[relentlessflame]

Spoiler for More regarding believability in Episode 11:

I think the main reason people sometimes struggle with understanding the way Hayami is treated is because they don't understand this concept of not just being an "outcast" but seen as not even human. Modern society in general has sone away with most concepts of "caste" and the way you treat someone is typically based on individual responsibility/behaviour. For example, really the only time you hear someone non-criminal wish someone seriously dead would be when they're talking about some vile criminal whose crimes are beyond forgiveness. So if you take that view of people/humanity, it'll be very hard to understand how the grandfather's actions (or even those of the bullies) could seem anywhere near reasonable.

The important thing to keep in mind is that that's not the way the whole world looks at other people.

As you well know I'm sure, there are parts of the world where someone simply born into a different religion is viewed as being as worthy of the hate you or I might have for someone who slaughtered our entire family in cold blood or something. Just being from a certain country or tribe or region really can inspire that kind of hate. This is the same sort of hatred that the village had for Hayami. It was not because of anything she did at all, but simply because she was born into that family. That alone was enough for the village to treat her as less than human -- as a bug who had no human rights. If you apply the traditional Western view to that, you'd say "surely Hayami must have herself done something horrible to deserve that kind of treatment", but that's the whole point! She did nothing wrong, she was just born into a family who did. That's the crime they find worthy of death.

The whole show is putting those two viewpoints in conflict with one another. The usual Takuma represented what we think of as the more "modern" viewpoint -- that every human deserves to be treated with dignity and respect no matter their race, background, family, colour, etc. That it's actions that determine the way one should get treated. But the village elder, the villagers, and the temporarily-insane Takuma for a small time, represent what we think of as the more "close-minded" viewpoint -- that Hayami deserves to pay for the sins of her parents, and deserves every ounce of hate that her parents rightfully deserved. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree", so to speak. One of the larger purposes of the show is to illustrate how diametrically opposed those two viewpoints are, but how even "reasonable people", in certain circumstances, can be tempted to "cross over".

Back to the shotgun. The reason it's not unreasonable is, again, because the villagers are projecting onto her all the hate they feel for what her parents did. See Yui's story as an example, and now we get the further example of Takuma. That's the pattern. They were content to treat her as lower than dirt for a while -- they were in a position of great power over her, and that can feel gratifying. But when she started resisting and posing a serious threat to the status quo, it was time to eliminate her once and for all. Again, remembering that they already don't consider her to be human -- they see her as swine; as a cockroach. Something you'd step on without an ounce of regret.

So basically, I think that's the key thing you need to remember when watching this show. Expand your cultural horizons a bit and realize that even in the world today, there are people who really do demonstrate this level of what we might consider "irrational hatred" for people for the most "petty" of reasons. That's the sort of social commentary this show is engaging in. Just because you can't relate to it in your own personal culture doesn't mean that it's "unbelievable". Just look at the rest of the world at large. In the end, though, I think it's pretty safe to say that the show itself is trying to say that normal-Takuma's viewpoint (and the one that most of us obviously share) is certainly the more enlightened one.