Re:ZERO Episode 35

I Know Hell

As usual, there’s a lot to discuss with this episode of Re:ZERO season 2. But I’m going to stick to three main topics today, the first of which is my theory that Emilia and Satella are actually the same person. Over the course of these 35 episodes, there has been a fair amount of circumstantial evidence pointing to this being the case.

Starting off with the most obvious, Emilia and Satella are both half-elves with white hair who look exactly the same. Next, we know that Emilia is a very proficient magic user, as were the witches. She’s obviously not as powerful as them, but I’ll get to that in just a bit.

There’s also the fact that Subaru was immediately drawn to Emilia upon first encountering her. Sure, this could be because she’s a cute girl who saved him, but now that we know more about Satella, I think there’s more to it. I think Subaru’s attraction to Emilia is partially due to her being Satella, the one who loves Subaru above all else.

Additionally, we now know that Roswaal has a connection to the witches. He lords over the domain within which the witches’ tomb is located, he refers to Echidna by name, and his goal is to slay the dragon that helped seal Satella away. That last part is very important and may be connected to why he took Emilia under his wing.

How Could Emilia be Satella?

But what does this all mean? And isn’t Satella sealed away? Well, to answer that second question first, we know that Satella’s powers were sealed, but that her body was too strong to destroy. So, my theory is that Satella’s powers and memory of being the Witch of Envy were sealed, leaving her as the girl we know as Emilia.

According to the Frozen Bond movie, Emilia was found by Puck wandering in the forest. She has no memory of anything before she was alone in the forest and we don’t know how long she was there. She also had extremely powerful magic leaking out of her body which caused her to further isolate herself.

So, when Roswaal encountered her, he likely knew who she truly was, Satella. Roswaal seems to have a copy of the Tome of Wisdom and knowledge of Subaru’s return by death, so I think it’s reasonable to assume he would recognize Satella. He also didn’t seem that surprised when Satella appeared in the Sanctuary.

Also, speaking of Satella appearing in the Sanctuary, how did she get there? She seemed to have originated from within it, not outside it. And this makes sense if her true form was released from Emilia’s body — perhaps by Emilia learning of her dark past during the trial. Remember, this was the one trial attempt Subaru woke up from with Emilia nowhere to be found.

And moving back to Roswaal, if he knows that Emilia is actually just Satella with her true power and memories sealed, then his wanting to slay the dragon makes more sense. He wants to unseal Satella’s memories for some reason. Again, we don’t know that reason yet, but we know he’s connected to the witches in some way.

I think it’s very possible that Roswaal is an Apostle of Envy just as Subaru is now an Apostle of Greed.

Ryuzu Meyer

The second topic I want to discuss from this episode is the creation of the artificial beings known as Ryuzu. I don’t really think all of the Ryuzu are going to be that important to the story directly, but I do think they give us insight into other things that will be — such as the Apostles of Sin and Echidna’s motives.

So to get the whole Ryuzu thing out of the way, basically, Echidna was attempting to gain immortality by manufacturing bodies for her soul to enter upon her death. This original Ryuzu was Ryuzu Meyer, who can be found sealed in a crystal within the Sanctuary. There were then four copies of Ryuzu Meyer made, one of which is Ryuzu Bilma. From there, hundreds of other Ryuzu were manufactured.

So, what are the important takeaways from this? First, we now know that Subaru is considered an Apostle of Greed because he ingested a part of Echidna. This allows him to control the many Ryuzu clones. Additionally, it’s implied that Garfiel is an Apostle of Greed as well since he too underwent the trial and is referred to as Subaru’s sibling now that Subaru is an Apostle.

I think the difference between an Apostle and an Archbishop in this sense is that the Apostles have actually come into contact with and been chosen by their respective witches. The Archbishops seem to revere Satella more than the other witches and, if Betelgeuse is anything to go by, don’t have a personal connection to them.

