The fallout comes home. One of the best sibling scenes I've ever seen is our perfect opening, and confirms just how much Komachi loves her brother. She intuits something is wrong, cleverly weasels out of him that it is (he tries to deflect but to no avail), and tries to get him to tell her about it - assuming that as in the past, she'll eventually persuade him to spill.
Not this time. He coldly shuts her out, and the hurt is palpable. Even the cat notices. This has probably not happened before, or at least rare enough that it's a nasty, unpleasant surprise. Abruptly leaving for school, she closes the door and fumes, loud enough for him to hear, "I knew something was wrong!" before running off. Emblematic of the wall he's so expertly built - he and his sister are visually divided, and the one person who'd probably understand ("you might be doing something wrong and not be aware of it", she says, which is at least half right. Hachiman knows what he did alienated his two friends, but he might not be sure exactly why) he is able to drive away.
And of course everything is awkward, especially the Service Club. Hachiman and Yukino verbalize that everything is fine - strange, isn't it, that the two people who claim to value straightforward honesty are the most reticent and false-speaking liars when it comes to their own friendship? Both are totally blind to their own inconsistency - and Yui tries, but honest Yui knows everything isn't fine. "I can't figure out what they're thinking," she laments, ostensibly referring to Hayama's clique but really referring to her friends. It is a genius directing move that makes it unclear whether her line is mental or expressed, an ambiguity made flesh by the stubborn refusal of the other two to be straightforward. Neither Yukino nor Hachiman know how.
"You can't know the thoughts and feelings of others," Yukino counters, "And even if you could, understanding them is a different thing entirely." Hachiman takes a different tack: "Don't worry about it, because we're the ones feigning normalcy the most." Yui accepts that in sad resignation (seriously the animation detail here is beautiful, even iconic), but not Yukino. "That's what normal means to you? When nothing changes?" And this makes her, for the first time in the series, visibly, seriously upset.
This small group is less growing in natural ease with each other than it is constantly walking a tightrope, with a definitive falling-out a hair's breadth away. Yukino of course cannot express her frustration, because she's unwilling to be honest and vulnerable with herself, let alone Hachiman; the self-saboteur is unwilling to make even the least amount of initiated progress into admitting he may have messed up, or that he longs for the company of others. Yui, of course, is capable of both of those things, but it unable to spread that to Yukino, to say nothing of Hachiman. Again and again the Dolorous Duo depend on circumstances orchestrated by Hiratsuka-sensei in order to get past their own stupidities; left to themselves, they're already on diverging paths formed by their own social cowardice.
And so once again Hiratsuka-sensei barges in with another project: Iroha Isshiki has been placed on the student council president ballot, and wants to drop out without damage to her reputation (she's cute, popular, and "juggles multiple guys at once," according to Hachiman's dour analysis). It is immediately proposed someone make a sabotaging speech which will cost her the endorsement (three guesses as to who, but you'll only need one), and a surprising thing happens: Hachiman encounters resistance, first from Yui and then from Yukino. Yukino gets visibly upset again, and then in frustration asks sensei for a moment of time to discuss the club, wherein it is decided that until the issue of method is resolved, attendance is noncompulsory. Hachiman takes the hint immediately and leaves without a word. "You and I both were never fit for getting along with others," Yukino says to his back, but it is unclear if he hears her.
Strangely, Hiratsuka-sensei lets him leave, and is the gentlest she's ever been, first asking (as if she had any doubt) if something happened between them, and then saying, "When there's someone you truly want to help, your way [i.e. the way of self-sabotage] won't work." It's as if she believes he and Yukino will come back together, though everything points to the opposite result. Perhaps because of Yui, because unlike last time, where Yui seemed to be powerlessly in the middle (it was Sensei who got him drafted into the festival committee, if I remember), this time she compels him to return, so after a scene confirming Haruno has the ugliest soul (who enjoys manipulating and making people uncomfortable out of sport "because it was interesting" - Hannibal's "Because I wanted to see what would happen" explanation hit home hard right then) he shows up again in the clubroom, where the girls decide someone else will run to defeat Iroha in the election. Hachiman thoughtfully and brutally rips into their particulars, and when Yukino practically begs him to change (granted, you have to read deep within the lines), he leaves again. Yukino could solve the problem if she explained what bothered her about his method, but that would make her vulnerable, and she cannot but be the aloof, superior one. The two paths are still diverged.
