Re:ZERO Episode 49

Emilia the Witch

Last week’s episode was still possibly the best of the season. But I have to say that Re:ZERO Season 2 episode 49 is a close contender. It may not have been full of action, but it didn’t need to be. It had a lot of great character drama to make up for that.

The first portion of this week’s episode was definitely the weakest part, despite having strengths of its own. Emilia’s character has developed a lot over this past cour — as even Ryuzu Shima points out to her. And, Roswaal has developed as well, just in the opposite direction.

Until now, Emilia has generally followed Roswaal’s lead as he’s the one who’s supporting her candidacy for the royal throne. But now, Emilia is the one in the position to call the shots while Roswaal has been reduced to a hollow shell.

I think my favorite thing about this first part of the episode was seeing their dynamic shift with Emilia supporting Roswaal instead of it being the other way around. Emilia has gained confidence in who she is as a person. Meanwhile, Roswaal has lost everything — Ram, the Tome of Wisdom, and even his own identity.

And when I say Roswaal lost his identity, I’m referring to his apparent copying of Hector. I thought something happened that fused them or put Hector’s soul into Roswaal’s body. But according to what Puck said to him, it seems that I was wrong.

There was also a point at which Emilia refers to herself as a witch. According to Rain. in my Discord server, this is in reference to her being called the Witch of Frost in The Frozen Bond. So it wasn’t Emilia acknowledging that she’s actually one of the witches.

Magic of Space and Time

Something I noticed during this week’s episode is that there’s a fair amount of space-time magic being thrown around in Re:ZERO like it’s no big deal. To be fair, it’s not like average people are using these spells. But it’s still interesting to see.

It still hasn’t actually been confirmed, but I think everyone pretty much assumes that Satella is the one who summoned Subaru into this world. And if that’s the case, that would probably be via some sort of space-time magic.

Then, there’s also Subaru’s return by death ability which is obviously space-time magic of some sort. Subaru isn’t the one using it — and again, it’s suspected to be Satella’s doing — but it’s a pretty major example considering the structure of the series is built around it.

Betty also uses spatial magic of some sort. I don’t know if she can mess with time, but she has the ability to teleport people around. She apparently did this in the first season, but I forget when. However, she obviously used this type of magic against Subaru in this episode. And the magic she uses to conceal the library is probably connected to this as well.

We also can’t forget about potentially the most broken space-time magic user: Pandora. In a way, Pandora seems to be the opposite of Betty. I’m not sure if she can actually control space, but it seems very clear that she can control time.

And, while we don’t know much about these spells, I’d be willing to bet that they make use of dark magic — which Subaru has an affinity for. I’m not saying Subaru is definitely going to learn space-time magic. But theoretically, Betty could teach him something.

Choose Betty, Not Emilia

The second half of the episode that focused on Subaru rescuing Betty from the burning mansion — and her fate — was the best part. Even if this episode wasn’t the best episode of the season, that was probably my favorite half of an episode all season.

I think both Betty and Subaru had some great arguments for why they hold the beliefs they do. And that fact made the entire scene of Subaru trying to convince Betty to go with him feel a lot more real and a lot less forced than it otherwise could have been.

Obviously, Subaru’s position is the “correct” one in the end. But it’s easy to see where Betty’s coming from. Not only is Subaru saying that he won’t be the person she wants him to be, but she also knows that his time is finite while hers isn’t.

If you’re looking at Betty in this situation and thinking that she’s missing Subaru’s point, you’re right to an extent. But you have to keep in mind that all of Betty’s past trauma stems from her being left behind by other people. She doesn’t want to agree to go with Subaru since she knows he’ll eventually leave her too.

Echidna died, Ryuzu sacrificed herself, Puck disappeared for some reason (possibly to watch over Emilia), and I think it was also mentioned that even Roswaal stopped visiting her in the library. So, yeah, I think she has a valid concern when she says that Subaru is going to leave her in the end.

However, I think Subaru’s position in this whole thing is just as good, if not better. Yes, he wants to save Betty, be her friend, and make sure she’s not alone anymore. But he knows that’s not going to convince her. And so he plays to her sympathy by begging her to save him instead.

This whole situation reminded me of Koyomi and Shinobu from Monogatari in a lot of ways.

Conclusion

What do you think of Re:ZERO Season 2 episode 49? Do you think Roswaal is going to stop acting like Hector once he recovers? Do you think space-time magic is going to play an important role going forward? And how do you think Subaru and Betty are going to solve the Great Rabbit problem? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Re:ZERO Episode 50 is available.