This episode slows down as we get some build up and exposition of what’s to come. And with that ending, we can expect some things to ramp up pretty quickly so it was nice to slow things down after concerning things happened last time. Even though this was a slower episode, there were some pretty interesting stuff in it.
The group take their leave from Crusch and Felix and head back to the village, only to find that nobody is there. Subaru and Emilia mention the Sanctuary, and admittedly neither of them exactly know what or where that is. To hopefully get some clues, they (along with Rem and Otto) head to the mansion to hopefully find some answers and there we meet a new face.
Frederica seems like a kind girl and she was pretty helpful. It’s funny that Ram couldn’t handle all the duties in the mansion, so much that it was a complete disaster, that she had to ask Frederica for help. Frederica used to work at the mansion before but she left for personal reasons, those reasons being important later on I have no idea. I wouldn’t say that I’m super suspicious of her, but she did hide an envelope from them and said “I have done exactly as Master directed”. Does she mean Roswall or could it be someone else? And speaking of Roswall, I’ve always been suspicious of him. There’s just something about him that makes me side eye him but I can’t quite place it. Just like the other characters, I can’t really tell what that guy is thinking and what he wants so he makes me wary. I wonder what that envelope from Frederica is and who it’s from. She was quite helpful when it came to leading them to the Sanctuary and telling them to watch out for a “Garfield”, but the necklace that she gave Emilia caused some problems and I don’t know if that was supposed to happen. Hmm…
I think the most interesting part of the episode was Subaru and Beatrice’s conversation. Beatrice is also another character that is very mysterious and I feel we don’t really know much of. She’s just a mage that protect’s Roswall’s library, but of course there has to be way more to her, but we just don’t know it right now. It seems that there is some sort of connection between Beatrice and the Witch’s Cult, or at least the Sin Archbishops, since she asked Subaru what she did with Betelgeuse’s Witch Factor, which is the first we’ve heard of it. She didn’t explain what it was but she made it sound very important. She also expressed a bit of sadness when Subaru told her that he killed Betelgeuse, affectionately calling him Geuse. She tells him that all the answers he needs, such as the Gospel, the Witch Factor, and about Roswall will be at the Sanctuary however she said it with such a pained expression, saying she’s not a tool for his convenience before kicking him out. Something must have struck a nerve in her in that conversation and it’s a head scratcher, basically everything is with how vague she was. It’ll be great to learn more about Beatrice along with the other characters in this season since I feel that she’s one of the more mysterious ones.
After entering the Lost Forest of Clemaldy, the pendant Frederica gave Emilia glows and for some reason Subaru grabbed it and was about to toss it out of the carriage before Emilia collapsed. I’m not actually sure why Subaru did this. I’m guessing that he just got a bad feeling from it and wanted to rid themselves of it, but didn’t Frederica say that’s exactly what they needed to get into the Sanctuary?
With the pendant still in his hand, Subaru gets transported somewhere in the forest and chases after a pink-haired half-elf girl, who led him to a ruin. He steps inside and gets transported somewhere again after hearing a voice, and he finds himself in front of a woman named Echidna, who looks like Emilia…and calls herself the Witch of Greed?! Oh boy…
That was a pretty big shocker. I have to wonder if this was actually supposed to happen, and if the person that was supposed to meet Echidna was Emilia and not Subaru instead since Frederica gave Emilia the pendant. So…does that mean that envelope Frederica had was from the Witch? Oh man, so many questions this time! What could possibly happen next?
In season 1 when Subaru met Beatrice he said to her “you aren’t human” or something like that. To which she replied something like “took you long enough to realize”. In this episode Frederica refers to Beatrice as the Great Spirit of the Library. Puck is also referred to as a Great Spirit at times.
Season 1 covered the events in the first 9 light novels. I read novels 1-10 last year so I have a good idea of what’s going to happen over the next 2 or 3 episodes but nothing beyond that.
Even so there was a fair bit of exposition in the first 9 novels that was skipped or glossed over in season 1.
The next paragraph contains a detail from the books about Betelgeuse that the show skipped over/cut out in season 1 and may or may not come up again in the show. So it may or may not count as a spoiler. Read at your discretion.
There was a key plot point in the books with Betelgeuse being afraid of Julius because Julius was a spirit arts user. As it turned out this was because Betelgeuse was afraid of and hated spirits. Ultimately it was revealed that Betelgeuse was himself a spirit and he hated his own kind (and perhaps himself).
Huh, well that’s an interesting tidbit. I’ll keep that in mind for the future events in the anime.