This one here has some really important info that I'm now able to talk about so I really recommend to read it. I'll mark it with some words in CAPS for people who just want to swiftly hear about it.

We continue from the cliffhanger of the last episode. The author gave some insight on how Ram managed to put this "illusion magic" into use and fool pretty much everyone. What Subaru and the others experience is actually a hallucination caused by the toxin of the blue flower. Ram efficiently used the wind to spread the flower's poison across the entire caravan and capture everyone in its effect. Tappei ( Author ) actually jokes about how Subaru finds out that this is a hallucination "because Patrasche is unfriendly to him". Only Julius who is a spirit user and the spirits themselves can withstand the hallucination and remove its effect. It is Julius who brings Subaru back and through him he channels the Spirits to free everyone in the surrounding area.

As a matter of fact some info on the spirits. You may realize it from the coloring but the spirits all have a different elements to them. In fact they are the 6 elements that exist in this world; Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light and Shadow. On top of that Julius spirits are so called „Quasi Spirits“ or "Lesser Spirits" in anime form which is one of 3 different categories. They’re essentially the same as Puck but on a lower level and they're the same as the lesser spirits that Emilia talks to but 6 of them have made a contract with Julius which is extremely rare.

Alright so we get to hear the reasoning for Ram’s actions. She received a blank letter which is a declaration of war in this world. On top of that Ram knows about the fight between Emilia and Subaru ( as we could hear from her in episode 17 ) so there is also a logical reason for her to fully believe this. The cherry on the top was the fact that Subaru brought armed forces with him and marched towards the mansion. Let me clarify here that Subaru didn’t really write the letter himself ( Remember that he can barely read let alone write ) but that it contained his exact words. So the "mistake" must have been made between the person who has wrote the letter and the messenger who delivered it. We don’t know more about this so let’s move on.

I love how Willhelm disagrees with Subaru putting himself on the level of a dog. Somehow I can’t push off the feeling that he has become some sort of father figure watching over him. Subaru realizes his place in this world which definitely an improvement but this scene is a perfect example that he still has problems to actually properly state his position in this world and society. Accepting the role of a dog is about as bad as thinking of himself as some sort of hero with privileges.

Now let’s get to Subaru’s speech to the villagers. We remember that he has an incredibly good relationship to all the villagers but this doesn’t mean that Subaru has now magically learned the art of convincing a large crowd. He’s not used to talk in front of people and convince others based on his sole charisma and facts. Julius tells him to be considerate but Subaru takes this the wrong way. In fact he is being too considerate and tells them a straight up lie to not cause a panic. The thing is the villagers expected that the witch’s cult would eventually show up and be a threat to them. They’re living in the territory of a lord who took in a half elf. The witch’s cult is known for murderous raids on races of all kinds, especially "half races" ( Recall Ram & Rem’s village ). The merchants who were promised to evacuate villagers because of a mabeast plague are also upset once they hear of the lie well at least one of them but we will get to him. And then the expected happens. In pretty much every problem we humans face we need someone or something to direct our blame on. You’d think that people living in the territory of a half elf would tolerate her more than others who only heard about her via mouth propaganda but even this has its limits. It was inevitable that this problem would eventually tag Emilia as the source of all evil. Subaru who isn’t used and absolutely doesn’t agree to this world’s excessive racism has a problem with this of course. Suddenly the people he had such a good relationship with share the same perspective as the people he called out on it.

Subaru remembers that Emilia really hesitated to go with him to the village because of this exact stance towards her. He also realized that he was and is extremely selfish for dragging Emilia to this place. If you recall episode 12 Emilia actually waits with her hoodie close to the village. This hoodie disguises her so that people generally don’t recognize her as ... well Emilia. This same effect took place with Ram who Willhelm and Ferris saw beforehand but couldn’t recognize immediately because of that.

It is Felix who gives Subaru the needed pat on the back and reminds him that if he could threw a tantrum at the castle and talk in front of people he would be able to do this now as well and bring them on his side. And guess what? Our boy does it! Ram does take his side for the first time actually, that’s a rare sight! It’s also a rare sight to see someone actually worrying about Emilia despite her origins. We get the confirmation that Emilia actually tried to evacuate the village the day before ( after they’ve received the letter ). She even repaired the crystals that hold off Mabeasts ( these are the ones that Subaru offered as a mining right btw ) to do at least something for the villagers.

Subaru decides to take Julius with him to give his words more weight when he faces Emilia and Beatrice. There it is revealed that Julius is a spirit arts user and that Subaru has a high affinity for spirits. This will be important so keep that in mind. I also think that the channeling through his gate recked him so hard because it is still seriously damaged from all the shamacs he casted.

Now let me get to the merchants. THIS ONE IS REALLY IMPORTANT and it will give you an image of what is truly at work here.

