Meili's Tragic Past Surfaces
Episode 76 opens with Subaru standing over Meili Portroute's strangled body. A wound carved into his left arm reads "Natsuki Subaru was here," and he has no memory of how it got there or how Meili died. As Japanese entertainment news site Anime Anime's fan reaction roundup captured, viewers were right there with him: confused and alarmed.
The situation deteriorated fast. Subaru lashed out at Emilia with uncharacteristic hostility when she expressed compassion for Meili, dismissing her plea as "pathetic." Fans praised Emilia for wanting to release Meili from her cell and treat her as an equal, but that tenderness was cut short when Ram arrived with confirmation no one wanted. Meili's Book of the Dead had materialized in the library, proving she was already gone.
Reading the book unlocked Meili's full history. Abandoned at birth and raised by demon beasts (as she herself had previously disclosed), Meili was eventually taken in by the assassin Elsa Granhiert and delivered to a figure she calls "Mama."
Fans were stunned to see Elsa, known only as a cold-blooded killer, acting as a devoted caretaker. Even when young Meili bit her and drew blood, Elsa never flinched. The warmth didn't last. "Mama" turned out to be Capella, a Witch Cult Sin Archbishop who used her body-altering abilities to terrorize and control Meili. Viewers were quick to connect the dots: Capella's power was the catalyst that originally sent Subaru's group to the Pleiades Watchtower.
Fans Spot the Gluttony Connection
The episode's biggest reveal hid inside Meili's final memories. The Subaru she encountered before her death spoke and behaved like a completely different person. Japanese viewers zeroed in on the speech pattern almost instantly.
"That way of talking... it's the Gluttony Sin Archbishop," multiple fans posted. The theory that one of the three Gluttony Sin Archbishops has hijacked Subaru's body would explain the Loss Arc's central mystery: why Subaru lost his memories and who has been acting in his place.
The final minutes piled on. Meili's corpse vanished. Her apparition began whispering to Subaru, feeding a murderous impulse he could barely contain. Then Ram appeared. She had been monitoring him through Patrasche's eyes, and she delivered the episode's most chilling line: "A failed imitation of Natsuki Subaru."
The episode title, "Murder Becomes a Habit," appeared only at the very end as the ED kicked in. Fans called it one of the best transitions of the season, with many reporting chills.
Looking Ahead
Next week brings the 11th and final episode of the Loss Arc, wrapping up the first half of Re:ZERO Season 4. The second half, the Reclamation Arc, picks up on August 12, 2026, and runs for 8 episodes.
Re:ZERO Season 4 is produced by WHITE FOX and airs Wednesdays on TOKYO MX, AT-X, and 21 other stations across Japan. Crunchyroll streams the series internationally with a same-day English dub across North America, Europe, Latin America, Oceania, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia.
The source light novel by Tappei Nagatsuki is published by KADOKAWA under MF Bunko J. Yen Press handles the official English release.