• The Watanagashi festival has started ! Keiichi is late, and get powned with a direct coton candy missile in the face. The group is finally complete (Shion is in the crew, while Rika is of course not here, due the preparations) As usual, Mion will declare the beginning of the competition around the stands.

• Rika prepares herself with the Miko outfit, with the help of some women. Rika is really depressed and thinks that nothing will change. However, one of the women suddenly takes a pair of scissors, and cut slightly an ornement of her Ceremonial Hoe. Rika is really surprised of this change, and this might be the consequence of her wish. Rika tries to leave, but the women ask her to stay

• The gang are on a stand, but Keiichi isn't able to keep the pace with the rest, and can't stand much the spicy food. However, keiichi get a power up and is ready for the rest : Ice => Coton Candy => ... => ...

• It is night, and unfortunately for Keiichi, he is completely defeated (stomach full huh?). Mion and Shion will inflct the Batsu Game to Keiichi, but he spots something afar. Mion doesn't buy it, but Keiichi insists : he points to Rika, who is still accompagned by the women. Rena is in her Omochikaeri mode, while Mion calls Rika, but it makes her sad. Satoko notices it.

• Rika's Ceremony. Everyone are really impressed by her performance. Once done, Rika runs quickly, and tries to flee. While running, she desperately try to find a "place". Rika bumps on Tomitake who is kinda surprised to find her there. Rika then grabs his arm and yell at him (surely something that Tomitake was supposed to hide). Rika then releases him and warns him that takano and he will be killed. Tomitake is speechless then laughs, but Rika raises her voice, and insist she is serious. Tomitake then understands and since it is rika-chama who says this, it should be the true. (since he is using the "chama", it is obvious he doesn't believe her) Rika is completely desesperate and try to hold her sadness. Tomitake greets her a good night and leaves.

• Rika collapses, and says that "after all, it is useless", and cries. However, Satoko is around and was hiding behind a tree...

• A very few moments later, Tomitake struggles and scratches his throat. His screams pretty much indicate he dies...

• Next day, Keiichi is completely shocked what happened, while mion tries to calm him. However, Rena says that everyone knows the case already, and various gossip are flying in the class...

• Chie-sensei calls Rika, she has a visitor. It is Ooishi who wants to interrogate her about Tomitake and Takano.

• Satoko still follow Rika, and knows that Rika lied to Ooishi. Then she realizes that every "black rika" scene she saw before were really the reality.

• Back at home, Rika is cleaning the dishes, but spaces out, and the water still flowing. Satoko stops it, and confronts her. Satoko cries, talking about her brother, and insists that Rika must believe in her precious friends. Rika confirms they are her precious friends, then satoko asks her why she lied and still do so. Rika still say she doesn't, but that makes satoko crying further. then Rika, in her thoughts, ask satoko for forgiveness but she still can involve anyone in this. Suddenly, both of them hear a footstep. Satoko believe there was someone, but Rika things it is a cat. A man is hiding himself behind a tree...

• It is morning. Satoko and Rika are going to school, but the atmosphere is pretty gloomy, and Satoko believes that someone is stalking them. Indeed, a Man is staring at them, while hidding himself. At school, Satoko senses a presence outside, but is cut short by Chie-Sensei. After school, Mion apologizes and must go to her part job, Shion accompagnes her. Keiichi is okay, and will go back home with Rena. Satoko is looking left and righ, trying to spot the "presence". Rika asks if there is a problem, but satoko assures there isn't. They are almost arrived, and Rika asks once again if there is a problem. She then says satoko is her precious friend and if she has a problem, she can tell to her, which comfort a lot satoko.

• Satoko thinks there is a strange man following them. Satoko isn't sure if it is a man, but she says there is something following them. Rika tells her that she didn't sense anything and Satoko was imagining things, then plays with satoko's mouth, she does the same on herself, which relaxe the mood.

• Satoko and Rika are buying some stuff. Satoko suddenly sees the man stalking them, who withdraw from her line of sight. Satoko panics and asks if Rika also sees that strange shadow, but Rika was checking the list, and tells her to not worry about this.

