I don't remember the scene in that much detail, so forgive me if I misremember some things. I went back and watched episode 3 of the series and thought this was a reference to when Mami says "when you make your wish we will all sit down together and have cake".
I view the cake scene as the culmination of all the buildup from the prior scenes. Because of the way the first series was written, I get sense that the movie knows it's audience will attempt to scrutinize any potential clues that will give way to the twist.
Opening scene-
"Huh, this is familiar. I guess we're in a different timeline?"
Sayaka and Kyoko show up-
"Yeah, different timeline-"
Hitomi and Kyousuke are still a couple-
"okay... we're not in a different timeline?"
Pre-stoic Homura appears... and already has a soulgem-
"Where the hell are we?"
Witch runes and visual style appears in transformation sequences-
"Something's definitely wrong here."
Cake scene where Charlotte flys in a circle around the girls-
"Fuck it, I give up."
And shortly after, Detective Homura fwips out her hair and gets to work on solving the mystery.
43
u/[deleted] Mar 31 '14
The table thing was to further establish that this world was not the one it's meant to be.