Re:ZERO Episode 42

Re:ZERO Episode 42

A Journey Through Memories

I have a lot to say about Re:ZERO Season 2 episode 42, but I don’t want this review to go on for too much longer than usual. So with that in mind, this week I’ll be focusing on three sub-topics that combine into one main topic rather than the episode as a whole.

The main topic for this week’s review is: What happened to cause everything to go wrong? I know, that’s a loaded question. And based on the end of the episode, you may assume that Regulus is the cause. However, I don’t think that’s the case. I think we’ll find that while Regulus is a catalyst, he’s not actually the one who ruined everything.

As for the sub-topics that go into this, I’ll be going over who Betelgeuse seems to be, Emilia’s connection with lesser spirits, and the mystery of the seal.

(P/B)etel(Geuse)?

With Betelgeuse, the very first thing I have to bring up is his name. We’ve previously known him as “Betelgeuse.” However, I think the author has stated that his name is actually “Petelgeuse.” For now, that distinction doesn’t really matter. I’m going to be calling him “Betelgeuse” and “Geuse.”

As you may know, the witches are all named after astrological bodies (planets, asteroids, etc.). Originally I thought they were named after gods and goddesses (which the astrological bodies are named after), but I was corrected about that by someone in a comment (I couldn’t find the comment, but tell me if it was you and I’ll credit you).

Anyway, the point of me bringing that up is that the Archbishop Sins are named after stars. Betelgeuse is the red star in the constellation Orion (the only constellation I can actually identify in the night sky). Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation Leo. And Baten Kaitos is the yellow star in the center of the Whale constellation (very fitting).

Geuse in Emilia's memories from the anime series Re:ZERO Season 2
Geuse in Emilia’s memories

So why am I bringing all of this up? Because it might actually tell us something about Betelgeuse within Emilia’s past. Everyone calls him Geuse at this point, and that’s even what Betty has called him in the past. So is Geuse his actual name and Betelgeuse is his Archbishop name? Or is Geuse simply short for Betelgeuse?

If it’s the latter, that’s either a major coincidence that another person named after a star became an Archbishop Sin, or it means that Geuse is already an Archbishop Sin by this point.

Now, I know that it seems unlikely for Geuse to be a Witch’s Cultist already considering his personality. In fact, he reminds me a lot of Subaru — which may be intentional considering Subaru now has Geuse’s Authority. But, my guess is that Guese’s manic personality later on isn’t a result of him being a cultist. I think he already was one.

Emilia the Spirit User

Geuse aside — I’ll come back to him in a moment — this episode shows us that Emilia has had an affinity for spirits since she was very young. This is important because I believe it’s connected to everything that went wrong within this memory of Emilia’s past. Notice how the lesser spirits are the ones leading Emilia around.

They led her to the seal in the forest and they led her to Geuse. Why would they do that? I think it’s clear that these aren’t some random lesser spirits playing around with Emilia. When Puck broke his contract with Emilia, didn’t he break up into lesser spirits that all drifted away?

I’m pretty sure that this collection of lesser spirits that have been guiding Emilia around is Puck. But of course, Emilia doesn’t know who Puck is at this point.

Child Emilia surrounded by lesser spirits from the anime series Re:ZERO Season 2
Child Emilia surrounded by lesser spirits

Speaking of Puck, my first instinct was that Puck is what was sealed within the forest. There’s ice all around the seal — which is Puck’s specialty. And the lesser spirits guided Emilia there as if they wanted her to break the seal. This could also explain why everyone in the forest was frozen. That would probably happen if Puck was unsealed.

And, you could argue that Emilia and Mother Fortuna being frozen by Puck is what caused Geuse to go crazy. He obviously cares deeply for the two of them. But, the more I think about it, the more I think Puck isn’t what was within the seal — or at least he wasn’t the primary thing within the seal.

What’s in the Box Seal?

To figure this out, let’s put on our thinking caps and piece together the information we have. First, we can be pretty sure that Emilia is the “cause” of the seal coming undone. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t blame herself. We also know that the other villagers lied to her about “something” because Mother Fortuna tells her that in episode 39.

There’s the fact that Betelgeuse — a future (and maybe “current”) member of the Witch’s Cult — is obsessed with Emilia already. He’s also very interested in the state of the seal. And he’s not the only cultist to show up, as Regulus does as well. As you may be starting to see, the seal might have something to do with Satella or one of the other witches.

