That night, episode 7 of Re:Zero aired without a hitch.
Picking up directly from the devastating events of episode 6, the story followed Subaru Natsuki in his second loop, so consumed by desperation that, if he had to die again, he wanted at least to die in Rem's room.
But Beatrice, the keeper of the forbidden library, had already replaced the door to Rem's room with a passage leading straight into her domain.
And in this episode, that golden-haired great spirit - whose presence had long been foreshadowed through scattered hints - finally revealed the frailest part of her heart.
Every time Subaru stepped into the forbidden library, she was already there, seated by the door with a book in her arms, quietly watching him.
This time, however, Subaru noticed something important. The book in Beatrice's hands looked far too similar to the "Gospel," the prophetic tome once held by the Sin Archbishops of the Witch Cult.
When she told him that Rem's presence had vanished - and that she had most likely been killed by the Bowel Hunter - Subaru finally broke.
"Who asked you to save me? What if, when I revive this time, everything that happened here becomes fixed reality? Then what am I supposed to do? You should've killed me!"
The scream tore out of him in a frenzy, stripped of dignity and reason.
And Beatrice could only look at him with sorrow in her eyes.
The audience, too, felt secondhand embarrassment at his helpless rage. But deep down, no one could deny that his fear made perfect sense.
When Rem had been attacked by the Archbishop of Gluttony before, Subaru had failed to save her because his checkpoint had updated too close to the moment of the attack. There had simply been no time to reach her.
Who could say the same thing would not happen again in Sanctuary?
For all anyone knew, the checkpoint might already have overwritten itself the moment Rem died.
What made it even crueler was what came next: without hesitation, Subaru grabbed a blade and prepared to kill himself, determined to reset everything once more.
But Beatrice threw herself at him in desperation and stopped him by force.
The importance she placed on that book - one so eerily similar to the Gospel of the Witch Cult - combined with the details revealed in her exchange with Subaru, made one thing painfully clear to the anime fans.
For four hundred years, Beatrice had lived according to the instructions written in that book.
Who to talk to. What to say. What to do. Whom to save.
Everything had been decided for her.
She had not saved Rem because the book had told her nothing.
But when she saved Subaru just now... that had been her own choice.
Her own will.
With episode 7 of the second season, Re:Zero did not merely deepen its mysteries - it opened an even greater abyss beneath the audience's feet.
What had happened in Beatrice's past?
Why did she care about Subaru in such an unusual, difficult-to-define way?
If she could stand by and let Rem die because the book gave no instruction, why was Subaru the one she chose to save of her own accord?
By the time the episode ended, the fandom's curiosity had reached its peak.
That very night, Beatrice shot to number one on NatsuYume's trending list.
"Beatrice stock just hit the ceiling."
"I never expected her to be this adorable."
"So she has a future-predicting Gospel too, just like Petelgeuse? But she's probably not part of the Witch Cult, right?"
"What's so strange about that? After Subaru killed Petelgeuse, he picked up his Gospel too. Beatrice could've gotten hers the same way."
"That scene at the end of the second loop, when Beatrice was crying and telling Subaru to stay away from her... that really got me. Her past has to be tragic."
"Who's this 'Mother' she said gave her the Gospel?"
"If she's a spirit, then her mother should be a spirit too."
"But this setting is seriously heartbreaking. Four hundred years obeying a book, trapped inside the forbidden library, too afraid to leave... that's not living. She's just a puppet for those pages."
"That bastard Sora is definitely setting Beatrice up for something huge in the Sanctuary arc. I've got a bad feeling he's about to hurt us again."
"It can't be that bad, can it? She's a great spirit, after all. Who could even take her down? Not even the Bowel Hunter should be able to easily beat a team of Beatrice, Ram, and Frederica."
But episode 7 of Re:Zero Season 2 was only the opening act of something far worse.
Three weeks passed, and then episodes 8, 9, and 10 aired one after another.
First, after returning once again, Subaru spoke in the Sanctuary graveyard with the lingering soul of the Witch of Greed, Echidna.
And because of that encounter, six of the seven witches finally appeared.
Including the Witch of Envy herself, Satella - the one who had granted Subaru the power of Return by Death.
She appeared in her true form.
And she had the exact same face as Emilia.
Holding him in her arms, she whispered into his ear over and over again:
"I love you."
That scene left the fans completely stunned.
The holes in the story had grown too large, too deep, too unsettling.
No matter how they looked at it, Satella seemed to have a connection to Subaru that went far beyond coincidence.
In the end, Subaru only escaped her control by killing himself with Echidna's help.
And because of everything he had gone through in the previous loops, his actions after the new checkpoint began to diverge from what had happened before.
The first major change came quickly.
Garfiel, who had initially shown him a decent amount of goodwill, became his outright enemy in the fourth loop. The moment Subaru revealed his intention to leave Sanctuary, he was knocked unconscious and imprisoned.
