I think I was supposed to say, “She finally became a mother!” I’m not feeling it, though. There’s a lot of things I don’t really feel. Reiko’s talk with Shinichi seems to imply that life’s questions have haunted her. She says it herself: every time she answered one question, another one would pop up in its place. She felt like she was walking in circles, blah blah blah. Well shit, why wasn’t this better conveyed throughout the narrative, then? Why it is it something that is only coming out now? This is especially true of her motherhood. I don’t expect her to have maternal instincts right from the get-go. What I do expect, however, is her gradual development towards becoming a mother. Just a few episodes ago, she had carried the baby like a bag. Hardly a very nurturing act. Hell, she brought her kid to a loud lecture hall just in case a fight broke out between her and Shinichi later. She knew that the hero wouldn’t dare hurt her if she used the baby as a shield. How do we go from that to her valiantly taking a hail of bullets just to protect her son? Of course, I know how it happens. The more important point is that I don’t see it happen. It simply does, and as a result, “the feels” in this week’s episode hasn’t been earned. It’s just, “Bam, I’m a mother now… and oh yeah, I remind you of your dead mother! Awesome, isn’t it?

Shinichi finally does cry, and on the other hand, this is something that the narrative has been slowly building towards. Not only that, this all came about because Reiko’s sacrifice reminded him of the goodness in his mother. I mean, he understood what the loss of his mother meant on a logical level, but what I’m trying to say is that seeing his own mother attack him — even if he also logically knew that it was no longer her but a parasite in her guise — profoundly broke him. This gave him the whole in his heart. So y’know, this entire time, everyone’s like… “Oh, he can’t cry anymore! It must be because he’s part parasite!” “Oh, he put that dead dog in the trashcan and it’s because he’s half parasite.” “Oh, he calms down way too easily and it’s because he’s part parasite.” You get the gist. Everything is attributed to the fact that he’s half parasite, and in doing so, people lose sight of why these stories exist in the first place. All of these changes in Shinichi were really cries for help. He can’t cry because he doesn’t want to be emotionally vulnerable. He calms himself down quickly? Is that a good thing, or yet another example of him shutting out the outside world to keep himself protected? He didn’t give that dog a proper burial? Shit, he couldn’t even give his mom a proper burial.

We can blame everything on how Shinichi’s half parasite, or we can actually acknowledge that the hero lost his mother out of nowhere, and he’s never really had time to grieve. He didn’t take any significant time off from school. They never really had a funeral for her, because they don’t want to say that she’s died and especially how she’s died. He can’t confide in anyone. Not even his own dad, because for a short bit, his dad looked like he was even more worked up about her death! Shinichi thus put on a tough face to help his dad get through it, but in reality, it’s the one who acts like everything’s okay that’s really hurting the most. And what really gets me is how during all of this, Satomi never really dug for the truth. Instead, she whined and cried and pushed him away… until he was away, then she half-heartedly chased after him. But even then, when she hears gunshots in this week’s episode, she’s all like, “I’m done! I’m done!” It’s only thanks to some ridiculous reassurance from Kana’s spirit — wut — that she finally gives herself the strength to go look for Shinichi. When she finds him, she sees him crying and she’s all, “You’re back!” Are you fucking kidding me? I guess that’s the state of mental health in the world at the moment. Hopefully, you can just fix yourself and be back. I’ll be waiting here and making a face until you do.

Anyway, Reiko admits that they can just eat normal food, but we already knew that. She then tells Shinichi that they are completely dependent on humans, so don’t bully her and her kind or something. After all, she’s only killed 37 people, and that’s on the low end! She warns him to stay away from Gotou, ’cause she created him and he will fuck the hero up. Well, I’m sure Shinichi will be okay. With this show’s penchant for killing people off, however, I’m not feeling too secure about Migi. I liked how the authorities shot at Reiko even though she was holding a baby in her arms. Maybe they thought it was a parasite baby, or maybe Reiko pilfered herself a little afternoon snack. How could they take that risk? But when she approach Shinichi, the old man told them to stop shooting! So Shinichi’s important, but some unknown baby is not?! Plus, what happens to the baby now? Well, we’ll find out about that later, I suppose. In the meantime, Shinichi is forced to meet some cannibalistic serial killer who apparently has the ability to distinguish parasites from humans. Oh boy.