Madoka Magica Episode 4: Miracles and Magic Are Real

There are Miracles and Magic 奇跡も、魔法も、あるんだよ
First airing	28 January 2011
Script	Gen Urobuchi
Storyboard	Shinsaku Sasaki
Episode director	Shin'ichi Omata
Animation Director	Miyabi Ozeki

Summary

This section may contain major spoilers!

Please refrain from reading if you are not yet familiar with all the latest media released.

After Mami's death in episode 3, Madoka and Sayaka are both crushed and frightened. Madoka begins holding doubts about the situation and becoming a Magical Girl, and tells Kyubey that she is too scared to become one at that moment. She visits Mami's apartment, crying, only to meet Homura outside as she leaves. Meanwhile, Sayaka continues visiting Kamijou at the hospital. Kamijou learns that he won't be able to use his right arm ever again, and out of frustration, becomes angry with Sayaka.

The same day, after Madoka has gone to Mami's apartment, she runs into Hitomi and discovers that Hitomi has a witch's kiss and is seemingly in a trance. Sensing a dangerous situation incoming, Madoka then agrees to follow her, only to find out that she was meeting others for a collective suicide. After stopping the process at the last second, Madoka then is swallowed in a witch's barrier, to be saved by Sayaka, who apparently spent her wish on Kamijou a little while before. Sayaka is now a Magical Girl, a fact that doesn't seem to please Homura.

The episode ends with the appearance of Kyouko Sakura

Observations

• An outside view of the hospital is shown which matches a scene from the destroyed city in episode one.
• A group of people attempt to commit suicide by mixing bleach and detergent that contains hydrochloric acid to generate chlorine gas.
• The witch said "Today was very fun, let's go again. This time with a Bentou" (今日は本当に寒かったねえ、また行きたいね。今度はお弁当持って行こう) in reverse speech right before Madoka enter the witch's barrier.
• A CD box labeled Mahler is a reference to the Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler.

Runes

See also Runes of episode 4

Speculation

• Since the town is only recently constructed, the hospital's presence in Madoka's dream rules out the possibility that those events happened at some point in the past. This makes it more likely that her dream was either precognitive or the result of a timeloop/world reset.
• The fact that the hospital in this episode ressembles the one at the beginning of episode 1, as well as the fact that a witch can only appear inside a barrier, seems to agree with the theory that the witch from episode 1 might be Sayaka (after all, a barrier takes the form of its owner's mind, and Sayaka is pretty concerned with Kamijou and the whole hospital environment)

Images

<gallery position="center" captionalign="left"> File:Ruined city - Hospital.jpg|Comparison of scenes from the prologue in episode one and the hospital in episode 4.