Well I guess this episode proves that Irisu's methods aren't suitable for Chitanda. It's eye hypnotism or nothing for her
. That and it really seems most effective on Houtarou who has almost no resistance to it. Pretty much she gets started on being curious and he already has given up on not solving the mystery.
An episode that was rough on most of the club though. Chitanda is getting exhausted. Good thing she had some fun on the first day since she's spent most of this running around asking for favors. Really running herself into the ground.
Mayaka is just getting run into the ground from within her own club. At least the president is finally looking more human here. Seems like there is a mini-mystery to solve within that club. But right now Mayaka is just getting run down by stupid jerks. Hopefully she can bounce back a bit.
Getting some more seriousness from Satoshi again. While he played off the competition with that other guy he is really serious about catching the thief. Unfortunately he presumed the theft would occur during the show and frankly why would the thief take that much risk? You could see before the show began that the candle was missing so anyone could have stolen it between the last show and that one. I really didn't notice the missing candle though. Does seem like we're seeing that bit of jealousy at Houtarou's ability and trying to prove himself here in a situation where you have to catch the thief and not just figure out who he is.
Not too bad for Houtarou other than Mayaka throwing that mirror at him (and thus his trading game continues)
. Clearly he wasn't enthused when Irisu was brought into the conversation, now that's clearly someone he'd enjoy never encountering again during his life. But you can still see the resistance after that encounter since he doesn't want to play the detective. Already got roped into that once and doesn't want to go there. Though he was trying to figure things out.
Enjoyed the purely fun episode last week, but an episode for character development isn't bad either.