It was all serious business with Mononogatari this week, none of the romcom hijinks that have been a staple of the first three episodes.  With the paper umbrella running the show, that figured to be the case.  Of course defining just what that paper umbrella is may not be a simple matter – if anything it’s more of a collective than an individual tsukumogami.  But its connection to the main cast is now pretty clear-cut.

I do think this show is better in serious mode if I’m honest – that other stuff always seems slightly ill-fitting.  But Mononogatari is very comfortable doing what it did this week.  Fukie being on-hand to help out Hyouma inside that barrier certainly helped, but it becomes clear soon enough that the two of them are overmatched by this opponent.  That said, Karakasa does apparently need to lower the barrier to go all-out combat-wise, meaning it has limits on its own power.  And lowering the barrier invites the rest of the Nagatsuki household – and the BoTM – to enter the fray.

Hyouma’s warring impulses get the better of him, as they so often do.  Part of him wants to protect Botan at all costs, but it only takes a little goading from Karakasa to slide him into full vengeance mode.  Fortunately the arrival of the cavalry forestalls disaster here, and they have no such divided motivation.  As  Tsumabiki says it’s harder to fight to protect than to destroy, but that’s what this group specializes in.  Karakasa couldn’t care less – Botan is all it’s interested in, and it’s beyond dispute at this point that her master is the marebito sealed inside Botan.

The combined efforts of the Nagatsuki brigade and the musicians are enough to subdue this incarnation of the paper umbrella, but Botan’s collapse afterwards (just as she was about to confess, it seems) makes it clear something is amiss.  And that something is Kushige, who was the real target while the attack on Botan was the diversion.  Haori makes Kushige’s importance clear – not only was he protecting the mansion with a barrier, he was keeping the marebito behind one too.  His disablement (though not demise) has obviously implications on the Botan front.

Kadamori-san’s role comes to the fore now.  He’s an ally in a sense – he offers the best chance of protection while Kushige is down – but he has no ultimate loyalty to Botan.  And he makes it clear that if she’s perceived as too much of a threat, he’ll do nothing to stand in the way of any actions the higher authorities choose to take in neutralizing it.  Whatever it was that killed Hyouma’s siblings is still out there (or in there), and the threat to and from Botan has never been greater.