By the time he woke up, it was already too late.
Snow had begun to fall over Sanctuary.
The instant that snowfall appeared on screen, the entire audience felt a chill run down their spine.
Everyone knew what it meant.
If Emilia died, Puck, her contracted spirit, would reveal his true form - a monstrous beast of ice capable of bringing about the end of the world.
So... did that snow mean Emilia was dead?
And what followed was even worse.
Through the blizzard appeared one of the Three Great Mabeasts: the Great Rabbit.
An endless swarm of carnivorous rabbits that multiplied without limit, rushing forward in a white tide with jaws wide open.
They devoured Subaru alive.
The voice acting in that scene was so brutal, so full of raw agony, that the screams Subaru let out before being eaten alive left genuine psychological scars on the audience.
There was no need to explain much after that.
If no one remained in Sanctuary beneath that snowfall, then it could only mean everyone had already been consumed.
Emilia.
Roswaal.
Ram.
Everyone.
At that point, the Sanctuary arc laid out its cruelty with absolute clarity.
On that same night - always that same night - a snowstorm would descend upon Sanctuary.
Then the Great Rabbit, one of the Three Great Mabeasts feared on the same level as the White Whale, would arrive and devour everything until nothing was left.
And at the very same time, far away at Roswaal's mansion...
The Bowel Hunter and her accomplice would launch their attack.
If Subaru did not bring help there, then the sleeping Rem, the golden-haired spirit Beatrice, and the adorable young maid who cared for him would all be murdered without fail.
Season 2 of Re:Zero had only reached episode 10.
And yet, through the weight of everything it had built until then, the story had already cornered Subaru into absolute despair.
Who was he supposed to save?
Emilia, trapped inside Sanctuary and unable to leave?
Or Rem, still asleep in Roswaal's mansion?
That week, the malice of the writer seemed to spill straight out of the television screen.
The ratings, meanwhile, kept climbing.
They had risen all the way to 5.78%.
But after episode 10, many fans were emotionally shattered.
"I swear I'm going to Tokyo and stabbing the writer. What kind of psychopath comes up with a plot like this?"
"If my girlfriend and my mother were drowning, I'd save my mother. But between the girl I idealize in my heart and the cute girl who genuinely loves me... I really don't know. I honestly can't choose."
"Don't tell me that bastard Sora is really going to pull the trigger. Between Rem and Emilia... is he planning to sacrifice one of them?"
"That's not even the point. You're all acting like Subaru can at least save one, but have you considered he might not be able to save either? Even if he stays in Sanctuary, he has no way to deal with the Great Rabbit. And if he leaves, even taking Ram with him doesn't mean he can beat the Bowel Hunter. Anyone who knows the Pride route knows how absurdly strong she is. Ram is just a hornless oni now."
"So that's where things stand? No matter what he chooses, the result is death?"
"No. There's still a third option. He could leave Sanctuary, not go back to the mansion, and just run away with Otto without saving anyone."
"..."
"As if that's even possible. He's the protagonist."
"There really is no way out. The story has reached a point where even I, watching from the outside, feel suffocated. Garfiel is a violent monster who now hates the protagonist. Old Ryuzu is clearly hiding something. Roswaal is sitting back and watching everything unfold. The Bowel Hunter shows up exactly on schedule to kill. The Witch of Envy, Satella, has already appeared and drove Subaru to suicide in the fourth loop. Echidna and the other witches all feel suspicious too, like they're plotting around him. Emilia can't even clear the first trial and breaks down crying every time. What can Subaru even do? He's just a normal boy - thin, under one meter seventy."
"This is crushing me. The only thing giant about the protagonist is his willpower. He's been slaughtered four times already and he's still searching for an answer. But honestly, I can't imagine any way for him to break this situation in this loop. Even if he brought in Reinhard, he could only save one side. In the end, it would still come down to choosing between Emilia and Rem."
"This is inhuman. What kind of plot is this? And it ended right there again. Does Sora actually enjoy torturing the fans with cliffhangers?"
"Hold on. The Sanctuary arc is supposed to have twenty-five episodes in total. We're only at episode 10. Don't give up yet. There are still fifteen episodes left for the protagonist to turn things around."
"I want to believe that too. But the story has already pushed me to my limit. Every week Rem dies in a different way, Emilia suffers just as badly, and in every episode the protagonist is either devoured by the Great Rabbit or murdered by the Bowel Hunter. It's getting painful to watch."
"It's all Sora's fault."
"But if the story really does force a choice... I choose Rem."
"Yeah. Rem is with Beatrice. If he chooses Rem and Beatrice, and takes Ram along for the rescue, he could save Frederica and Petra too."
"I really like Emilia, but if I had to choose, I'd still pick Rem."
"You traitors. How can you choose Rem? Emilia is the main heroine!"
"Where are the Emilia fans?"
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