The guy that Felix knocks out is named Ketty and he is revealed to be a member of the Witch’s Cult. Ketty already appeared in episode 14 ( Around 21:25 ) and had a central role there. For once he and Otto are actually close buddies but Otto doesn’t know of his aqcuittance with the Cult. He was the one leading Subaru to Otto and he was also the one telling Otto that if he accepted Subaru’s offer he "would find his answers". This means that Subaru’s meeting with Otto and his arrival at the mansion might have been all planned by Petelgeuse in advance which strengthens the theory about the gospel being able to predict the future. All this happened in volume 5 but I couldn’t talk about it because the foreshadowing goes so much further into the story and putting an emphasis on him back then would be basically a spoiler. The fact that Ketty was with the merchants all along explains why they suddenly protest against evacuating the villagers. Also let me ask you this. Have you seen Otto anywhere?

Anyway Felix knocks him out by letting the water in his body go out of control which is a one way ticket to render anyone moveless for life if it’s not healed by Felix. Oh and Felix is able to detect this spell/miasma on him just like Rem can.

Ketty reveals himself and the cart blows up. Just to clarify it was Julius’s spirit who makes the carriage explode and Felix took the full blow. In the novel Felix tells Subaru that he actually died once but well revived himself. The thing is because of Felix’s playful nature I wouldn’t read too much into this let alone take it literal. He took the carriage’s plane to cloth himself afterwards. We hear that there were actually two fingers hidden among the merchants and they were only able to detect one in time. Because of that the village is destroyed.

Willhelm is fighting against the 4th Finger named Mr. Petebi and he uses the debris and the dust whirled up from his strikes to make the unseen hands visible. I love the dialogue there as Petelgeuse Nr 4 comments about Willhelm’s „ever increasing love“. The thing is how does Petelgeuse know about the relationship between Willhelm and Theresia as well as his endless love to her? Anyway Willhelm makes the mistake to focus on the authority and in the process the finger is able to take his life. It might be hard to follow but he actually stabs his own eye and carves out his brain to kill himself swiftly and get a new body.

The next finger this time named Kamiyu is chasing Subaru and here the anime altered the way she was killed a bit. It’s not a change that matters in any way, she simply died differently. In the novel Subaru flees with a ground dragon, tries to kill her via road kill but fails. When Kamiyu recovers the gospel he reveals the same trick with the stones and as she gets her windpipe ripped out she struggles for the last time but Subaru restores the barrier which leaves her to the beasts. She then leaves the gospel to him saying that he will receive the love soon enough.

We face the last finger and finally Emilia. We witness Petelgeuse’s reaction to alive Emilia and he seems to see her as the witch, he even addresses her as such. Felix tells Subaru to leave it to her as this is desperately needed for her reputation. It’s somewhat crazy but also nice to see that Emilia doesn’t hesitate to kill once it’s directed at the right people. I love the moment after everything is done and Emilia witnesses the gazes of the people around her. This time it’s not because of resentment, no, they are gazes of gratitude. This was needed to spark something within the villagers and to make them realize that she’s the one protecting them. I can only imagine the emotions that must go through Emilia. I mean she has been the victim of racism and resentment her entire life or so it seems like. For her to have this tiny moment must be really overwhelming. The girl who is known to us for all her good will proves her innocent stance by killing someone, quite the irony.

Well…all this would be the case if there wasn’t something called Return By Death and this brings me to the end. Julius’s spirit slips out and from that point on Subaru trembles. Instinctively he runs away from the others but Felix and Julius catch up and then it happens…

Subaru has been possessed by Petelgeuse. You might ask yourself: How? Why?

Well for how it’s quite simply actually. People that have the witch’s miasma on them have the requirements to be a proper vessel. Since Subaru has the miasma that even rivals/surpasses the ones of the Sin Archbishops he was the perfect vessel for possession. What the anime doesn’t explicitly says but implies compared to the novel is that having a high compatibility with spirit is also a requirement to be a proper vessel. In the novel Subaru aka Petelgeuse comments on how Julius would be a perfect body for him as well and he’s affine to Spirits just like Subaru. For the why, well Subaru receives more "love" from the witch than Petelgeuse so it’s logical that he would want the body that has more of her love. There is something that Subaru experiences at the time of possession but I don’t really want to address it since they might add this in the next episode. If they don’t I’ll come back to this.

Subaru begs the person he wanted to make up with more than anything to kill him. Somehow this gives their whole relationship a whole new meaning.

He also asks Felix to kill him. Now don’t misunderstand. Felix is not crying because it is Subaru and he is sooooo important to him. He cried because this whole scene reminds him something that happens in the Ex Novel Volume 1 "The dream of the lion". On top of that Felix has a very problematic view on life and death including the act of killing. So yeah the dialogue of Felix goes far deeper than what is to be taken on face value. I won’t talk about the reason because of obvious reasons. In the end it’s Julius who has the task to kill Subaru and it ends.

Well this is for all the people that thought everything will be now a cake walk and nothing can or will go wrong. Like I said we’re not shortly after the end of the prologue. It now really starts.

EDIT: To follow Suzuken's advice there is an imposter of me who seems to have the need to taint my name. Well that's not me since I rather enjoy seeing people theorize about things and having an obligatory evil laugh than throwing around immature comments. Must be one of my fingers, heh.