After Haruka becomes upset after losing against Rin, Kou saves the day with a secret event they can participate in.
From the reaction I saw with Rin boasting about his win in front of Haruka’s face, I felt that he is a self-centered jerk that only cared about winning. Of course, the situation remains terrible as he continues to treat his old friends like crap when they are concerned about Haruka’s well being. Thankfully, he softened up a bit when he saw them participate in the relay towards the end, especially when he becomes envious of Rei. Still, he rubs me as being a sore loser that only cares about winning.
On the other hand, while the others felt concerned about Haruka since he went missing, there is one thing that was heartwarming. It seems that the other guys wanted to do the relay and left a message on Haruka’s cell phone to convince him. Even so, it’s strange that Haruka never figured out the reason to swim until now since winning didn’t matter to him. If you recall in the first episode, he said that after he graduates, he would be free from swimming. Then again, after hearing the message and waking Makoto up, I think the reason why he wants to swim is quite clear: it’s because he wanted to swim with his friends.
Besides the amazing comeback at the end, I was disappointed that they didn’t show who won. I think the title of this episode already suggests that they won the relay race. If that is true, they can advance to the next tournament. Despite that, I’m quite surprised that Rin wasn’t a total jerk to everyone as he treated Nitori nicely. But with that, it seems that we have summer festivals coming up, which might prove to be interesting and fun.
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