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After a recap of events leading up to this episode, we finally arrive at the midnight scene of the mysterious men tripping Satoko’s clapper alarm. She quickly goes to awake Rika, who eventually wakes up with a look of futile inevitability in her eyes. She calmly walks over to the closet and opens a panel in the ceiling and tells Satoko to hide. “They’re only after me anyways…”
The men bust in and grab Rika, and quickly rush her over to the shrine, drawing out their knives. Satoko approaches the shrine after the men have left, to find Rika behind the altar, lying naked (and dead) in a pool of her own blood. Satoko lets out a horrified scream, which the men hear. They quickly rush back and track her down to the suspension bridge, which Satoko is hanging off the side of in order to avoid detection. The men decide that they can’t capture her and quickly flee the scene, but Satoko is completely exhausted and was injured during her escape – she loses her grip and falls into the river below.
Meanwhile, the village has been surrounded by the army. Satoko, who washed up on the river bank, stumbles back into the village and by the schoolhouse, now illuminated by portable floodlights and the headlights of large military trucks. She peers inside one of the classrooms to see… the dead bodies of her classmates, her teacher, and even her friends Mion, Shion, and Keiichi. The shock is too much to contain – she lets out another cry, this time with the army men coming to her aid.
The news report cites Satoko as the only survivor of a toxic gas leak in the village of Hinamizawa. Oiishi visits the hospital in hopes of getting some information out of Satoko, but she’s in one of those emotional trauma comas that doesn’t seem to be letting up any time soon. Hoping for some kind of response, Oiishi just goes on talking. He pulls out a bloody hat – Rena’s hat – and asks the comatose Satoko what her hat was doing way in the middle of the woods. Why was she that deep in the woods so late into the night? Why was only her hat found? “I believe,” Oiishi profounds, “this is a message from Rena… perhaps the gas leak was a part of a larger incident, and Rena was trying to let somebody know?” Oiishi completely believes that this was no accident, but the work of some outside forces. He grabs Satoko in his frustration, hoping to get some kind of response out of her, but she just stares back at him with those listless eyes. “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED THERE!!” he yells.
He calms down afterwards and says he will visit again. On his way out, he mentions the murder of Rika, causing Satoko to gasp and raise her head slightly. Did you see that! Oiishi asks the nurse, who was checking on the room after the previous commotion. The nurse cites a reflex response, considering Satoko was still unconscious. Oiishi leaves as the camera focuses on the nurse – she’s incredibly suspicious looking, with a look in her eyes that says she knows much more than she should.
Back at police HQ, they talk about how they are unable to contact the investigator who had gone to Hinamizawa. Oiishi asks if he had said anything before he had left to investigate – yes, in fact – something concerning Furude Rika. Oiishi then recalls that Satoko and Rika lived together, and realizes that Satoko’s current state was actually in direct connection with the murder of Furude Rika. He rushes back to the hospital Rika is at.
Meanwhile, Satoko is having visions of Oiishi talking about Rena’s hat – she’s taken through flashbacks of her chase through the woods, and then sees Rena running through the woods, being chased by the same men. She’s surrounded, captured, with a parting shot of her bloody hat falling into the river below. Satoko wakes up, drenched in sweat – claiming she understood what Rena’s message was. She awkwardly reaches for the nurse’s call button – which the suspicious nurse cancels and ignores.
Oiishi reaches the hospital and rushes for Satoko’s room, only to find the nurses and the doctor over her bed. The doctor proclaims her time of death, stating that her condition had suddenly made a turn for the worse, resulting in heart failure and eventual death. Oiishi, at the door to all the answers, is left with nothing but more unanswered questions.
Thoughts
So this time around, everyone dies except for Satoko, who goes on to die anyways. Oh, the passionate despair of Rika, it was all too true. What did Rena find out? Who are those men working for? And why was everybody at the school in the middle of the night? We’re introduced to a score of new questions and left about as clueless as Oiishi himself, as he pieces together the story after he’s able to do anything to stop the chain of events from claiming the lives of those people he’s trying to protect.
Furthermore, who was the voice that Rika was talking to? Since she seems to be a part of Rika’s endless cycle of death, it’s almost guaranteed she will appear in subsequent arcs, and if her presence in the opening sequence is any indication, may become an important character in solving the mysteries surrounding the tragic events.
We have yet to be reintroduced to the dealings of the Shinozaki family, or the stories of Keiichi and Rena. Will their stories answer the questions that this arc left? Or just add to the continued mystery?
This episode was great. If only for the Metal Gear Satoko moments.
Another massacre without survivor. What is going to happen in the next possible parallel universe?
Finally some question for us to think about.
-Who are these people?
-Wasn’t Shion and Mion’s family in charge of them?
-Who is the mastermind behind everything?
-Why did they always target Rika?
metal gear satoko LOL
ok at last;
this is what Higurashi all about!!! KILLING!
so its those people that kills Rika?
anyway, cant wait for the next arc
-Wasn’t Shion and Mion’s family in charge of them?
