First off, I skipped the OP which is something I rarely do in anything I watch, because it's 1 week to early to be reminded that she's dead.
Also, I noticed that Tomoya has facial hair now, or he's to screwed up emotionally to bother shaving.
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"I hate this city" ~In Monochrome~
As someone who's had friends killed in accidents, a grandfather shot in front of his house and an uncle die of cancer, I can totally understand what has become of Tomoya' mental state. Maybe not to an intimate degree of understanding, but I can relate to the challenge of ultimately picking up the pieces of being the one who is "left behind." Honestly, I think, being the one left behind is the hardest emotional torment to wrestle.
The shattering realization that the one most most important to you is no longer asleep by your bed. That she will no longer make you breakfast, make your lunch with a smile, bid you goodbye, help you with your laundry and keep the house clean.
That she will no longer welcome you home with open arms.
And so, he had almost unkowingly become the person he had hated the most: his father. The parallelism is all to obvious to anyone who has been watching the series. Whether he had knowingly or unknowingly chosen to become like his father before him is probably not out true concern, but whether he will become a listless and emotionally destitute father for the remainder of his shattered life.
The biggest irony is that if he actually let his beard grow more, he'd look EXACTLY like his father.
"Things have really changed..."
5 years can really change so many things.
Of course, for Tomoya, time stopped on that snowy day 5 years ago.
"What are your plans for Summer?"
It was obvious just how much respect Tomoya had for Sanae and Akio. Even after her death he seems to have maintained contact, as they had probably become his emotional crutch after the loss of Nagisa. A lesser person would have gotten angry with Sanae's nagging, but he trusts her enough to go along with her making plans for his summer work break.
We all know just how much wisdom the senior Furukawas have, even if they have... odd ways of showing it. In a way they screwed over Tomoya by disappearing for god knows what reason, but we can believe they did it for Tomoya's sake. What ends in their house when he arrives is a letter and 2 tickets. 2 tickets?
And she looks exactly like her mother...
Heck she has some of her mother's mannerisms!
"Ushio!"
Honestly I think the studio did this on purpose. In the game Ushio didn't really look like Nagisa a lot, but in the episode I could swear she's the splitting image of her mother. Maybe to drive home the fact that she really is her mother's daughter?
The reason why I loved Ushio in the game, and it shows in the episode, is because she is who she is: she looks, acts and talks like she's 5 years old. Most other series have either an old lady trapped in a loli body, or a kid with the mind of 20 year old. Ushio is as Ushio does. She's looks like she's 5, acts like she's 5, speaks like she's 5 and thinks like she's 5. I freakishly adorable 5 year old girl anyway.
And no, I don't think she's afraid of Tomoya. I have nieces, cousins and heck even a godchild about her age.
She not afraid. She's shy.
A typical kid shy around strangers. Okay maybe he's not really a stranger, but although she knows he's her father, she's still shy and wary around the man who was never really a figure in her life.
And if one thing is certain about her in this episdoe... she's looks really lonely.
"Is it okay if I take out the pepper?"
If Tomoya didn't give a damn about Ushio, he would not have said this honestly. For me, this is the line the really gives the first impression that he does, in fact, care about her. And as someone who also cooks, taking out the pepper in fried rice is really really hard.
Also... OMFG YAY rice sprinkles!!
"Let's go to the beach!"
This was not a line from either father or daughter but from a random passerby, but this is I think is the most memorable scene in this episode. You only need to look at Ushio's lonely face, and her father's bored one, to know what she really wants.
"Do you want to go on a trip? Are you fine with a person like me?"
A journey to an unknown place for an unknown reason. A father and a daughter separated by death and five years. They don't know what Sanae and Akio planned for them but... that is a story for another episode.
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The transition of Ushio skipping at the end of the episode into the ED was pure genius.
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