Everything was not okay.
Some of the cuts in these new seasons are so damn good. The Keiichi arc from Gō and Rena arc from Sotsu, the way they have been re-worked from those in the original series and tied together so they make sense as one loop (where it's Rena who is experiencing Hinamizawa syndrome not Keiichi, he's
not being paranoid and Rena really
is out to get him because she's already succumbed and her murder of Rina has already taken place) was fantastically well done. Likewise the retake of the Mion/Shion arc, which might the first piece of media I've ever seen that has subverted expectations by
unsubverting expectations. Yet everything still tied up and made sense. That's what I like to see.
I was initially uncertain about the development of previously antagonistic characters thwarting Satoko's plans due being so haunted by their past misdeeds in innumerable loops that they change their ways, but I think that's paid off and proved interesting now with Satoko's use of Teppei (hang on a sec... Events don't always play out the same in each loop, how did she manage to Biff Tannen the horse race? Maybe she had to try that one a few times) and I think Rina seemed more sympathetic this time as well, which made her and Rena's interactions more emotionally charged.
Further thoughts: Satoko's a lot more competent with a knife than Rika, I will say. You'd think Rika would have had more practice at getting it right first time by now. Though quite how Satoko managed to stick a fully concious Mion with a needle without her noticing I don't know, that's skills. I also would have thought that a toilet you can fit and entire body down would probably have had this glaring safety risk pointed out during the design stage.
How warped am I for laughing at Mion stomping Rika down the toilet? That definitely felt more funny to me than horrible. And on the one hand, I feel like Satoko has been made a bit
too sadistic now BUT at the same time I'm wondering if this could be the Lambdadelta origin story, since it seems witches are born from the negative part of the psyche and if that happens, perhaps she can find some peace again. Witches, as we know, do not obey time-lines.
Further Rampant Speculation: I suppose if I had stopped to consider it, it's obvious Hanyū
was still around at the same time as "Eua" though we still don't know why she stopped being able to appear to Rika (and possibly even ceased to exist entirely). I had wondered previously about the possibility of Hanyū being the witch of the artist formerly known as Oyashiro-sama, but now it seems more likely that's what "Eua" is, and Hanyū is something else entirely. A counter-force to witches perhaps, a positive being that splits off from someone rather than a negative one? Could Hanyū be Oyashiro-sama's good side and "Eua" her bad side?