Now that Sumipanda revealed that only 7 girls can perform on the last round, the girls somehow need to vote out two of them. Of course, Rena receives a package with letters from Suzune. It’s obvious where this is heading.
Believe it or not, It’s a miracle that all nine girls make it through the first two rounds. It’s unprecedented for the history of the show. Sure, it’s easy to paint Sumipanda as the villain here, but she is just doing her job. After all, she doesn’t really have control over the rules. The song that the girls will perform in the final round is “Glorious Days,” which is of course the opening theme of the show perfomed by all 9 members.
Of course, the girls feel anxious as they don’t know how to determine who should leave. Still, it’s obvious that Nagisa seems the most worried. She thinks other girls will pick her because of her “cute schemer” reputation.
Of course, determining who should leave isn’t really the focus of this episode. Sure, there is drama behind it, but nothing compares to the revelations regarding Rena, Suzune, and Akari. If you recall from the last episode, Suzune finally revealed to Rena that her heart surgery was a heart transplant. While I speculated that the heart might be Akari’s since Rena has an organ donor card, it really happened. Rena suggested Suzune to write a letter to the family who donated her heart. Of course, she didn’t know that the letter Akari wrote went to her house.
When Suzune took a bath with Nodaka and Mako, Rena receives a package from Sunny. While the box contained some health and beauty products, there was a strange folder. Rena calls her parents. Apparently, her mother collected the letters until the right time when she got older. Of course, she sees one letter, one from Suzune that she saw on the desk.
Yep, it’s obvious that they went there, and the Idoly Pride comparisons are even stronger. We see a painful flashback from Rena who want to see her older sister. We find out that Akari was an organ donor. My hunch is right all along that Suzune received Akari’s heart.
When Suzune ran into Rena, she asked about the date of the transplant. It was the same day when Akari died in the car accident. When Suzune shared the same date, she didn’t realize it’s the same date that Rena’s older sister, Akari died. After hearing this, Rena ran away and started to avoid Suzune. It seems that she hasn’t gotten over her grief of losing her older sister.
Things got even more dramatic when Suzune worries about Rena. It’s obvious that Rena is in the denial stage after finding out the truth. That denial eventually turned into anger after Suzune found her at the beach during the evening.
Rena expressed her anger thinking that Suzune’s talents is a result of her having Akari’s heart. She feels that Suzune shouldn’t be here. She thinks Suzune got to where she is thanks to her older sister’s help. While there are the phenomena that people receiving heart transplants have their personalities or traits change, I highly doubt that. That is not how the human body works. Even before the transplant, Suzune had a dream of becoming an idol after being inspired by Akari. To me, she got there on her own.
After Suzune finds out the truth and Rena having the letter had her in tears. Of course, we find out that Rena had Akari’s organ donor card and it wasn’t hers. Yes, Suzune went to that same spot on the bridge in the 6th episode as Rena started crying over finding out the truth about her older sister.
Ultimately, I think Rena will come to terms and realize that this is what Akari wanted. By going against Suzune and possibly voting to eliminate her, she is going against her older sister’s wishes. After all, Suzune didn’t really have a choice on whose heart she would receive. I have no doubt that Rena will end up being even closer to Suzune than before. After all, this may be a key for Rena to understand what her older sister went through.
Lastly, the voting elimination. It can go either way. Rena and Suzune might volunteer bow out or that everyone sustains from the voting. Sure, the producers can threaten to eliminate everyone, but it makes the whole season pointless if nobody won, right? I think everyone will make the cut.
Rena and Suzune learning the truth went as expected. Didn’t mean it was any less difficult to watch. Poor dears. Hopefully they patch things up but I have a bad feeling Suzune’s suffering is far from over after that.
Being Suzune is suffering unfortunately, but I do hope that Rena will make up with her and come to her senses that it’s not really her fault.