Hmm, is the fact that Juri and her lost love both have the same light-orange rose border highlight color relate to them being Black Rose-compatible? But I don't remember Micky's sister ever getting a rose border.

Hmm, and the basement rose is orange this time as well? Wasn't it black for Micky's black rose duel?

Juri's too off-balance for elevator stock footage or to retain the warning about what's about to happen to her. Nanami seems maybe more on top of things than I'd expect, and I'm glad Micky's communicating. I wonder if Utena and the Student Council generally are going to become allies at some point.

Juri has to give Shiori the cold shoulder for her to want to go in the black rose elevator, of course. But Juri "I have no hard feelings for you"ing is remarkably bad communication. I wonder if it's a coincidence that Shiori arrived back just now, or if someone arranged it somehow?

Oh, I see, Juri's rose is turning black. The previous black rose victims I guess already had poisoned feelings, but Juri had been healthier about hers I guess. That does make it seem like the black rose folks are orchestrating things from behind the scenes somehow. How did they even know about Juri and Shiori to begin with? It seemed like Anthy knew something about Juri's deal before, but if Akio and the black rose folks are antagonists I don't know how they'd have learned anything from her.

Juri not believing in miracles does seem prone to being self-fulfilling. But I guess it does turn out to be correct after a fashion this time, Shiori is a priori a jerk, and the black rose folks orchestrating things to push her over the edge is a bit poetic. (I do want to see the scene where one of them snorkels in the lake to get the locket, though.)

I guess having a grudge against Anthy specifically isn't necessary, the magic of the black rose will make you murderous regardless. I guess the birds (crashing into a glass door) highlight Shiori's obliviousness and the shadow play highlights how Juri's kept her secret as a burden perhaps unnecessarily.

For all the buildup the black rose duelists so far do not seem to be very effective against Utena's Dios-based miraculous ability.

Anthy seems to think this hasn't resolved Shiori's emotional baggage, and the bit Mikage says about using the parasite again suggests she might be right. Are none of the black rose duels actually resolving emotional issues, or is there something different about Shiori?

It does seem like we're revisiting a bunch of the season 1 plots, which does add an additional aspect of cyclical time to the show, in addition to the stock footage, shadow puppets, duel motifs, and such.