Damn, I really didn’t see that one coming. So it turns out that the souls of magical girls are transferred from their bodies into their gems, and the bodies are just shells which shut down when the soul gets a hundred meters away. Apparently Homura knew this as well but didn’t tell them – one would think this would be a good way to convince them not to become magical girls, no? Even Kyoko wasn’t aware of this, and it seems like she’ll be a bit less combative for the time being. We also learn that Kyuubey eats the grief seeds after they absorb the darkness from the gems (souls) of the magical girls.

Kyuubey also seems to have some ideas as to who Homura is. My current crackpot theory: Homura is actually Madoka, who made a wish to stop people from becoming magical girls (including herself and her friends, and maybe Mani too) and was able to go back in time to fulfill her wish. Hopefully the truth will be even less predictable.

It seems like Mani isn’t actually dead too since her gem wasn’t broken. I wonder if Homura has her gem, or does Kyuubey? And we still don’t know what the other purpose of the grief seeds is for magical girls. We know that Kyuubey eats them, but why do Mani and Homura want to find them? Sayaka didn’t seem to benefit from Kyuubey eating the grief seed. I guess they want more power, but still, it seems there is something more to it…

Madoka’s mom gave quite the pertinent advice this episode. Although Madoka’s best idea at doing something bad was pretty laughably non-bad. But the effects were certainly quite good…