If you had Hojo Teppei down as the most sympathetic character in Sotsu, looks like that betting pool has been kind to you.  While everyone here except Satoko is basically a victim, somehow Teppei’s case feels the most pointless and cruel.  Here’s a flawed guy who did bad things in his life and had a genuine desire to change – and actually did.  Teppei is weak, but he’s actually trying to be a better person.  Obviously on an objective level what Satoko is doing to Rika is more cruel by volume, this feels even meaner and more petty.

With Tatariakashi-hen we’re getting yet another answer arc, this time to Tataridamashi-hen.  And that means it’s yet another rehash of events we mostly know, but as has been the case with Sotsu the focus on lesser characters has proved more interesting, because there’s more blank space to fill in.  I don’t think we’re going to learn anything in Tatariakashi-hen that fundamentally changes the dynamic, but so far it least it feels a little less recycled and that’s a positive.

A possible exception would be that little tidbit that Eua dropped early in the episode – to wit, that if Satoko dies before Rika in a fragment, the next one she goes to will have no Rika at all (which kind of sounds like checkmate to me).  I’m pretty sure we’ve not heard that before and it would be odd to mention it if it wasn’t going to come up later.  I don’t know if it’s going to be the Satoko’s downfall – indeed, if Satoko is even going to have a downfall – but it’s a possibility worth keeping in mind.

One thing I do know is that if Satoko gets a redemption ending, there aren’t enough barf bags in an A380 to fulfill my vomitory needs.  She’s playing the cartoon villain thing to a hilt, and the Teppei gambit is only the latest example.  Antagonists like this tend to be fundamentally uninteresting, but especially given that Satoko was treated as an important character and sometimes-victim through most of Higurashi’s incarnations, this is bit discordant if we’re honest.  She so awful as to be ridiculous as she is, but any attempt to tone down her character would now look equally ridiculous.  And that’s a real problem for Sotsu that doesn’t have any solutions.