An episode focused on the main plot of the anime, instead of an individual case. A bit less awesome than usual, though. There wasn’t enough pain and suffering, unfortunately.

In any case, a few things about Shouko become clear. It seems that she’s at a warp which connects the entire world. No time and no space exist where she is. This has showed her things she needs to know. Still, it also seems that she doesn’t know everything. She doesn’t know what the “Upheaval” means. it does seem that she left some messages for the two brothers in Miki’s care. Their memories about their parents aren’t false. And she shows them the strange scriptures she was reading in episode one.

Naoto and Naoya seem to have a very strange power. The power to change reality. Much details aren’t known yet, though it does seem that people will be trying to take advantage of them. At the end of the episode, we also get to see another psychic, who seems to have another vision-ability. I think he can see alternative futures, or something in that direction. In any case, he sees a future in which Naoto and Naoya have killed the entire world population. He’ll probably be coming after them soon.

A strange tattooed man also appeared during this episode. I’m not sure what his purpose was, or who sent him, though it did seem that he was trying to profit from the brothers’ sorrow. He makes Naoto and Naoya see that they seem to have more abilities than they thought they had. He wasn’t really interesting, though. Just an overconfident bastard.

I’ve got one problem with this episode. The case this time is focused on Watanuki, instead of a customer. The episode is about superstitions. At one time, Watanuki’s clipping his toenails, after having heard that you can’t clip your toenails at night, because if you do, you won’t be with your parents when they die. His parents are dead, so he ignores this. Because of this, he gets attacked by a giant pair of scissors.

Well, the problem I have lies with Yuuko’s explanation. The people who came up with these superstitions were trying to prevent people from doing something. They knew you’d be attacked by a giant pair of scissors if you clipped your toenails at night, that’s why they subtly tried to warn others. But that doesn’t make any sense, as why is Japan the only country who believes in this? If this really were true, rumours and stories like these would appear over the entire world.

But now that I think about it… the scissors could also have been Yuuko, who tried to make Watanuki believe in superstitions.

Watanuki basically had it right: there is no such thing as superstitions. When you believe in things like these, you start paying attention to the details. For example, when you break a mirror. Every time you have bad luck, you notice it, and blame it on the mirror. Tons of good things may have happened, but you don’t even notice these. You just keep focusing too much on the bad parts that you loose your view of the overall picture. Most of the superstitions work like these, and that’s also the reason people are still believing in them.

I think that this episode was just one big attempt of Yuuko, trying to play with Watanuki’s mind. First of all, Watanuki never turned into a cow. His body just got heavy. I think indigestion problems can be blamed. His obsession with Himawari’s ribbon was just something psychological. He already was a bit ill, so he couldn’t concentrate on things properly. He then focused his eyes at Himawari (logical, as he has an eye on her), and concentrated on the most attention-catching aspect: her ribbons. His mind, meanwhile, told him that he was a cow, and for some reason, he began to think that cows chase after red, moving things. He probably was at the point at which he began confusing cows with bulls. And at the beginning of the episode, at which Watanuki tripped over his own shoelaces was also some good timing by Yuuko. She just made him forget about tying them, which can easily result in him tripping over them.

Still, Watanuki’s story about how the death of his parents made him stop believing in superstitions really was touching. He also reached a nice conclusion. It’s always nice to believe in them, as long as they’re fun. Overall, the episode was nice, but frankly, it dealt with a theme which has been a bit too much overused (that, or I just watched way too many American cartoons when I was young).