What an absolutely fucked up episode. I love it! Absolutely insane how quickly things went absolutely horrible for our boy this time, second loop and he already died one of the worst deaths he’s ever had. That flashback to him leaving his home was just rubbing salt in the freshly opened wound. This is shaping up to be some of the worst despair Subaru has ever had to face. In his mind he got pulled from his completely normal life straight into this nightmare, is pretty much alone after witnessing his supposed allies plotting to abandon him and potentially even assassinating him, and he has to deal with the knowledge that no matter how brutally he dies, he will just go back remembering everything about it while no one else does. That checkpoint spot is pure evil as well, it just creates a perpetuating loop of misery, with every death Subaru unravels more and more and trusts his allies less which just leads to them feeling more estranged from him as well. Can’t wait for next week, this season is absolute peak!

I have some theories now on why Subaru lost his memories…

He either overflowed the maximum a soul can store, maybe hinting towards why there are tons of books in the tower…

or

Maybe he learned about Satella, and since return by death would not reset his knowledge, she had to intervene with his soul beyond return by death.

The Subaru everyone loved is back. /s