Wikipedia Synopsis: “Between 1986 and 1998, Ange leads a harsh, isolated life at the boarding school Eva sent her to. Between classes, Ange learns about magic from Maria, whose soul is kept alive in her old diary. During one such session, Maria shows Ange how she was often left at home by Rosa and forced to care for herself with Sakutaro, a stuffed lion doll Rosa made her for her birthday. In 1998, Ange discovers that she is being hunted for her fortune by her aunt and Kyrie’s sister, Kasumi, and escapes with assistance from her bodyguard, Amakusa. She begins her journey to Rokkenjima, where she enters Purgatorio and becomes Battler’s ally against Beatrice under the name “Gretel”. During the family conference in 1986, Kyrie theorizes that Kinzo is already dead and that there are actually seventeen people on the island. Battler adopts this theory and stockpiles it for use against Beatrice later on. “

As the synopsis suggests, most of this episode focuses on Ange’s past and her ability to speak with Maria when reading Maria’s diary, which apparently she can do because she posseses magical ability herself.  In the flashbacks of Maria and Rosa that we see while Ange reads the diary, Maria’s actually pretty cute.  Rosa wasn’t such a hot mother back then either, it seems: although we don’t see her slapping Maria around, she leaves her at home alone while she spends the night with a man (I wonder who he was?).  Ange also finds out that the epitaph may have been a farce, with Eva told the answer by Kinzo ahead of time because he’d already chosen her. It seems pretty certain that the whole thing was set up by Kinzo as a Battle Royale of Inheritance, even if Eva wasn’t pre-chosen.

                                                                                                                   An “UUUUUU~!”  from beyond the grave

On the Metaworld front, Ronove plays a trick on Beato, telling her that Battler was so distraught by her trick last episode that he’s still in a fetal position and won’t say a word.  Beato seems surprised by this: it’s clear that her erstwhile finer feelings weren’t completely fake.  She still wants the game to be fun for Battler.   Suddenly, in a whimsical touch, Battler and Beezlebub appear, flighting over croissants, having a fine old time.  Boy, was Beato’s face red!

Being the first episode of the fourth arc, the gameworld part of the story starts over again with the family’s arrival on Rokkenjima.  There’s a really interesting part where the adults are having a heated discussion.  Krauss is unwilling to let the other siblings see Kinzo.  Kirie quite craftily uses a discussion about Krauss’s rights and responsibilites as Kinzo’s caretaker to suggest what all the siblings suspect: that Kinzo is already dead, possibly by Krauss’ hand.  Hearing this from the Metaworld, Battler is struck with the suspicion that it may be true, and that when Beato said that there were only 18 people on the island in red text, this may not have actually included Kinzo as he’d previously thought.  This would leave the 18th space open to be an unknown culprit.  Beato smugly refuses to confirm this in red (possibly just because she doesn’t feel like it).  Ange (as “Gretel”) tells Battler that he’s been lazy to go along with the red text rule for so long.  Beato agrees to give Battler a new tool to fight back:  he can now use blue text.  It will only work if his hypothesis actually contains a genuine possibility of a non-witch culprit, thus disproving the necessity of witches to explain something.  As far as I can tell, even if the hypothesis isn’t really what happened, it will still work as long as it’s factually correct in theory.  This way, Beato will no longer be able to refuse to answer something in red, because she must disprove what Battler said in blue.  With this new artillery, Battler plans to use a shotgun approach, of throwing out numerous hypotheses and seeing what sticks.  There’s probably a downside to the blue, though:  in previous arcs, Battler’s been able to keep from losing by stubbornly refusing to accept witches, even when he was unable to counter Beato with facts.  He may now have to state facts in blue to keep from losing.

I’m not sure if Kinzo’s dead at the very beginning of each arc: I recall sometimes seeing him alive with other people.  But possibly he dies very shortly after, long before Battler knows he’s dead?  It seems that his body is usually burnt, which certainly could conceal an earlier death.  It sure is handy that he has 6 toes, so he can be identified without a face!

Here’s a useful timeline for the 3rd arc that I found, which may help you keep the facts straight to work on your theories: http://shounen.chungyc.org/2009/11/timeline-for-umineko-no-naku-koro-ni-iii/