keyofnik: First, I have untold affection for the fact that Rei is depending on tropes to fix this. She’s pulling on every fairy tale, every romance manga she’s ever read, and she KNOWS that all she has to do is remind her Grandpa who he’s attacking, and his humanity will surge and he’ll go back to being her funny little aggravating and inappropriate Grandpa again. She KNOWS it. Then it completely fails. Now put that into the context of all I’ve been talking about throughout this episode. Rei has spent her entire life being abandoned by those she cares about. Her mother died. Her emotionally-distant father walked away from her. She has no friends. And the friends she thought she finally, finally did have proved that they don’t care about her either, that they’re just as unreliable as everyone else in her life has proved to be. Except her Grandpa. Rei has, at least, always had her Grandpa. But he doesn’t recognize her. He doesn’t love her enough to shake off this evil influence. He doesn’t love her enough to not want to kill her.
