Episode 14 – Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 4

Each arc of Re:Zero follows a basic pattern. Subaru faces a seemingly insurmountable challenge. Then, over the course of several loops, he manages to overcome it. But one thing Subaru hasn’t seemed to realize is that many of the roadblocks he faces feel artificial—to the point that his entire adventure so far seems to have been planned by an outside force.

In the case of this arc, we have Flugel’s tower. Everything about it seems designed so that only a person who can time loop (not to mention one who knows Earth astronomy) could hope to complete it. The Sanctuary, the whale, and Petelgeuse’s attack are similar. Too much goes wrong all at once for anyone to overcome it by dumb luck alone. Whoever is pulling the strings is likely someone who can see the future in some form or fashion—and is using the butterfly effect to push events in just the right way so that there is only one possible route for survival: the happy ending.

That said, this mysterious puppet master probably isn’t Satella, however. (She’s been sealed for 400 years, after all, and seeing the future has never been one of her mentioned powers.) That said, she is certainly involved. Even if she’s not the one setting up the challenges, she is the one providing the means to overcome them. She granted Subaru Return by Death, and it’s likely that she is the one deciding the save points as well. Moreover, she serves as a fail-safe of sorts. When things go too far off the rails for a happy ending to occur, she often shows up in person—seemingly to put an end to the doomed timeline herself by killing Subaru (as we see in this very episode).

But more important than the who is the why—and that is much easier to answer. Each dead end requires Subaru (and/or his companions) to grow as a person to attain victory. Often, it is a psychological thing like “starting from zero,” coming to terms with his inferiority complex towards his parents, or embracing the role of a hero. Other times, it is more physical, like learning the rules of Return by Death or, in this case, his newly awakened powers.

While Subaru in his current state doesn’t realize it, he is a Sin Archbishop two times over. What he is likely encountering this episode are the powers he took from Regulus upon his death. While Regulus’ form of the Authority of Greed resulted in him being able to stop his own personal time (and thus be all but invincible) and put his heart in the body of a companion, Subaru’s version seems to let him be aware of the location of his companions. Of course, there is likely far more to it than that, and only by learning the ins-and-outs of his new skill will he be able to overcome this challenge (and many more to come).

Other than that, this episode is one revelation after another. We learn that Shaula is the giant scorpion (likely rampaging because someone broke a tower rule) and that Roy tried to eat Reid—though it looks like he got eaten instead. All this makes for an increasingly chaotic mess—and I can’t wait to see how Subaru and friends fight through it.

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