Summary
The teacher kills himself, spattering the class and students with blood. The uproar draws Chibiki, who quickly takes control of the situation. Everyone glares at Kouichi and Mei as they leave the classroom. Later, Akazawa warns them that the others will blame them for what happened, and possibly her as well.
Kouichi and Mei ask Chibiki about what happened fifteen years ago, when the curse was supposedly stopped midyear. Together they establish that two key things happened that summer: Ritsuko, Kouichi’s mother, died in July, and the deaths stopped after the class took a trip to a shrine on Mt. Yomiyama in August. Why, or if, the latter had any effect is uncertain. Shortly afterwards Ms. Mikami, the assistant teacher, informs the class, those who haven’t already fled town, that they’ll be taking a trip in August.
Teshigawara calls Kouichi, Mochizuki, and Akazawa together at a restaurant where Mochizuki’s sister works. She tells them that a regular customer named Katsumi Matsunaga was in Class 3 and insists he saved it from the curse by warning everyone, that’s why he “left it there.” What and where, he doesn’t remember. Somehow they figure out he was in the same year as Reiko.
Kouichi asks Mei if she’d like to meet Matsunaga with them, but she says she’s going with her parents to their summer house for the week. She gives him her cell number just in case and asks if he found the graduation photo his mother had, which his dad mentioned was at her parent’s house. He says he hasn’t. Lately he’s been wondering if he’s the one who’s dead, but Mei assures him he isn’t.
Thoughts
It wasn’t much, but there were some more nice snippets of character development this time around. With Akazawa in particular we got some insight into how the situation is weighing on her, seeing her worried about the repercussions of her failure to carry out her duties and learning that she often talks with Chibiki to help her deal with the stress. She tries to act like she’s on top of things, but she still feels the weight of her responsibilities.
Teshigawara said he was uncomfortable with ignoring Kouichi and Mei, which is supported by him breaking silence long enough to tell Kouich “sorry” when everyone decided to treat him as non-existent a few episodes back. He’s not the only one either – there was Takabarashi obviously, and even Mochizuki telling Kouichi to talk to Mei about what’s happening suggests he felt some guilt about leaving the latter in the dark. So what happened this time wasn’t the first glimpse we’ve had of how people in the class feel, but it looks like (or at least I’m hoping) that’s starting to become more of the focus now that everyone’s realized they can no longer try to avoid what’s happening and have to confront it.
It’s just too bad we didn’t get that for Mr. Kubodera, the teacher. It makes sense in hindsight: he tried to keep his distance emotionally but these students were still his responsibility and his seeming failure to keep them safe (that we didn’t see any real evidence of that notwithstanding) finally got to him. His death had the same problem as the previous ones: there was no reason to care about him beforehand – we didn’t learn so much as his name until after his death – so, gruesomeness aside, it had no real impact.
On the curse side of things, is this honestly the first time the class has tried recreating what happened fifteen years ago? Chibiki’s been around the whole time, and he keeps an eye on the records – did it honestly not occur to him that going to the shrine in a large group might have been key until now? True, there’s no way of knowing if that even affected anything, but like creating a new Class 6*, surely it’s something that would’ve been tried sooner? People’s lives are on the line, after all.
*because I totally didn’t misremember how many other classes there are and say Class 7 a few episodes back
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