Very entertaining episode with a couple of cute moments and also a few key moments, particularly towards the end, but all in due time, let’s start at the beginning.
As Midnight said last week, I also thought that ‘Kana-san’ passing out and her reaction to Mayuri meant that she has received at least some memories from her past, but false alarm, it seems she was just a bit emotionally overwhelmed. The first scene opens with Mayuri and Ruka going out to the store, but it’s really just an excuse to give the other 3 some space. Mayuri feels like she can’t really do anything to make the situation better. Suzuha is shocked to learn that Kagari lost her memories and Rintarou does the best he can to learn more about Kagari’s current situation.
After Mayuri and Ruka come back, they are explained the situation and Mayuri does her best to comfort Kagari. It seems to work too, probably for unconscious reasons that make Kagari know she has a relation to Mayuri and also because Mayuri is being really supportive. I was never a huge fan of her before, though I liked her, but I really think Mayuri’s upbeat personality shines in this kind of more gloomy setting. She became a bit more proactive in trying to make her environment brighter and it’s not just her being mindful and cute, but it really seems to have more of a purpose now.
Rintarou lets Moeka know that they have found Kagari, but he asks her to continue giving them information about the other group of people searching for her. He treats Moeka a bit more normally know, but this is when the audience starts getting hints that maybe, just make, he shouldn’t after all. Just as a precaution he asks Ruka not to let her out on her own or too much.
Daru finds out about Kagari and he seems relieved, but he’s concerned that Suzuha didn’t take it as he thought she would. She’s still not relaxing, so he tries to cheer her up while Suzuha remembers something that’s a bit disturbing and very intriguing. Kagari is holding a gun and having an argument with Suzuha. 
I feel like this flashback is coming a little late because she should have remembered this back when she first thought about Kagari, considering the seriousness of that memory, but well, I suppose it’s a way to amp up the mystery, but it doesn’t feel very natural to me to bring it up here.
This is where the mood of the episode picks up a lot and we’re back to jolly times because it’s the New Year shrine visit! They all get ready to visit the shrine where Ruka, Mayuri, Suzuha and Kagari are working as shrine maidens. The moe goes through the roof when Nae is shown wearing a kimono and being all cute. I really like the character’s voice! Once again her dad has some mysterious thing to take care of, which is suspicious, but well, the cute girls are distracting!
There’s a lot of nice moments during this shrine visit, character interactions that are funny, like Suzuha and Daru getting along and Mayuri’s friends picking on Daru a little. Mayuri and Kagari’s conversation with Rintarou and the whole gang hanging out. One of the key moments is Hiyajo meeting Kagari and commenting on how much she physically resembles Kurisu, but Rintarou denies this. Later on they go back to the lab, though Yuki doesn’t go back with them, which is also a little suspicious.
At the lab, another turning point is reached when the lab members meet and interact with Amadeus, prompting a conversation between Hiyajo and Rintarou about him trying to move on from his feelings and facing Kurisu’s death. As they talk, the app malfunctions, leaving them all a bit confused except Rintarou who suddenly has a flashback to the previous line in which Mayuri’s pocket watch kept malfunctioning. Then, just as he’s about to freak out, they get ambushed by a group of armed people in masks?! Very shocking cliffhanger, as we could try to guess these people are sort of like SERN and may or may not include Moeka, the landlord or Yuki, but we won’t find out who they really are until next time.
Very touching episode overall with quite a twist at the end. I wonder if the phone malfunctioning and Rintarou’s reaction is just a foreshadowing of the fact that the dying cycle will start again for someone? I hope we find out soon!
Actually, the Kagari flashback is a continuation of a flashback from episode 4. So it was brought up when Kagari was first introduced. 😉
About the gunmen: there’s some reason to think it’s not SERN this time around. Nae is still in the room, and there’s no way Mister Braun would put her in danger. So maybe this time FB and Moeka will be allies? Mayuri’s alive in the future, so she shouldn’t die here anyway.
Yeah, I covered that episode too and I remember that flashback. I even commented on it a bit, but this time I’m being nitpicky about something in particular that I wasn’t very clear about in my review. I guess to me it seems strange that Suzuha wouldn’t remember Kagari pointing a gun at her first since that seems like a bit of a traumatic even, but well, it really is just a matter of perception.
As for that organization, I imagine them SERN-like, but not actually them being SERN. I also suspect that since Mayuri’s pocket watch is what kept malfunctioning before, this might be a hint that this time around might be Maho’s turn.
Not sure I’m understanding you correctly, but Kagari was also shown pointing a gun at Suzuha in episode 4. The only thing that was added in this episode is that she actually fired the gun.
As for Maho, I don’t think she’ll die. Remember that it’s not her phone that was malfunctioning, but Amadeus, and there’s an obvious explanation for that: the organization that’s behind the attack is her lab. Leskinen and the female professor have been acting very suspicious after all (Leskinen disappeared in a hallway, the female professor looked at Kagari ominously, and the party looking for Kagari had a foreigner in charge). And if her lab is behind the attack, they probably won’t harm Maho. Besides, she seems too important a character too die in the absence of a time machine to reverse her death. If anything there’s a huge death flag for Mayuri (because her pocket watch is malfunctioning again), but I think that’s to put the audience on the wrong foot. She’s alive in the future, so she can’t die here. Right? Let’s hope so.
I didn’t remember the gun, so yeah, it was my bad. Maybe this time around it made a bigger impression because it was fired.
You make good points, except that Rintarou said before that if his Reading Steiner acted up again, there must be some time-altering device somewhere, but it definitely hasn’t been shown so maybe no one will die.
It speaks wonders to me how horridly traumatic the pocket watch scene is though. Like, my stomach went into knots as Okabe started to relive it. I tensed up, nothing felt right…It’s a marvel to me how this show conditioned us to fear that scene and line of dialogue above all else.