Without spoiling anything… there was never any indication that they were.
Im so pumped up to see whats up for the next episode.
@a
Well, at first i always thought that Shion family were the ones responsible for murdering.
Reasons:
-Keichi thought like that before
-Mion thought that her grandma was responsible for Satoshi’s death
-Rika thought that Shion family had connections with the aliens
The only contradictions we have are:
-Shion told Mion that she believes the family members forgave Satoshi
-Shion family dead (in this episode) while the group still around
Edit: Not the responsible for murdering but the masterminds.
From the last season, i thought that Rika was the murderer since she had double personality and at the end, when the police called her – she showed a evil face.
But in this season, we see that Rika actually have been a victim all this time.
P.S. Very likely that they are trying to place everyone as innocent and victims while some group behind the scenes is making people in the town suffer?
The most supportive reason i thought that Shion family were the masterminds was because of the torture chamber and what they did to Mion when she first reveled against them.
@banzemanga
You’re getting the Sonozaki twins mixed up. Just switch Shion and Mion in all your statements and you have it right.
lol. Yeah, i do it all the times.
Yay, this is what we signed up for.
No the Sonozaki family really aren’t the masterminds behind all this. Of course Shion thought they were but I believe Mion told the truth that they really aren’t responsible for what happened to Satoshi. It is pretty obvious though that the person responsible for fueling the madness of Shion, Rena, and Keichi is the prime suspect.
Now I wonder how come everyone apparently died at the school in the middle of the night? It’s certainly not normal for everyone to be at school and the likely reason for that is they were forced to be there. Also Rena appears to be still missing. Perhaps she escaped and the men responsible were after her?
oi…they deads yo they deads. Dayum. Welp i wiki-ed some of it so i sorta know what’s going on. Personally if i had to be one character in the story i would be oiishi…since he doesnt die most of the time. I like living. XD
Hey guys is it possible for those guys to be the murders that survived during the dam incident?
Great episode .
I’m confuse why they must kill Rika -3-?
oh my god? i can’t belieave it all people die and what going to happen next episode store?
this is madness!!
well, from wikipedia, the supposed true ending says the mastermind is Show Spoiler ▼
Don’t be a douche and put spoilers in there even with a spoiler warning. Call it a self control issue, but with a series like this you shouldn’t post things. Anyway, this was a great episode. This whole arc has been very good.
Lol, they killed of some people here.
It will help alot if people try to connect the clues of this chapter together will chapters of the first season that END UP WITH A SIMILAR CONSEQUENCE. Again, try to highlight the things which are in common, and it may just help on clearing some questions that banzemanga posted.
Good timing to do it now too, as we start fully analysing the “logic” and “rules” of this strange world when the show moves into Minagoroshi-hen.
Okay guys, this is probably the last chance for you to think through everything and try to solve the mystery, as we will start the analysis of the “logics” and “rules” of this strange world when the show moves onto the final and most important 2 arcs: Minagoroshi-hen and Matsuribayashi-hen.
sorry for double post, my comment didn’t appear for a second O.o
Man everybody died. It´s again so confusing. Who the hell murdered everybody in the school?
/Meanwhile, the village has been surrounded by the army. Rika, who washed up on the river bank, stumbles back into the village/
…You mean Satoko, right? ^^;
whoops… i knew i’d screw up the names somewhere. thanks, fixed.
No but i thought that Satoko would realized what she did to Keichi on the bridge since it is a very similar happening.
One more thing: @xcswmboy
Show Spoiler ▼
Well, I’ll be damned if I don’t watch this episode . . . very dark. I’ve been a fan for a while now, but this is the first I’ve tried to figure out what’s going on.
And to banzemanga . . .
Show Spoiler ▼
No Higurashi is NOT all about killing! Stupid people who can’t think about what it is really about…
flamestrike: you know, just out of random curiosity, what do you say higurashi is about?
After 5 episodes
Mystery solved so far….
Rika was sexually abused before killed. That’s been in mind during season 1 when her naked corpse found near the shrine.
All nurse and doctors in the hospital are culprits except for the young doctor who always mentioned suicide through pills or just died.
The 1st episode of season 2 seems to be the final episode of the series since the endless cycle of 1983 Himazawa Mystery Incident have finally ended (remain unknown).
This arc seems to be linked to the last arc in season 1 since (MatureMode)Rika figure out that Satoko have recalled about a certain phrase uttered to let Rena trust her friends when she murdered somebody.
For the past 31 episodes of the story, Takano’s corpse yet never found(maybe it was all made up) but reports always tell that she is burned to death.
The interesting part is how this repeating time of 1983 would stop? Where Rena is only the sole survivor of the village telling the cops that *They* move on different location which would replace Himazawa Village.
Awwesommeee episode, I hope there will be more darker episodes next arc.
“All nurse and doctors in the hospital are culprits except for the young doctor who always mentioned suicide through pills or just died.”
