In the previous episode Kimari was so foolish to take off her face mask outside. This episode she learns that her friends will laugh at her for getting a ridiculous sunburn in Antarctica. (As will her family later.)
It’s almost New Year’s Eve and the Antarctica expedition has set up a live stream connection to Japan. During the test setup, three friends of Hinata show up, which she’s surprised about until she sees them on screen, after which she immediately covers the camera and claims a cramped leg, running away from the test. After the opening, we cut to an interlude with Gin and Kanae as they discus having the final piece of equipment needed to start working on the observatory Takako wanted to create and how dangerous the place is where they want to set it up, as that’s where Takako died. The next scene has the girls stamping new year’s card for their friends and family at home, but Hinata only has one for her manager at the convience store. When questioned about it, she ran off to the toilet, Shirase following here and discovering her outside, expressing her rage.
Throughout this episode it’ll be Shirase who keeps pressing Hinata, as she also did in episode 6, when Hinata had lost her passport and Shirase was adamant to reschedule all their flights. She keeps asking Hinata what’s wrong, keeps worrying about her, doesn’t let up until she knows what’s going on and insists on helping her once she knows what happened. It’s fitting that it’s Shirase who’s helping Hinata here, what with her somewhat blunt and plenty stubborn personality. Yuzu is too quiet and perhaps not socially clued enough for it and Kimari tends to accept people at face value, though as we saw last episode with Yuzu, she can be clueful when she wants to be.
Before we get into the meat of Hinata’s problems, a quick but important detour. Shirase plays mahjong with Kanae, Gin and another woman and wipes the floor with them, prompting Kanae to ask if she played it with her mother. When Shirase answers that she did, she mock despairs and says that they cannot win against the daughter of Gin and Takako. It’s only an offhand, joking remark, but combined with what we saw in episode nine it’s not hard to believe there’s a kernel of truth in this. Gin and Takako at the very least were best friends, might’ve been romantically engaged and Takako made a point of involving Gin with Shirase.
When a mail to Shirase comes through on the station’s general mail account, Shirase hears about it during the mahjong game and decides to read it and is caught doing so by Hinata and the others. Though feeling guilty for having done so, she still pressures Hinata into telling them what’s the matter, telling her she worried about her. So Hinata tells how she got ostracised at the track club for being selected for the big meet over the third years, how she quit the club but kept spreading rumours, which is why she dropped out of high school. That now the people who dropped her when she came under fire wanted to make up now she had gone to Antarctica.
The atmosphere among the four girls the next day is tense, as everybody is reflecting on Hinata’s story and feeling sad for her. Which in turn prompts her to call them out on it. Why do you think I went to Antarctica? Because there’s nothing here and all those problems mean nothing here, she says. This convinces Yuzu and Kimari, who are glad to forget about it if that’s what Hinata wants. Shirase though is not convinced. She knows better than the others how Hinata acts, prefering to keep up a brave face and forget about her worries, rather than having to burden other people with it.
Shirase confronts Hinata again in private, saying that she couldn’t stomach it, smiling to people who hurt her so, who suddenly wanted to apologise without acknowledging what they’d done. Hinata answers that she isn’t Shirase though. Though she says that Shirase’s insistence and pushiness is annoying, it’s clear that she’s touched by her friend’s devotion and anger for her. She thanks her for bringing her along to Antarctica and that her hands and support are enough for her.
And yet… Shirase still isn’t convinced. Just before the actual broadcast begins, she asks to speak to Hinata’s “friends” and starts laying into them for expecting Hinata to be upset and permanently damaged by her experiences, but that this wasn’t true, that every day she was taken a new step into a new life At first shocked, Kimari joins in, saying that now she was in Antarctica doing things they could never dream off and that she didn’t need them anymore.
As Hinata, slightly embarassed, tries to cut Shirase off, Yuzu is having now of it. “It’s fine! It’s friendship! A nice reminder of last episode and how much of a pure cinnamon roll she is. Shirase continues by stating that, unlike Hinata, she’s a real jerk and not afraid to let them know how unwelcome they are for hurting her friend. Everybody starts crying, seeing Shirase defending her friend so forcefully, but they’re mostly happy tears. It’s only fitting that after such a draining, emotional scene, the episode ends as the year ends and the four bash away their bad thoughts the traditional Japanese way, by hitting a drum can with a wooden beam:
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