「Madoka Magica」I Want to Believe...

...this is a dream. A really bad dream. 

It's not in my nature to do episode-by-episode reviews, but neither is the nature of a single episode to contain so much grief and doom that it leaks out dark miasma, driving men to hate a certain character with every fiber in their body.

Like I said, it's not in my nature, thus I am no longer myself at this point.

A "wise" man once said;

"It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered."
"Full of darkness and danger they were."
"And sometimes you didn't want to know the end."
"Becuase how could the end be happy."
"How could the world go back to the way it was, when so much bad happened."
"But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow."
"Even darkness must pass."
"A new day will come."
"And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."
"Those are the stories that stayed with you, that meant something."
"Even if you were to young to understand why."
"But I think Mr. Frodo, now I do understand."
"I know that folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't."
"They kept going, becuase they were holding on to something."
"There's some good in this world and it's worth fighting for!"

Sam, you need to know this;
When the Sun starts to rise, the "shadow" is always at its longest. 
So long in fact, that it stretches to the other side of the world as soon as the Sun leaves that part,
engulfing the world in darkness, eternally...

"Darkness and evil" never dies, it never sleeps (and neither does Kyuubee) but the struggle to not fall into it would be the "light" if there was ever one in this timeline of Madoka.

Timeline? You mean...
Yes, THIS timeline. At some point, prior fan speculations were so outrageous, it wouldn't add up no matter how to view it.
What we saw as a joke, has become reality.
What we thought to believe, has been chewed and spat out.
What we think, is no longer valid.

Taking materials from both denizens, I'll attempt to piece together this road that may(not) lead to a bitter end;

Perhaps, the biggest spoilers to have been officially revealed would be the scene at Homura's place.
Like a floating library of codex, it reveal much information and created even more speculations.

What you probably didn't see was Homura's place before Kyouko came over;

A closeup at one of the codex reveals more information about the event called "Walpurgis Night"

If we are to assume "Walpurgis Night" is actually a gathering of witches, then to the left, we have what seem to be a list of witches that may "attend". Note the "1/25" page. It's gonna be a long night....

To the top, we again see "The Witch's Spell" clearly in text form. As it is part of other Walpurgis Night content, safe to assume we shall see this spell again.

To the bottom right and top left codex, the shape of a colossal object named "Ein Narr" (possible missing letter prior to E) becomes clearer as the Prolog in Epi1 might very well be the event of "Walpurgis Night".

Now, if we assume that "Walpurgis Night" isn't a gathering, but the appearance of a single powerful witch, this might lead to another theory;

But as Kyuubee mentioned during Epi 8,
"Something terrible might happen (Sayaka turns into Witch) before Walpurgis Night occurs"
Sure, we'll assume this is not actually Walpurgis Night and take your word for it, you lying white-ball-of-death.

You still with me? Cool.

Speaking of Kyuubee, the codex might have revealed his "true form" as 2ch speculates.

Now doesn't this look familiar? 

Again, we joked that he might be immortal due to his creepy nature.

Funny how "might" turned to "is" overnight, but no one's laughing.

Could this be where the Prolog takes place?

A sense of foreboding indeed

Meanwhile Kyouko advertises a bowl of noodles;

The Time Travel Theory is suddenly the most likely plot and goddammit I love it; 

All said and done, Shinbou, Gen U and SHAFT must be having a blast as they view the number of threads in 2ch:

Prepare yourself for various milking merchandises to come....

If you, like me, prefer to have a platform to fall onto in case more surprising shit is flung in our direction as we dodge it, try this theory. I'm trusting this to the very end, as it has just too many Faust references;

Omake:

"I won't forget"

Meanwhile, somewhere, probably heaven, in A Closet with a Puella Magi and Witch...

"This is why we can't have nice things..."