho missed us. Those things are dangerous!
Looks like I’m in un-bolded text (what a relief!). Also, there will be spoilers.
You know how they say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well, Beatrice had some really great intentions this week. Almost ruined everything. And we still don’t exactly know why…
I will admit, I felt a little cheated this week. Here I was all ready for an episode full of breakneck action and time-jumping shenanigans, only made the sweeter by Beatrice’s sharp tongue. But alas, my best Bea disappears after the opening sequence and the way too short time we spend with her (it’s always too short) only has her quietly breaking down in tears as an (admittedly understandably) upset Subaru berates her.
I get it. Subaru was having a bit of a rough day. But that is NOT how you treat my Beatrice! I will be expecting an apology! Not cool, madude.
I’m going to give Subaru a pass on this one, for three reasons. First, he was broken and bleeding. His body wasn’t working well anymore. He was terrified that he wouldn’t get back in time to preserve the save point. The thought of Rem, Ram, Frederica, and Petra being lost forever almost broken him. Rough day, indeed!
Second, when Knifey (a.k.a. Elsa Granhiert) showed up, what did the broken and bleeding Subaru do? He grabbed Knifey’s ankle in a pathetic attempt to save Beatrice. It was the next to last thing he did. The last thing was look at a shocked Beatrice watch him die.
The third was later, when Subaru was, let’s say, detained, in the dark and all alone. Even though he had no idea why she would cherish one of those dark gospels, he still thought, “I would give anything to hear your voice right now.” His heart’s in the right place!
Thankfully, all the draaaama (channelling Roswaal, are we?) didn’t last long enough to reset Subaru’s restart point, so when knifey got all stabey again, we were all brought back to the night of the first trial. Rinse and repeat without any exposition this time and after the evening talk, a refreshed Subaru started planning out how this time should go. We didn’t see it, but I’m going to assume he didn’t make Emiia cry this time. At least I hope so. I sort of decided that this was the reason he was so chipper that even Otto noticed.
I think that’s a great interpretation!
And then the guy who’s been acting aggressive and kind of like a bad guy all this time, and was framed as an antagonist, did something aggressive and antagonistic. Shock – horror!
So apparently witches smell, and because Subaru was with Echidna in his vision(?), he now smells like her, too. And also Garfiel can smell it, so now he wants to dispose of Subaru. So does the pink haired girl whose name I will surely learn someday.
But smartly and conveniently, they don’t want to kill him for plot reasons and just end up kidnapping him. He remains bound and gagged in some dark place for days where he frets about the fate of his friends he can no longer prevent until Otto saves him.
I have a feeling Garfiel was suspicious that Subaru seemed to want to die. I took it as “Oh, you want to die? Then no death for you!” So maybe spite saved Subaru? Though it might have been easier for him to go back to the save point…
Having remembered that Subaru was last seen with Garfiel, Otto figured out something was off. When Garfiel threatened him, he got his suspicions confirmed. He’s been searching since then and manages to rescue Subaru. Also give him a quick update on the situation at the risk of his own freedom and safety. Turns out Otto considers Subaru a friend. And for his trouble, Subaru laughed and pointed at him for a really long time.
I liked the little touch of showing what happened to Subaru when he was forced to have time to think. While he languished in the dungeon, the memories I’m guessing he tried to keep at bay flooded back. That would be hard to handle!
And that’s it. It’s what happened. Not exactly my type of episode and yet it flew by. Those closing credits were rolling before I even knew it and they caught me by surprise. I have to give it to the episode, they managed to keep up the tension well and capture my interest despite really not that much happening and entirely too little Beatrice.
Good job on that.
That scene with Beatrice was amazing. I don’t think we’ve ever seen her cry before, have we? What kind of creature is she? Why is she bound by what’s in the books? Is it true that her affection for Subaru has driven her to do things she doesn’t understand, like trying to save him?
The hurt in her voice when he reacted with fury was masterfully acted. Massive kudos to Satomi Arai, Beatrice’s voice actor.
Here are a few of my random takeaways.
1- Garfiel and Frederika are half-siblings. The fact that they are related is made apparent through their similar hair colour and mostly through those amazing shark teeth they got going on. Except that the parent they have in common is a fully human mother. So those shark teeth are actually part of their human genetics? Freaky. I don’t think we’ve ever seen saw-toothed humans in ReZero. Maybe their mom was a witch?
That’s not a very nice… Or, you mean a literal witch? Maybe! It would seem unlikely that their two dads had shark teeth. Though, maybe their mom was partial to that kind of dentition?
2- From what I can figure out, Ram either has a crush on Hisoka which is embarrassing but surprisingly common, or she will have a crush on Hisoka as soon as she finds out about him. I’m o.k. With this. I think they would make a pretty decent if occasionally baffling couple. It’s a crossover I would like to see. I’m not sure how to reconcile those two universes exactly but I think there’s potential for great fun in it.
You know, I’m sure Archive of Our Own would love your contribution to fan-fic! There’s a lot of good stuff there!
All in all, this was a pretty good set up episode. I’m hooked, I want to know what happens next. Mostly I want to know what Beatrice was hoping to accomplish and why. It’s not like her to get so flustered.
That’s one of the things that made it so powerful: that’s so not like her! I think watching Subaru die was really hard on her! But then, doesn’t that make sense? I’ve gotten so used to seeing him buy it that it’s no big deal anymore.
Oh! Did you see her wrestle the glass shard away from him? She’s small, but she’s mighty! Or maybe Subaru had lost too much blood…