Finally, it was heavily implied that what Echidna is after right now is Subaru’s immortal body. She created Ryuzu in an attempt to gain immortality, and now she’s met someone who seemingly has the ability she longed for.

But, I don’t think it’s that simple. Subaru isn’t really immortal as far as we know. He can reset time to a certain point upon death, but that doesn’t stop him from aging. So even if his resetting ability works if he dies from old age, he’ll be stuck in a limited time loop. I don’t think Echidna really wants that.

Betty’s Contract

Finally, we have Betty. This is the topic that we have the least amount of information regarding at this point. But, let’s go over what we know about Betty, what we can assume about Betty, and what that might mean for her future.

I’m not going to explain this again this week, but I think Echidna is Betty’s “mother.” That’s the assumption at which my line of reasoning for this begins. So if we assume that Betty’s mother is Echidna, then that means Subaru is now the Apostle of Betty’s mother. And what do we know Apostles of Greed can do? They can control Ryuzu due to some contract.

Further, we know that if Subaru tells Betty that he is “that person,” she will be contractually obligated to ally with him. Now, I’m not saying that Betty is a Ryuzu, that much is clear by her appearance. But if both of them are linked to Echidna and have a contract that forces them to ally with Subaru, there’s definitely something connecting it all together.

Now, originally I was thinking that Betty’s contract might be entirely separate from the one involving Ryuzu. However, upon further inspection, Subaru isn’t given the instruction to tell Betty he’s “that person” until after he had become an Apostle of Greed. So, if we assume Roswaal knew of this development, that explains why he suddenly gave Subaru that information.

“That person” refers to an Apostle of Greed.

The End of Betty

The only thing I’m still confused about is how this all affects Betty. I thought she would simply help Subaru fight, but based on her own words, that doesn’t sound entirely correct.

Betty speaks of this being the end of a very long contract and that it’s ironic that Subaru is the one causing it to end. She also refers to “bringing an end to the end of the end” and how she will truly be set free. Those words could be taken in two ways. Either she’s going to be free from some constraints placed on her, or she’s going to die. My bet is on the latter.

First, what does it mean to bring an end to the end of the end? Well, the final “end” is death. Therefore, the end of the end refers to being immortal — Betty’s 400 years old, so the “end” for her was ended. So, to bring an end to the end of the end simply means that her immortality is going to come to an end.

And if we also assume that Betty knows about Subaru’s return by death, which I do, then that explains why Betty finds it Ironic that Subaru is going to end her immortality.

Also, the whole part about finally being set free aligns with this theory. When Subaru told her he killed Betelgeuse, she commented on how Betelgeuse went on without her or something. So, now Betty will be able to follow after him.

But how is Betty going to die? Look, I know I said she isn’t a Ryuzu, but if she has a contract with an Apostle of Greed like Ryuzu does, then there must be some similarity. And as we saw, Ryuzu fights by self-destructing. So I think Betty’s about to blow up the entire mansion when Elsa and Maylie attack.

That’s the only thing I can think of that makes sense. She has a contract just like Ryuzu (who explodes), she’s going to ally with Subaru and help him fight, and she’s going to die in the end. Her exploding checks all of those boxes.

Conclusion

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on Re:ZERO episode 35 and my theories that arose from it. Do you think Satella and Emilia could be the same person? My Discord server doesn’t think so, but I think it makes sense and could lead to a lot of development for Emilia far into the future of the series.

Also, what do you think is the difference between Apostles and Archbishops? And, of course, what do you think this contract is that involves Betty? Do you think she’s going to die, or was the meaning behind her words less ominous than it sounded? Let me know in the comments.

Oh, and I should point out that I don’t think this is the end of Betty. I think it’s extremely possible that she dies here, but as we all know, Subaru won’t let that stand. So either he’s going to prevent Betty from killing herself, or he’s going to reset after she does and find a way to avoid it from happening next time around.

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My review of the next episode is available here.