Last week, I said that I think Emilia is Echidna’s daughter, not Satella’s. But obviously, I don’t actually know for certain. She could be the daughter of some random people who don’t matter. However, I find that unlikely.

The seal in the forest from the anime series Re:ZERO Season 2
The seal in the forest

Continuing on with the evidence, there’s actually more from episode 39. Emilia tells Subaru that the reason she got involved with the royal selection is that Roswaal said that if she becomes Queen and helps with his goal, he may be able to thaw the forest. And again, what do we know about Roswaal’s goal? He wants to slay the dragon.

I’ve gone over this many times, but Roswaal has a known connection to at least one witch. And we know the dragon helped to seal Satella. So killing the dragon is probably necessary to unseal Satella.

Now that all the evidence is out on the table. The natural conclusion for me is that Satella is sealed in the forest. The only person we know who’s been sealed is Satella. And the seal in the forest is the only seal we know of. It’s also of interest to Witch’s Cultists and is connected to Emilia, whom the cultists want to use as a vessel for Satella.

Perhaps the reason they identified Emilia as a potential vessel is that she was able to partially undo the seal, thereby freezing everyone in the forest. And how was she able to partially undo the seal as a child? Because the blood of a witch runs through her veins, which is what the forest villagers lied to her about. They lied about who her parents were and what happened to them.

Conclusion

What do you think of Re:ZERO Season 2 episode 42? Was Betelgeuse already a Witch’s Cultist during this flashback? Are the lesser spirits guiding Emilia actually Puck? And what are your thoughts on my conspiracy theory that Satella is sealed in the forest? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

6 Replies to “Re:ZERO Episode 42”

  1. First of all, I do think Petelgeuse was already a Witch cultist at the time in the flashback. One of the cultists referred to him as Bishop Romanee-Conti, which I take it as a way of addressing Petelgeuse because Petelgeuse perhaps hadn’t fully embraced being a member of the cult given that he called them all sinners, and this sort form of address might have been meant to be a halfway attempt at acknowledging him as the Sin Archbishop. Given that Beatrice seldom leaves the Forbidden Library, she might have met Petelgeuse a long time ago, perhaps even before this flashback, and if this is the case, Petelgeuse has been the Sin Archbishop for a long time given that she knew of him as a Sin Archbishop when Subaru talked about taking a Gospel off of him without mentioning Petelgeuse’s name.

    No, I don’t think the lesser spirits are Puck. I also do not believe Puck broke into lesser spirits when he broke his contract with Emilia.

    I also doubt that Satella is sealed in the forest because if she was, I think that Petelgeuse himself would try to break the seal given I believe him to be the Sin Archbishop of Sloth even during then. Given that the seal is a locked door rather than a body with no function, I think the seal is a seal to a magical pathway rather than a seal of an individual or entity.

    1. Assuming that Satella really is within the seal, I would expect Betelgeuse to have attempted to open it before. He probably couldn’t and so has been biding his time waiting for when it would finally open. That’s why he always asks Fortuna about the state of the seal — but he phrases it as if he hopes it’s still intact. Also, he likely knows that Emilia has the blood of a witch or something at this point, which is why he’s interested in her.

      I’m not really sure what the significance of a magical pathway here would be. Unless it connects to Subaru’s world or something. But even if that was the case, Subaru didn’t use a gate like that to come to the fantasy world. I just don’t see what evidence there is for it to be a magical pathway. As far as seals go, the only times they’ve been mentioned that I can think of are when referring to Satella or Emilia’s memories. This isn’t the latter, so the former is all we have evidence of left.

      1. I think that Re:zero makes more sense than most anime with most things happening or being the way they are for a reason, and a locked door in the middle of nowhere most likely indicates a seal of a magical pathway or portal in my opinion. I believe a seal of a living being such as in Satella’s case would more likely take the form of a body with no biological function.

        1. It does make sense for the door to lead somewhere. But my thinking is that someone or something is within wherever the door leads — like Satella. For now, I don’t see a reason why a magical path would need to be sealed. Maybe monsters came through it in the past, but we haven’t heard anything like that yet.

          1. Do you think a door leading to Satella would not be more heavily guarded instead of being in plain view with no people around? Given how much of a threat Satella is, I believe something that would lead to her would at least be heavily guarded.

          2. Is that door not hidden and guarded, though? It’s hidden away in the forest and guarded by the elves. You don’t want the location of Satella’s body to be too obvious.

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