keyofnik: As I said several thousand years ago when I began this episode liveblog, Ami and Mako’s characterization is the major weak point of this episode. It wants to get them out of the way so that it can focus on Rei and Usagi, but it doesn’t do either of them any favours in the process, and Ami I’d argue it seriously mischaracterizes. But it tries to make up for that here. When we last saw Ami and Mako, they’d left the shrine in anger, neither really willing to put up with the shit that is Rei And Usagi today. But now we see that the fight has been haunting them, too. So much so that they’ve left their warm comfy homes (and/or cram schools; note that Ami is still in uniform here while Mako is not) to come here at gods know what time to try and talk to Rei. While it’s not so demonstrative a showing as Usagi (because who but Usagi could reach Usagi levels), this too is Ami and Mako not willing to write Rei off. They got angry (or uncomfortable) and left the situation, but they didn’t leave the friendship. And Rei has finally, courtesy of Usagi, come to realize that. She knows now that people can respond in different ways, ways that Rei might not naturally understand, and still care. We don’t spend much time on Ami and Mako here, but I really appreciate that the episode took the time to bring them back at the end. This episode is really all about Rei finally letting people in, and these relationships are that much stronger for us getting to see beyond a doubt how Usagi, Ami, Mako, all independently, decided that they WANT in.
