Oregairu 1.4

Whereas last episode sang the praises of Yui, this one brings out some of Hachiman's strengths. He doesn't play second fiddle to Yukino or Yui here, displaying an acute awareness of what goes wrong in group friendships, and we even see something of his generosity (masked, of course behind indifference to ridicule) in problem-solving for other people.

We get his 'origin' story too, where according to him, he began to be a loner. Run over by a very fancy car while saving a cute, dumb little dog (which belongs to a pretty girl of whom we only catch a glimpse) - the perfect setup for a Boy Meets Girl story. Since it's Hachiman, however, things can't be so idyllic: Dog Girl visits his house while he's in the hospital, in order to thank him and bring thank-you food. His little sister Komachi eats said food, and forgets to ask Dog Girl her name for Hachiman, so even though she goes to Soubu High, they have no way of meeting unless she approaches him first. Good job there, little sis. 

This is one of the best depictions out there of a sibling relationship, banter and all. The way Hachiman and Komachi interact is actually how close sibling relate, especially brother and sister. It's startling, how real it is.

The action of the episode revolves around the chain letter text slandering three of Hayama's friends: Tobechi, Yamato, and Oka. Hayama being Hayama just wants it to stop, not necessarily expose and humiliate the perpetrator. Unsurprisingly, Yukino absolutely disagrees, showing a vehement hatred towards anonymous slander we've come to expect from her. There is a special place in Yukino-Hell for authors of slanderous chain letters. Given her predilection for honesty even or especially when she's ripping people apart, she operates fully known and in person. Whatever her flaws, she is not wont to spreading lies about others, and despises those who do, particularly when they're anonymous.

Despite her wrath, however, she is able to do almost nothing about it. It's Hachiman who accomplishes the solution in this episode. Yui tries by interrogating her girlfriends, but is entirely unsuccessful, not even able to hide her affection for someone, which isn't even relevant to her goal. She does drop some social wisdom on Hachiman, by informing him  that girls are more apt to be aware of the relationships in the class, and that "if you talk about someone you both hate, they can get carried away and say all kinds of stuff." Oh my. 

We never do find out who sent the text, but thanks to Hachiman's observations about a friendship revolving around a single character (something everyone has experienced - a person is your friend and another's friend, but when he leaves the group, the others are just friends of friends, it gets awkward, and conversation dies). Yui puts it the best: "When the person who keeps the conversation going leaves, it gets totally awkward. You don't know what to do, so you pull out your phone." That's an awful solution, but it perfectly captures the difficulty of genuine interaction.

Hachiman is able to put the solution together extremely fast, leaving Yukino far behind. She doesn't realize the implication of Hayama being the center of the friendship until Hachiman spells it out for her. Remove Hayama from the situation, he advises, and the problem will disappear - Tobechi, Yamato, and Oka might even becomes friends in his occasional absence - and indeed, it seems as if they do. 

This is the first time he's really done something for another person in the series, particularly while avoiding his characteristic, cynical cruelty. He claims to have done nothing, but in fact is the sole reason the solution works so well. This is probably not a watershed moment (Exasperated, Sensei asks him at the episode's start if he's changed at all, and he seems dedicated to appearing unchanged in front of her for the time being), as if things will be radically different from here on out, but since we already knew Hachiman is not the hardened, triumphant cynic he thinks himself to be, it's exciting to see his potential so early. Soon that good potential will begin to conflict with his defenses against human connection, so troubles will be afoot soon, and they'll probably be afoot for him sooner than Yukino.