"What's the point if it's just a stupid game?"
FULL EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD
It seems like the show took a bit of a dark turn last episode when Kirito donned the Cloak of Midnight, declared himself a Beater, and in doing so forever marred his name to some of the elite players. So, what could happen next?
Well, of course, he joins a guild! Yup, our episode begins with Kirito joining the Moonlit Black Cats Guild, a small, idealist group of only five members before Kirito joined. Their big dream is to stick together through the game and maybe join the powerful assault team that is making their way through the game.
The group is innocent enough. Their leader is Kada, a high school student (in the real world) who wishes to join the assault team, and is a person who has the power to bring a little perspective to the assault team, who think they are the elites. Another prominent member is the very shy, and admittedly weak, Sachi. The group thinks she has great potential, though, and ask Kirito to help train her.
The catch is that when Kirito joins, though, he lies about his level, saying he is level 20 when really he's level 40 and more than capable of continuing along on his own. He finds enjoyment in the guild, though, and you can see throughout the episode that they've changed him, sort of opened him up to the idea of being in a party and not worrying about others. He likes being around them and being with fun people, and it's great to finally see that rather than him turning down the guild.
He bonds mostly with Sachi and Kada, though mostly with Kada off-screen. With Sachi, the two share a moment in the middle of the episode in which Sachi asks Kirito if suicide is a possibility. Kirito, rather shocks, tells her not to worry, that they will survive, and reassures her that they will beat the game and go back to the real world.
This is probably the first truly serious scene in Sword Art Online outside of the one in the first episode where Kaiyaba declares he has trapped over 10,000 people in a death game. It explicitly raises a question that has crept up the past two episodes, and that is why do all of this when it's just a game? Because, that's all it was intended to be. Some virtual world for people to go to every now and then to escape the troubles of the real world.
And now, they find themselves in even more danger than in the real world, because there are giant monsters and evil beings that are constantly stalking the dwindling number of players. Sachi's notion of running away does sort of come out of left-field, but it also makes sense for her character. She's the weakest of the group, and in a game where survival of the fittest is more or less a given, it's reasonable for her to question why she is stuck in the game, and wonders if it's even worth continuing on if she's going to die anyway. Not that she was completely considering suicide, as she also asks Kirito if he was willing to just run away and go to a different town and wait the game out, but still.
The next day, Kada goes off to the Town of Beginnings to buy the guild a house while the rest of the guild decides to go to a higher floor and find a dungeon to raid and get some extra cash, much to Kirito's disagreement. The open a room and find a treasure chest; however, it turns out to be a trap, and they find themselves unable to teleport.
One by one, the guild members are killed until only Kirito and Sachi remain, but then, Sachi is also struck down when Kirito is too slow to save her. She says something, that we can't hear, and fades away. Months later, we see Kirito--in a Christmas themed area--waiting for an info-broker to give him some information regarding a nearby quest, in which there is a revival item. Clearly, Kirito is far more depressed. Why?
Well as it turns out, Kada resents Kirito for finally outing himself as a Beater, saying Kirito had no right to be with the guilt. Driven mad by the loss of all his friends, and finally discovering the truth about Kirito, he jumps off a ledge, ending his life. Kirito intends to face the event boss, who is stronger than him, to see if he really wants to live or die. And if he dies, nobody will know.
Before he can reach the area, Klein arrives and asks Kirito to join up with him, but then they are interrupted by the powerful Holy Dragon Alliance Guild. Klein's group holds them off while Kirito defeats the event boss off-screen, then hands item over to Klein as it is useless to him. Before Kirito leaves, Klein begs Kirito to stay alive.
This scene really shows best how the loss guild steers Kirito far away from even considering joining up with people anymore. He'd spent a lot of time with the guild, but was wallowing in sorrow for a long time, waiting for that one event to help him out...and it turns out, even that was no help. But it's not like Kirito's depression is over-exaggerated or anything like that. You really feel what he is feeling. Through both the animation, the acting, and good timing of the scenes and character interaction, you can feel how down-trodden he truly is at this point.
He swore to protect Sachi and the guild, and in the end, it was his lie that he thinks got them all guild. He blames himself for not telling the truth about his level, and thinks if he had, they would have listened to him not to go into the room and to stay and wait for Kada. We see that it hasn't stopped him from leveling up, though, since at Christmas Eve, 2023 (so the game has been going on for about a year now) he is at level 70, whereas he was level 48 when the guild was slaughtered.
That night, rather impossibly you would think, he gets a gift box from Sachi. In it, she tells him that she knew she would be dead come Christmas time, and then tells him to let go of his guilt he feels over letting her die. She then urges him to complete the game, and that she was happy Kirito was so strong, not angry at all. To close out, she hums "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and we finally find out what she said:
"Thank you. Goodbye."
Man, talk about a powerful episode. If you'd thought previously this was going to be some light-weight show, you were definitely mistaken. I never like watching this episode. Not for any reasons of quality, because it's a great episode, but because of how depressing it is. You have this cloud of depression hanging over you the whole second half of the episode that all culminates in a very gut-wrenching scene where a dead Sachi tells Kirito to let go of his guilt.
It seems that every episode thus far has affected the direction of the show in some way, and each episode has added a different element that all added up to this one. In the first episode, it was Kirito worrying for Klein. In the second, it was him telling Asuna to become stronger. And in this one, it was him worrying for Sachi and trying to make her stronger, but ultimately failed. In this way, it reminds me of Arrow, where Oliver tries to train Helena but eventually creates the Huntress in doing so. Thus, when he finds Roy Harper and Roy begins a dark path, Oliver knows he has to help Roy, even if he almost fails.
But, I think it's reversed. Kirito was doing all of this to himself, so it was Sachi who needed to reassure him that he is good and strong and capable of defeating the game, and finding all the answers such as why the game was created, and if it can even be beaten.
Tomorrow, we take a much more lighter route and meet a brand new, fun character in "The Black Swordsman!"
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