I also don’t remember why Meili is on Subaru’s side now, and who her mom is. I feel like they have too many things to explain and didn’t have enough time.

Season 2 is wiped from my mind… I looked back to remember what happened with Meili. As far as I can tell she was rescued/captured by Frederica in episode 48, very briefly shown passed out in episode 49, and that was the last of her. There are a couple of Break-Time episodes with Elsa and Meili talking, and one with Meili looking at the burnt ruins of Roswaal’s estate. Perhaps there was dialog afterwards that explained it later, but I think not.

I’ve been looking through the wikis, trying not to spoil myself too much (though I ended up spoiling myself on the mom part a little bit, because of the way character wikis are laid out). To avoid being spoiled, it’s probably better to just stick to the Arc 1-5 story recaps and avoid character wikis altogether. The way the anime portrayed Subaru’s and Meili’s interaction made me think that I was supposed to know more, but I think most of the details around Meili – including events that happened in season 2 – are supposed to be vague at this point and we’ll get more details now that she’s part of the cast again. There was a 1-year gap between season 2 and season 3, so perhaps we’re to conclude that some development with Meili happened during that time.

It would be pretty crazy if the story gives no explanation as to why Subaru can trust Meili now.