• It is night. Rika is alone in her "black rika mode",She drops her glass of wine and says she will die again, and everyone will, She gives up and says she is tired. Nothing can be done. Satoko is back from the bath, but rika is already sleeping. She then remembers of the 3 times she saw that man, and is sure it wasn't her imagination.

• At school, Satoko talks again with Keiichi, Rena and Mion about someone following Rika. Everyone understand and will be careful.

• Mion and Rena talks about satoko and are worried. They didn't believe her, but Satoko was evesdropping them.

• Back at home, Satoko lies in her bed,. she knows that nobody believes her, but she says it is the truth. Then, she wonders who is this man, and what is his objective. Her? or .. Rika? Suddenly, Rika enters, and Satoko feigns sleeping. Then "Black Rika" says she is scared. Satoko understand she effectively heard Rika acting like this, then remembers what she said to Tomitake at the night of the festival. But, Rika didn't tell this fact to the police, she is wondering why. Then, Rika cries, Satoko swears she will protect Rika

• It is morning, and Satoko has a rope, attaches it around the house. Rika leaves the house and was wondering where satoko was, and they are in hurry. Satoko apologizes and says she was doing something to prevent the cat lurking around. She then closes the door, while putting a Leaf inbetween. Satoko then suggest another path to go school, as a shortcut. While running, Satoko then remembers she forgot something at home, and asks Rika to go ahead without her. Rika then thinks that she cannot do anything.

• At the Irie's institute, some police vehicles are stationned around. Kumatani (Ooishi's Partner) is there, and makes his report to Ooishi. Irie Kyousuke was found dead. Kumatani says that Irie has most likely suicide, which surprises Ooishi, believing it isn't really his style.
  Satoko heard this, and can't believe at this. Kumatani notices her, and orders her to leave. However, Satoko says she had a promise with Irie, and then is completely stunned about that he could suicide. Kumatani was wondering what kind of promise, then satoko says she could say anything to him, and was referring that someone was stalking Rika. no one believes her, but she knows it is the truth, so she came to see Irie. Kumatani understand and will send some help for them, this reassures satoko. They leave apart.

• Kumatani is in his car, and sees a weird Man doing something fishy around. he stops the car, lowering the glass, asking what he is doing there, but Kumatani then bears a fearsome expression. The man has a gun, and shoots at him. Then several men, with the same clothes come. There is no doubt Kumatani is dead.

• At night, Satoko is awake at midnight, and was wondering when Rika will wake up as usual. Then suddenly, she hears the "alarm" she set this morning. A man stomped on the rope, and tries to carefully withdraw.

So Satoko has been spying on Rika while Rika sort of prophesies events to people in danger? Was it already too late for Rika to help Tomitake, or is Rika alone just not capable of it?

Satoko was most likely spying on Rika about her weird and depressive behaviour. The fact she evesdropped the discussion between rika and tomitake is rather pure luck i believe.
There is no hint if things would go differently if Rika told to Tomitake before this day. It is probably because she was so pessimistic that she didn't think that would do anything. Nevertherless, she tried to warn Tommy, but nothing as you can see.

there are not enough information to determine if Rika could handle everything alone with other factors

Unless Satoko has stopped her medication, this arc would be the first that no one goes paranoid...

Is it just me, or is that Yamainu guy that Satoko saw while they were going to school looks like Taniguchi from Haruhi?

I knew she was running to try and warn Tomitake. I'm saddened that he both did not have a bigger part from what I've seen and that he did not seem to believe her. Or did he?O_O No one listens to poor Rika!;-; When you think about it, Tomitake is a lot like her. He has yet to be shown snapping, killing, or acting mean, he always suffers a brutal death, and he never gets to live and have a future.

Poor Satoko. Even though we all know what's coming and things aren't so in the dark as they were for the first four arcs, that "mystery man" definately adds some nice tension!

And I like the fact that they're actually SHOWING Rika's efforts to change things this season and shed some light on why, by herself, Rika cannot change the future.

gah satoko really is going to become insane if the stress carries on building up O.O
rika has really gone into deep despair this arc...*sigh* i guess even our cheerful princess is loosing her spark getting killed over and over :/

the end was WTF as expected from this series ~ its those kidnappers again! @_@

For now, it looks like Satoko is the only one operating with a right set of mind (reaching Matsuribayashi-hen level). Unfortunately, nobody is paying attention to her. But this is a great hint at what will be happening in the future.