Not this time. He coldly shuts her out, and the hurt is palpable. Even the cat notices. This has probably not happened before, or at least rare enough that it's a nasty, unpleasant surprise. Abruptly leaving for school, she closes the door and fumes, loud enough for him to hear, "I knew something was wrong!" before running off. Emblematic of the wall he's so expertly built - he and his sister are visually divided, and the one person who'd probably understand ("you might be doing something wrong and not be aware of it", she says, which is at least half right. Hachiman knows what he did alienated his two friends, but he might not be sure exactly why) he is able to drive away.
And of course everything is awkward, especially the Service Club. Hachiman and Yukino verbalize that everything is fine - strange, isn't it, that the two people who claim to value straightforward honesty are the most reticent and false-speaking liars when it comes to their own friendship? Both are totally blind to their own inconsistency - and Yui tries, but honest Yui knows everything isn't fine. "I can't figure out what they're thinking," she laments, ostensibly referring to Hayama's clique but really referring to her friends. It is a genius directing move that makes it unclear whether her line is mental or expressed, an ambiguity made flesh by the stubborn refusal of the other two to be straightforward. Neither Yukino nor Hachiman know how.
"You can't know the thoughts and feelings of others," Yukino counters, "And even if you could, understanding them is a different thing entirely." Hachiman takes a different tack: "Don't worry about it, because we're the ones feigning normalcy the most." Yui accepts that in sad resignation (seriously the animation detail here is beautiful, even iconic), but not Yukino. "That's what normal means to you? When nothing changes?" And this makes her, for the first time in the series, visibly, seriously upset.
This small group is less growing in natural ease with each other than it is constantly walking a tightrope, with a definitive falling-out a hair's breadth away. Yukino of course cannot express her frustration, because she's unwilling to be honest and vulnerable with herself, let alone Hachiman; the self-saboteur is unwilling to make even the least amount of initiated progress into admitting he may have messed up, or that he longs for the company of others. Yui, of course, is capable of both of those things, but it unable to spread that to Yukino, to say nothing of Hachiman. Again and again the Dolorous Duo depend on circumstances orchestrated by Hiratsuka-sensei in order to get past their own stupidities; left to themselves, they're already on diverging paths formed by their own social cowardice.
And so once again Hiratsuka-sensei barges in with another project: Iroha Isshiki has been placed on the student council president ballot, and wants to drop out without damage to her reputation (she's cute, popular, and "juggles multiple guys at once," according to Hachiman's dour analysis). It is immediately proposed someone make a sabotaging speech which will cost her the endorsement (three guesses as to who, but you'll only need one), and a surprising thing happens: Hachiman encounters resistance, first from Yui and then from Yukino. Yukino gets visibly upset again, and then in frustration asks sensei for a moment of time to discuss the club, wherein it is decided that until the issue of method is resolved, attendance is noncompulsory. Hachiman takes the hint immediately and leaves without a word. "You and I both were never fit for getting along with others," Yukino says to his back, but it is unclear if he hears her.
Strangely, Hiratsuka-sensei lets him leave, and is the gentlest she's ever been, first asking (as if she had any doubt) if something happened between them, and then saying, "When there's someone you truly want to help, your way [i.e. the way of self-sabotage] won't work." It's as if she believes he and Yukino will come back together, though everything points to the opposite result. Perhaps because of Yui, because unlike last time, where Yui seemed to be powerlessly in the middle (it was Sensei who got him drafted into the festival committee, if I remember), this time she compels him to return, so after a scene confirming Haruno has the ugliest soul (who enjoys manipulating and making people uncomfortable out of sport "because it was interesting" - Hannibal's "Because I wanted to see what would happen" explanation hit home hard right then) he shows up again in the clubroom, where the girls decide someone else will run to defeat Iroha in the election. Hachiman thoughtfully and brutally rips into their particulars, and when Yukino practically begs him to change (granted, you have to read deep within the lines), he leaves again. Yukino could solve the problem if she explained what bothered her about his method, but that would make her vulnerable, and she cannot but be the aloof, superior one. The two paths are still diverged.
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