The hospital that Satoko was sent to in this episode and the hospital (more like clinic) that Irie works at is not the same one.
“The 1st episode of season 2 seems to be the final episode of the series since the endless cycle of 1983 Himazawa Mystery Incident have finally ended (remain unknown).”
It is more like the final episode of “Tsumihoroboshi-hen”, since it is the future of that particular world. Note that it is not Hinamizawa that is travelling the repeating cycles, but just Rika herself (+ auauau~).
“For the past 31 episodes of the story, Takano’s corpse yet never found(maybe it was all made up) but reports always tell that she is burned to death.”
The reason why the body was confirmed to be Takano was because they matched the TEETH MARKS of the body to the dental records in dental clinics of Hinamizawa and Okinomiya, which ended up matching those of Takano Miyo’s. There is one little interesting detail however, which is further mentioned in Tatarigoroshi-hen.
Alien:
“this is madness!!”
Madness you say? THIS IS SPARTA! Lol… Poor, poor Rika-chan. Damn, if I were there I’d kung fu those guys with the knives.
Oh yeah, another thing. I was always wondering how the restart would like like in Rika’s perspective. When exactly does it restart? And how would Rika see it when it does? Does she go from dead to alive in a fraction of a second and go, “Woah, I feel mega deja vu”? Where and what are they doing when it restarts?
Higurashi is not just about the killing of or by little lolis, though it may be the common plot device which link the end of all of these chapters thus far. What I see as the driving force behind this series, and its main appeal, is the winding murder/mystery narrative which focus on methodical, psychological unnerving of its audience.
A shadowy, sinister, and unfailingly bleak atmosphere permeates the whole series. The rural countryside setting reinforces the aura of physical isolation that accompanies the mental isolation experienced by the main characters and plausibly imbues the plot with mystical sensibilities. The best element of Higurashi is when the characters struggle against a plots to bring about their deaths, an end we know is imminent, which make their efforts futile, yet each time, we cling to the hope that through their fights against unknown conspirators, against each other, and against their own escalating terror and panic, that they can escape their grisly fate.
I’m beginning to ramble, but the point is, pastel-colored lolis involved in bloody murders and sneaky schemes emphasize the one overarching theme of Higurashi: “Things are not always as they seem.”
kadian1364: ‘pastel-colored lolis involved in bloody murders and sneaky schemes emphasize the one overarching theme of Higurashi: “Things are not always as they seem.”‘
It’s because Keiichi and the others all believe in that ‘theme’, they ended up with the tragic fate that they were in each of the chapters lol.
Actually, even THAT is merely the theme on the surface. The true theme of Higurashi has been hinted once already in Tsumihoroboshi-hen (hence people call that chapter the “turning point”), and will be fully revealed in Minagoroshi-hen.
A really tragic episode is what we’ve arrived at here. Poor Rika was resigned to that fate since episode 2 and it was simply confirmed here with her death. I don’t believe she was sexually assaulted simply that leaving her like that would create the biggest impact. Plus we have all the people dead in the school. Bodies of kids being piled up says someoen was behind all of this.
Those guys are really something dangerous. It’s not like ordinary thugs, but more like specialized trained mercenaries. Way too high tech to be anything but working under someone with a lot of power. Rena gave a great attempt to escape but just couldn’t manage it. At least we can say that Mion’s family isn’t the big dogs behind all of this. These guys are taking orders from someone a lot bigger.
While there is a lot of death I don’t see the theme as simply killing. More like a struggle to survive against huge odds. Unraveling a serious mystery that has engulphed this town. Finding out what’s going on and what can be done to stop it. Killing certainly is something that happens and makes a big impact but the theme is hardly something that simple.
One thing we can gain is an insight as to what Keiichi went through during the arc last season. Waking up after falling off that bridge and entering the town. Looking into the school and seeing his friends and people he knew all dead.
higurashi seemed a lot less scary with actual human killers behind it. at the beginning of the first season where its all just god paranoia, that was much more freaky.
@xcswmboy
Do we know that it was human killers?
As far as i know, it could be in the head of one character, or it could be some aliens(lol)
I still don’t mind your Higurashi entries, they’re pretty good…but could your PLEASE not put spoiler-filled images on the front page (the 6 preview shots). Like some stuff is taken for granted since its Higurashi but I really didn’t want to see some of the “hints” given by the 6 preview shots before I’d even seen the episode. Thanks!
omfg..this anime’s going deeper and deeper into questionary concepts
Well, obviously some black ops were going on in Hinamizawa (bio-weapons experiment?)
Exterminatus* was declared to end it, and whole population was gassed. Military were called to clear up mess, hence Satoko was rescued. Black-ops people (jumpsuit men!)were of course under command of someone higher up in command chain, and it was
Show Spoiler ▼
* Warhammer 40000 fans will know this, eradication of whole population of planet (in this case village) in case of demonic infestation or alien mind control