I have to concur with what a lot of people here are saying about the extremely effective horror and suspense of this episode. I particularly liked the one-shot characters for this episode. The cautious but cowardly guy, the courageous but reckless guy, the guy who said "All of us must split up if either of us is to have a chance at all!", the girl who was totally dedicated to the surviving members of her group and later acted as heroically as Saki and Satoru did... All of them really played their parts well, and believably.
With this episode, SSY is an early favorite for Horror Anime of 2013 for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by creb
Since we know Saki, at least, somehow survives this ordeal since she's narrating the whole thing, it's good to know she'll have time to self-reflect on how she inadvertently caused so much death. 
Then again, Saki did insinuate it was Maria's fault way back in the beginning of this series, which doesn't sound like the statements of someone who's done much self-reflecting, so perhaps narrator Saki-much like she and Satoru were in this episode-is blind to what seems rather obvious.  |
Why do you think Saki should be held responsible for all of this death?
If this Karmic Demon is the biological offspring of Maria as I think we all suspect, then he ultimately arose due to Maria's decisions - Either Maria's decision to run away from the village, or Maria's decision to have children (it's possible that Maria was forced to give birth to him, of course).
Saki never forced Maria to run away. Quite the contrary - Saki hated the idea of Maria running away, and tried to locate her even after she received Maria's letter.