A lot of people died in this episode... Tomi, Iri, and Kuma-chan...
With Tomi dead, things will only go downhill from here. We'll probably see the end of Yakusamashi-hen by next week (the preview looks like it too).

So in the end, Irie only got to drop from the sky, go into Maid in Heaven mode, then die :heh:

I thought that the plot would take a different direction (Satoko going mad and being the "villain"), but by the looks of it, though it seems that she'll still go mad, it doesn't seem like she's going to kill anyone (well, at least not anyone from the "main cast"), but rather get desperate and depressed over Rika's (and probably everyone else's) atitude.
I think this episode revealed some new information (that we hadn't seen before in the other arcs (supposedly these are the "covered holes"?)), like Kumatani's death (I'm guessing he also dies like this in some other arcs, like tatarigoroshi-hen).
Apart from that, I noticed some little things I'd like to clear: when Satoko tells everyone she's being stalked, Shion isn't present. I'm pretty much sure that, having sworn she'd protect Satoko, Shion would believe her, and thus help them. (though I'm not really sure wether that would change anything.)The question is, where's Shion? At the part-time job?
I also noticed that there's no mention to whether if Keichi believed Satoko or not. Looking at the way he is, I doubt he didn't, though he didn't believe it the first time Satoko told them about her worries. (Speaking of which, Shion didn't believe her either then).
And finnaly, I'm curious as to what that padlock was. It was in a door to a building, but just what building is that? Some sort of broadcasting station?... Or maybe, a place to hide some "secret" files or documents?... I'm not really sure...
I'm looking forward to the next episode, which seems to be the conclusion of this arc. Let's see what destiny awaits Satoko, Rika and the gang. (Though I'm certain of what it is...)

I think Satoko will go "mad mode" trying to protect Rika. One of the two, she'll run in the middle of the night to ask for help to the other characters, or she'll simply stay put (according to her personality, I'd find it surprising she hasn't put up other traps around the house. Dangerous ones, at that.) and face that man. I still have some questions in my head (does Rika always get watanagashi'ed in the same place?) but everything is pretty much cleared up. I'm betting she probably won't ask anyone for help, because she knows they don't believe her, but, at the same time, I believe she will because they'll have no choice but to believe someone is after her (or Rika?) after all. I'm not sure about anything, but, whatever the plan, I'm with you, Satoko, because you're the only character that has actually been thinking logically and strategically about these tragic events. By the way, I think stalker is after Rika, but why, I can only guess. I'm assuming he has been sent by someone that wants to see Rika dead? But, will we finnaly see her death?

Satoko is really far from having killing spree. her paranoia isn't even one, considering everything is rather solid true.
There is absolutely no hint of Shion whereabouts, and this is rather weird indeed. OTOH, the fact shion didn't really believe satoko before was most likely because the case was much more weird and hard to believe (while drowsy, you can mistake various things), while she said that someone stalk them, during bright day time.

Keiichi definitely believed Satoko, that's for sure. But considering his path and habits, it will be hard for him to notice the stalker.

as for the padlock, it is extremely fishy, and is most likely related to why they killed Irie

As we can see, Satoko will have to bear the duty to protect Rika alone. However, it appears Rika decided to give up and ask Satoko to survive.

This is where i believe it is another answer for Tatagoroshi, since it shows that Satoko was hiding herself under the bridge. Most likely, she will see Rika's corpse in front of the Shrine, and then, the SDF soldiers, who are dispatched to evacuate the corpse.

why does Rika have to be watanagashi'ed by those objects? Why not just kill her? That's one of the real mysteries I still haven't figured out, although I believe I have a very small clue.

basically, the "culprit(s)" know that the Watanagashi has a backstory as a punishment and "sacred ceremony" for Oyashiro-sama. Thus, killing in this manner will create a lot of ruckus, and will be harder to track, since the villagers will be in a disarray, not to mention it will join the 5 others incident of the watanagashi.

think back on what happened to Oishi in the end.