Tsuwabuki is injured and while he is recovering, the girls snoop in his diary/day planner and see his records of Nanami's plots and plans for interfering if something similar happens again.
Ruka and Shiori have an ugly breakup. Juri asks him to reconsider, to help the woman she loves. He challenges her to a duel, with the loser to do what the winner wants.
This is why Juri goes for a ride, then challenges Utena, with Ruka as the Bride.
Long ago, the Rose Prince was trapped in a floating castle by a witch, who was also his sister.
Or
Long ago, Prince Dios was overwhelmed from saving all the girls in the world and his sister, Anthy, sealed him away to protect him. For this she was condemned as a witch.
When Utena was depressed from her parents' death, Prince Dios came to her, and showed her his sister Anthy, trapped in torment, but unable to die. He could not save her, because he was no longer a prince she could believe in. Utena swore to become one and save her.
I'm pretty sure Akio is sleeping with Touga too, and at this point, I'm going to guess all the duelists and all the brides have had sexual relations with him as part of the revelation.
The ultimate anime recommendation flowchart calls it a Gender-bending Feminist Classic; the Evangelion of Shoujo.
And that's probably true, but I think there's a case of the _Citizen Kane_ effect here: many of the ways it was groundbreaking have been adopted into the standards.
And... they sure did keep me going Oh God are they going to admit it yet long enough that the betrayal at the end took me by surprise. So good job there.
There's a fairy tale rule of three thing going on where in the first arc Utena fights a duelist, then fights their other half in the black rose arc, then fights the pair in the endgame arc.
The endgame arc really heats up. Maybe it's the new approach/transformation sequence, which also places Anthy as part of Utena's team and not just a prize to be fought over. Or maybe it's that we know everyone so well now.
I started the thread with _Revolution #1_, but I should have used _Every Rose Has Its Thorn_.