One of the beauties of this anime adaptation is its strong use of music. As we see the passage of time, we get to the scene where Heiter passes out. With Frieren at Heiter’s side and Fern outside practicing magic, we can tell how strong their love is. For Fern, who lost her family at a young age and had not much for her to live for. Heiter saved her. That’s why she wants to show her merits of being a mage, and hitting that rock is what she aims to do to show that.
Heiter mentions how he isn’t as pure as Himmel the Hero, but his saving Fern was because he reflected on Himmel after he died. Cue the words “It’s what Himmel the Hero would have done.” He would have saved this lost girl. The funny part is that he did trick Frieren, but it was all for Fern to have someone by her side after Heiter passed on. Of course, Frieren is still learning about humans, and here we see how their love can motivate each of them in their actions to do things to Frieren that, on the surface, might not seem out of love. So a learning experience for Frieren is given here.
The latter part of the episode was a big focus on why Frieren passionate about magic. As Fern mentions, searching for something that doesn’t exist. Of course, Fern’s issue is that Frieren not aware of her perception of time being different, though we know Frieren is aware of that. As the final scene shows the beauty of magic and what it can discover when searching new possibilities in it. Of course, for Fern it is a reminder that she chose magic because she fell in love with it, and that is more than likely why Heiter pushed her to it.
This episode adapted the rest of chapters 2 & 3. Not too much to comment on to say that, but how the music greatly enhances the passage of time scene that appears in this episode.