Following the devastating reveal of Kyuubey's cruel nature, Kyoko extends an olive branch to Sayaka by revealing her origins to help her with her personal crisis. And while Sayaka does get a little better, it falls into naught when Hitomi gives her a crucial ultimatum.
This episode provides examples of:
- Berserk Button: Never throw away food in front of Kyoko.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Homura reveals that this is Kyubey’s mentality. He doesn’t understand human values, so he does cruel things such as withholding the truth because he doesn’t see it as cruel and believes that removing a soul from a human body is a fair exchange to the girl for granting her wish.
- Cassandra Truth: When asked why Homura didn't warn anyone about the truth about Soul Gems, she asks Madoka if any of them would have believed her. She also mentions that she tried to warn other Magical Girls in the past but none heeded her warnings.
- Casting a Shadow: Elsa Maria is a shadow themed Witch who summons shadow puppet animals to attack Magical Girls.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Kyoko reveals that she came from a family who was ostracized because her pastor father was excommunicated for preaching lessons that weren't from the bible. No one listened to him and her family suffered long periods of poverty and famine. So Kyoko made her wish to have people actually listen to her father's sermons. But one day, the father discovered the truth behind his new success and scorned her daughter for becoming a witch. This led to him killing himself, her mother and little sister leaving Kyoko alone and bitter.
- Dramatic Irony: Kyoko brings up how her own father called her a witch despite her ongoing crusade of killing witches for a better world.
- Equivalent Exchange: At the end of Kyoko's backstory, she mentions how all the happiness that their wishes inspire will ultimately result in an equal level of suffering to keep things in balance.
- Friendly Rivalry: Hitomi admits that she has romantic feelings for Kyuusuke but is aware that Sayaka has feelings for him too. And rather then going behind her back to confess first like in any cliché Love Triangle, Hitomi gives her friend 24 hours to confess to the boy first before she makes her move.
- Heroic BSoD: Learning that her soul was placed into a Soul Gem takes a heavy toll on Sayaka as she comes to terms with becoming a pseudo-zombie. She even misses out on school so she can stay in bed and sulk.
- Kick the Dog: To further emphasize how the Soul Gems actually work, Kyuubey places it's paw on Sayaka's which causes her excruciating pain.
- Kill It with Fire: Heavily implied that Pastor Sakura burned himself and his wife and youngest with fire to atone for their sins.
- Locked Out of the Loop: It turns out that Mami never knew the truth about Soul Gems, and she died without ever finding that out.
- Sanity Slippage: Sayaka's mental state takes a turn for the worse after fearing that Kyuusuke could never love a zombie like her. And during her fight with Elsa Maria, she embraces the bloodlust of the fight as she destroys the Witch without caring for her physical being. She even gets a case of Laughing Mad as she chops down on the Witch while she's down.
- Title Drop: Hitomi drops the title "Can you face your true feelings?" when confronting Sayaka about her crush.
- Took a Level in Cynic: Kyoko confesses that she too used to be an idealist like Sayaka and wanted to change the world as a Champion of Love and Justice. But after her father committed murder-suicide while calling her a witch, the red one became more jaded and decided to only look out for herself.
- Took a Level in Kindness: However, following the truth about Soul Gems, Kyoko tones down her abrasiveness and tries to befriend Sayaka so she can better handle her new life as a magical girl.
- Unwanted Assistance: Kyoko appears to help out Sayaka when she battles Elsa Maria, even offering to give her tips on how to fight her better. Sayaka sadly brushes her off and continues to fight alone.
- You Didn't Ask: Kyubey gives this excuse when Sayaka demands to know why he didn’t tell them about Soul Gems being Soul Jars.
"Stop... Please stop..."
