When you and your late mother’s best friend share one true love together:
This episode again focuses on the relationship and history between Shirase and expedition captain Tōdō Gin, her mother’s best friend. We first met her during episode four’s training exercise, where it became clear these two shared a history, then later in episode seven she revealed Shirase’s mother wish for an Antarctic observatory and how the new expedition was going to lay the foundation for this. Gin and Shirase had a moment together, but there’s still a distance between them, which this episode will shorten, but not before the girls have to help this asshole:
To be fair to this asshole, he does function as the catalyst for Shirase and Gin to get closer to each other, as it turns out this asshole, Zaizen Toshio, is in love with the captain. Having heard that Shirase is supposedly a friend of Gin, he’s looking for her to help him confess to Gin. Hearing him out, the girls are less than enthusiastic about this and wonder if he knows how much out of his league she is. It does however give Hinata an idea to spice up the ratings for their Antarctica reports. If they include the love lives of the crew, people might be more interested. And who better to start with than with “the beautiful, smart, determined” expedition captain? If she gets a bit embarassed about the whole thing it’s a bonus.
At first the other three want Shirase to talk to Gin, but she protests that there’s a distance between them. When Kimarin brings up that they seemed to get along well when they were talking on deck in episode seven, Shirase is surprised that they were watching. Hinata counters: “why would you ever think we weren’t”? Which perfectly captures the relationship between those three, with Yuzu on the sideline this time. Gin’s best friend Kanae meanwhile is trying to convice her to talk to Shirase, making the exact same remark about that conversation. So it’s no surprise she helps the girls get their interview with Gin, though in the end it doesn’t help much. Rather, it’s another coincidental meeting between Gin and Shirase that helps them connect again.
Throughout the episode there are flashbacks to when Shirase was still a smol Shirase and her mother left her alone with Gin, which tended to be awkward unless penguins were involved somehow. For Shirase, Gin was just her mother’s friend, somebody she didn’t know well. Gin herself meanwhile had no idea how to handle children at all. And of course, once Gin returned from Antarctica and Shirase’s mother didn’t, when she as leader of the expdition was responsible for ending the search for her once it was clear it was hopeless, there wasn’t any time or opportunity for them to build up a bond.
Gin is right: Takako is trying to leave her alone with her daughter, to build that bond. The question is why she did that. Obviously she isn’t around to ask anymore, nor is the episode interested in spelling out her reasons, but it makes me wonder. We haven’t seen any other of Shirase’s family members save for the grandmother she lives with; her father is nowhere to be seen, if there is one. Takako seems to have raised her on her own. As seen in episode seven, she and Gin were high school friends, with Takako dragging Gin along on their Antarctica adventure. Takako and Gin were best friends, or perhaps something more than friends? Might Takako been hoping to start a family with the three of them, or have Gin be there as surrogate mother if something happened to her? And did she succeed?
As the other three girls and Kanae watch, Gin confronts Shirase with how she really feels about her. She still carries the guilt of leaving Takoko behind and wonders if Shirase blames her for it. Shirase denies that, arguing that her mother’s death was not Gin’s fault, that she did everything she could. As Gin presses her further, she breaks down saying she didn’t want to talk about it because she doesn’t know how she feels. All she knows is that her mother isn’t coming home.
Three years is a short time to have to come to terms with the death of your mother, but we hadn’t seen Shirase talk about how much it hurts to know she isn’t coming back yet. It’s been easy to forget that she must still be hurting, that she started this whole Antarctica obsession because she wanted to go to the place where her mother is. Her grief is still raw, but she doesn’t want to show it because she doesn’t know what to do with it.
For Gin too that grief must still be raw. Having your best friend losing herself in a blizzard, powerless to save her, hearing her last words on the radio and unable to reach her… Gin must be hurting as well, but like Shirase, she hides it most of the time behind her stoic, sensible exterior. It’s only in this moment that we see her true feelings, a moment that she keeps returning to. After her heart to heart with Shirase, once the ship is moored in the Antarctic ice, she finally gets a moment where she can break down and cry, only to be spotted by the asshole who set it all in motion, who realises he can’t do anything for her, thus ending his crush.
After all those deep felt emotions, it’s nice to end the episode with the confirmation that Shirase can still be incredibly petty, as she and the other three finally set foot on Antarctica, jumping on the ice together. Shirase seems to be having an emotional moment, the other three comfort her and then the mood is completely shattered as she starts an epic rant against all the people who mocked her for her dream to go to Antarctica. At first stunned, the other three join in, followed by the entire crew:
In your face!
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