There\u2019s no burying the lede with that episode. Yeah, I\u2019m stumped. Rafal<\/a> is awesome as always \u2013 so is Sakamaoto Maaya. But this has to make sense or the whole premise kind of crumbles.\u00a0 For a series that seems to celebrate reason and rational thought, the three explanations which spring to mind for me are all kind of deal-breakers. Rafal showing up last week as Nowak\u2019s conscience made sense in context, at least to an extent. It\u2019s not so easy to explain this one away.<\/p>\n All this leads us to Albert, who has a couple of slightly surrealistic conversations building up to this revelation. First, his adoptive father lectures him about arete, a topic I wouldn\u2019t imagine most medieval bakers were too knowledgeable about. He then sends Albert to deliver bread to a church he\u2019s never delivered to, where he quickly winds up in a confessional talking to a too-eager priest (it should be noted that the timeline is again way off here, as the earliest cited date for use of a confessional box<\/a> is 1563). There\u2019s something off about this whole interaction, but it leads to Albert spinning the tale of his youth. And eventually, his tutor.<\/p>\n Again, in the midst of all this mess Orb<\/em> delivers some interesting philosophical discourse. This time on the subject of whether the pursuit of knowledge should be governed by whether that knowledge is \u201cuseful to humanity\u201d (yeah, that\u2019s not subjective at all). Albert\u2019s father<\/a> \u2013 who to his credit does encourage learning and is the one who calls in Rafal-sensei \u2013 takes the view that it should. Knowledge is meaningless if it has no practical value. And learning should be undertaken with the intent of glorifying God. He advises his son to always doubt his learnings (good), on the grounds that if they don\u2019t lead him to the path of God, he should stop (not so good).<\/p>\n Rafal, unsurprisingly, takes a very different view. Sakamoto Maaya ensconces us in the velvet of another nuanced and brilliant performance. This Rafal is different from the one we know in subtle ways, but still clearly the same person. If the Rafal we lost after two episodes had grown up, this is certainly what we would have expected him to be like. He schools the wide-eyed young Albert on constellations<\/a>, the connections which we find in the sky, and busts out another ancient Greek concept \u2013 Thaumazein<\/em>, \u201cwonder\u201d. Rafal is an eloquent exponent of curiosity and intellectual ambition, a reminder of what Nowak took away when he caused Rafal\u2019s life to be snuffed out.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t render an opinion on all this until we find out what the hell it all means, obviously. Next week is the finale and to say it has a big job to do is an understatement. That would have been the case even before this bizarre twist, but now the ultimate fate of the whole series pretty much rests on it. If I\u2019m honest I can\u2019t say I\u2019m entirely confident, but I\u2019m certainly curious.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Facebook\"](\"https:\/\/lostinanime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Chi.-Chikyuu-no-Undou-ni-Tsuite-24-16.jpg\" "\\"Share")
<\/a>