Note: what isn’t spoilers here is speculation.

Do you remember when it was an action series, where a pair of kids with a finite supply of defensive-only magic faced off against a trained spearman who could disintegrate cars and tanks and who never ran out of magic?

Do you remember when it was a race against time to keep humanity – perhaps even the world – from being consumed by the black iron syndrome as the Tree of Exodus awakened?

Do you remember when the Kusaribe clan was led by the master plotter Samon, who had trapped the Princess of Genesis not just on an island, but 2 years in the past, with only her skeleton remaining in the present time – when it was made clear that she had no hope of escape? When Samon indisputably had the upper hand?

Do you remember when Aika was Mahiro’s sister?

Do you remember when Yoshino was directionless, unmotivated, and thoroughly out of his league?

Do you remember when Hakaze was just a voice coming from a doll as far as Mahiro and Yoshino were concerned?

Do you remember when the Tree of Genesis was trying to protect the world against the threat posed by the Tree of Exodus?

Do you remember when Mahiro was the dangerously unstable one?

Do you remember when Aika was determined to have been killed by somebody in the Kusaribe clan?

Do you remember the feeling as each of these truths was overturned?

Lastly – most importantly – do you remember the series premise? Do you remember a story of revenge for the death of Aika? Do you remember when Aika was dead, present only as a memory and unable to directly affect the course of events? Because in just a few hours now, episode 20 of Tempest will air, inverting that truth just like it has with all the other truths listed above.

With each of the above, I thought I had some grasp on where this show was going. But as it’s proceeded it has managed to turn itself inside-out, without at any point resorting to what I’d consider narrative cheats. And I still thought I got it. Until last week, when Hakaze revealed her plan to go back in time, and where the episode preview showed her making contact with Aika.

Now I have no idea what to expect. I’d already been convinced that Aika was as likely as not to have been the grand mastermind behind a lot of things – she seems to have manipulated Mahiro and Yoshino into being screwed up enough to handle the insane situations they’ve had to face, all the while being aware that she’d soon be dead – but I thought that even her plotting had its limits. Now I’m not so sure. Is she going to kill herself, or Chrono Trigger her way out of things? Or will she perhaps get Hakaze to kill her, so that in episode 1-12 time she literally had no killer, but she will have one by the end of the series? And how does all this relate to the conflict (is there really a conflict?) between the Trees (or are they really trees – perhaps dragons, or alien technologies, or…). Based on some recent developments I know that Tempest has brought up the image of the Ouroboros, but I think it’s better represented by a Möbius Strip – a situation that appears to have 2 sides but which due to a half-twist actually has only 1. Frankly that’s as close as I can come to guessing where the series is going at this point.

I remember when I thought Tempest was a straightforward, easy to understand show. I’m glad I was just as wrong about that as I was about everything else.