It was probably not a good sign when this episode ended and I was disappointed to realize it wasn’t the finale.  I’ve never stopped caring about what happens on Pet, but at this point I’m just exhausted by it.  I was all set to be free of it after tonight but no, there’s one more week to go.  Of course I’m curious to see what happens in a rubbernecking sort of way, but I realized when the ED starting rolling that what I wanted more than anything was just for it to be over.

Despite the efforts of some to convince me otherwise, I continue to believe that Hayashi is the closest thing to a protagonist this story has.  He did bad things, but he was effectively forced into them.  Most importantly he both regretted the choices he was forced to make and tried to make amends.  It appears that the elaborate plan he concocted to try and liberate his charges from the company failed, but at least he made the attempt.  Hiroki and Satoru may be more or less innocents (though they’ve done bad things too) but they’re basically victims.  And unlike Hayashi, they’ve never tried to be anything more than that.

I do like Satoru (though that whole first meeting with Jin in the bar remains disturbing) but damn, I wanted to throttle him here.  Hayashi may not have known the extent to which Tsukasa had moved out where the buses don’t run, but he knew he was trouble.  But despite his warnings via his “carrier pigeon” (did Jin tip Satoru off or was that a coincidence?) Satoru immediately went to Tsukasa and blew his own cover to smithereens.  That’s the problem with Satoru and Hiroki – as much as you might want them not to get screwed over, they don’t really do make to further their own cause.

If there’s any consolation in this morass of depressing nihilism, it’s that Tsukasa at least knows now that he was wrong about Hayashi, and that he crushed him for no reason.  I sincerely doubt he’ll have any lingering guilt over it as I think he’s developed an ability to rationalize away any atrocity he commits, but he’ll have to work a little harder at it this time if nothing else.  Apart from that I’m as close as I’ve ever been to no longer caring what happens, but it’s only one more episode so curiosity will have to drag me across the finish line.