I’m not sure how much of this content is new to first-season viewers, but as someone who just watched the movie, this episode had a lot of interesting revelations.  I mean, aside from that Konoe was Hecate (ya rly). Johan came back, somehow, and left almost as soon as he came. He seems to have given Pheles some secret agenda, the morality of which I can’t even imagine, since I can’t pin down his character.

Meanwhile, all the flipping back and forth threw Shana in uber panic-dere mode, worrying that Yuuji would be destroyed, or permanently turned into Johan, or something. I caught it the first time, when Hecate was busy stabbing him to death, but the second time, Shana seemed to be getting worked up over nothing when Johan was turning back into Yuuji in the sand tornado thing.

Also, Yoshida is getting some major “I’m getting left out of the plot” points, which seems to point towards her doing more interesting stuff later, especially with that mysterious cross of mystery she got. Not to mention, Zyl and Kurogane are getting up in arms over Wilhelmina x Pheles yuri potential. Personally, I’ll settle for just liking Wilhelmina a lot more as a character. And a maid.

Oh, and Margery didn’t go completely crazy about Silver this time (And what’s with the somewhat-dissolved suit of armor, shown earlier in the episode in the Evil Villian Lair(tm)?). All sorts of things happened and I didn’t find much time to make fun of any of them, so that’s probably a good sign.

It’s just time to see whether these developments will keep coming, or if we’ll go back to the pattern calm -> storm -> calm -> storm…

Apparently a lot of people disliked most of this episode, because Pheles was being out-of-character, but that was all explained at the end with the double (and change) shock twists. It wasn’t a real Pheles! Something funny and – yup – silver comes out of Yuuji and gut-punches her! And Konoe’s not just an average girl! No way!

Well, the first two caught me, anyway. Good to see this show actually do something unpredictable for once.

Shana and Kazumi’s DBZ-like love fest (talk a lot about how you’re going to win, heart powaaaaaah up, rinse repeat) isn’t too grating personally, just because there’s some sense of things happening; Kazumi is definitely on the offensive now, although if Yuuji isn’t aware of his feelings by now, he’s a bloody idiot.

Looking forward to 15 and KONOE’S SHOCKING SECRET, among other things.

Also, that one Ogata girl, the one that’s with the other side character, she’s not a Torch, is she? I’m reading the signs wrong, right? Two of them in one season might be too much for me.

Yoshida looks to be getting the short end of the stick as always, but seems to be making pleasant development. Wilhemina is climbing the Awesome Maid Rankings fast with her CTU agent skills. And I’m ready to take betting pools on how long Pheles will last – she seems to be dying, but given her OP time, it seems too quick…

Also, Tanaka (?) / Oga relationship screentime gave me warm stomach fuzzies, even though I figured Yuuji would magically fix everything. I wonder, if we could set a record for broken characters in this show – Margery and Tanaka in this episode, Yoshida’s waiting to happen, if the Shanatan specials are anything to go by, Pheles or Konoe…?