Well This is Still One to Watch (UPDATED)
The Fate Stay Night remake returns following a three month hiatus. After the unexpected turn the show took in episode 12 and three months of anticipation it was, of course, unlikely that number 13 could live up to....
"Oh. Wow..."
I confess I did not see that coming.
In the last episode (3 months ago) it was revealed that the the heroes current nemesis, Caster, is in fact a spiritual servant who has turned the tables on her master. Kuzuki, Caster's current...er, 'master'... it seems is fine with this.
This unexpected development is possible because she has a special ability with the utterly forthright name of 'Rule Breaker'. Among other things, this allows her (a servant) to summon and control other servants. She can also steal a mage's servant if she can get hold of the servant and impale him or her. This results in ripping the magical nerves from the body of the servant's master.
We learned this at the end of the last season clifhanger as Shiro lost Saber...painfully. Crippled and robbed of most of his magical ability (which is extremely weak in any case) he suffered the further setback of having all those wounds he received in the fight,(but that were healing due to his drawing power from Saber) suddenly stopped healing and opened. Rin sent him to recuperate and forbade him from coming near her on pain of death, because he was, at that point, completely, rather than amusingly useless. Shiro was in no condition to protest and coughed and gurgled in agreement.
In this episode Shiro, crawled out of bed, and found the gem that Rin had used to heal his mild case of disembowelment way back in episode 2. Then, having brought his HP up to full, he resumed his general policy of being an idiot by going back on his word and sneaking into the church, hiding in the pews, and trying to figure out a way to save Saber. Saber, it turns out, was being tortured to gain her compliance (being a heroic spirit, she was resisting the generally nefarious orders of Caster).
Meanwhile, after a bit of planning and introspection, Rin and Archer went to fight Caster (over Archer's vehement objections), confident that the magical aces she has been putting up her sleeve for 10 years would give her a chance. Well, perhaps it would have, Rin is exceedingly skilled and smart, and has demonstrated an ability to punch above her weight, Unfortunately, Archer switched sides in the middle of the fight, knocked her across the room, presented himself to Caster and thereby facilitated having Rin's control seals painfully ripped from her body.
Kuzuki sensei, who had been taking all this in moved to kill Rin, but Shiro, who was still hiding in the pews, then attempted to rescue her,. Alas, while he did physically deflect a killing blown from Caster's boy toy, his not entirely futile attempt to activate his powers resulted in his collapsing in agony. Rin was allowed to drag him to safety only because Archer listed as the single term of his service that Rin be granted free passage out of the church, with the understanding that the truce ends if they interfere in any way.
Later after Shiro regained his footing, the two staggered to a park, and because this was apparently "break your word day" Rin refrained from killing him.
The episode ends with the two crippled mages taking stock of their situation and contemplating how utterly screwed they are. Shiro takes this moment to confess that he's always had a thing for Rin .
Tsundereism ensues...fade to black.
13 was a thoroughly entertaining episode which had a couple of unexpected twists including more character development in 23 minutes than many shows have altogether.
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