This episode picks up in the other world with the girl asking the junk doll if he’s ready to go to the other world where it’s warm, she takes his hand and says lets go. Then in Tomoya’s world, Ushio and Tomoya are starting their trip with a train ride, Ushio wants Tomoya to play with her but he’s not interested. On the other side of the aisle a young boy is acting up and Tomoya yells at the mother and the boy, shocking Ushio. When Tomoya looks at Ushio, he finds her gone, Tomoya finds her coming out of the bathroom, and he notices that something is wrong. When questioned, Ushio tells Tomoya that Sanae told her to only cry in proper places like the bathroom, Tomoya tells her that it’s alright to cry when she feels like it.
Once they finish their train ride Tomoya asks Ushio if she wants a toy? Ushio says yes, and Tomoya buy her a robot. Later, at a inn, Ushio has to use the bathroom so Tomoya escorts her to the potty. On the way back to their room they see Ushio’s first firefly, Ushio looks strangely at Tomoya and he asks her what she wants? Ushio then drops a bombshell on Tomoya, tell me what mommy was like? Tomoya says to asks Sanae, Ushio says she does but Sanae won’t say anything about her. Tomoya says he doesn’t have anything to say, and he tells her to asks Sanae again, as Ushio sleeps, Tomoya who is unable to sleep watches her.
The next day Tomoya and Ushio continue their trip by train and they end up walking down a flower lined path, Tomoya starts to become more comfortable with Ushio, and he even gives her a ride on his back. While Tomoya is watching Ushio play in a flower covered field he gets a flashback to his childhood. As Ushio is looking for her lost robot, Tomoya tells her to stay there while he takes a walk up a path. As Tomoya continues up the path his feelings of nostalgia grow, he then meets a woman who knows him, she is Shino Okazaki, his grandmother.
Shino tells Tomoya that Sanae called her and told her that if she waited here Tomoya would come, she then tells Tomoya about his fathers marriage to Atsuko, her death, his struggles to raise Tomoya properly, his fall into drinking and abuse, and it’s amazing how Tomoya’s life is following his fathers. She tells him that his life must be like his father’s now, so she wanted him to know what kind of father he was, and she asks Tomoya if he still thinks he was a bad father? Tomoya tells her he forgot all the good times, and that he wasn’t a bad father.
Tomoya says that’s he’s a weak person and that he’s been bad, but he now wants to be a good person and father. Shino tells Tomoya that her son has worked hard and now he deserves a rest so please tell him that she’ll be waiting here for him. Shino and Tomoya walk back down the path and when Shino sees Ushio she asks Tomoya if that’s his daughter? Yes. Tomoya goes into the field to get Ushio, but she doesn’t want to leave the robot. Tomoya tells her that he’ll buy her another one, but she wants that one because that was the first toy her daddy got her, this hits Tomoya like a ton of bricks.
Tomoya then asks Ushio if she was lonely? Yes. If she had a good time with him? Yes. He then tells her that he’s been a terrible father and he asks her if he can be with her? And that he’ll work hard for her. Ushio says yes, but she’s still sad about losing something important, so now she asks if she doesn’t have to hold it in? Sanae told her that the two places that she can cry is in the bathroom, or in her daddy’s arms. Tomoya nods his OK, and Ushio rushes into Tomoya’s arms, she lets all her grief and sadness loose, and Tomoya tearfully tells her he’s so sorry.
While taking the train back home, Tomoya asks Ushio if she wants to hear about her mommy? Yes. So, Tomoya has Ushio sit next to him as he describes Nagisa to Ushio, and while he’s telling her about Nagisa he begins to cry. Tomoya has finally remembered all the good times he had with her and reclaimed his love for Nagisa, he continues to tell Ushio about Nagisa, and while looking at Ushio he finally figures it out. Tomoya now knows what he must protect, what can’t replaced, and it’s right in front of him, his daughter Ushio. Well, that’s all for this episode.
Well, I have to say that this episode was what I was waiting for, after Nagisa death Tomoya cursed the world, cursed his love for Nagisa, and cursed life itself trapping him in the same cycle of depression and self loathing he learned from his father. As the old saying goes, the sins of the father shall be visited on the son, meaning the we and Tomoya learn our behaviors by watching the actions of our parents and when those actions are unhealthy we are more likely to behave and react in the same ways creating a chain of misery that we pass on generation to generation. But, due to the intervention of Sanae and Shino, Tomoya was able to see what happens to someone when they only remember the unhappy and bad times instead of enjoying what was good, pure, and best in life.
In effect Tomoya was trapped in the same cycle of sin that Reki and Rakka from Haibane Renmei where trapped in. In Haibane Renmei the cycle of sin went something like this; to know one’s sin is to have no sin, but if one spends all their time searching for the cause of their sins and they can get trapped in a cycle of searching for the source of the sin instead for finding a way out. In Tomoya’s case, he regretted ever meeting Nagisa, feeling that if that hadn’t happened all this sadness would have never occurred. He trapped himself in a cycle of regretting his feelings of love for Nagisa and his feelings of sadness over her loss. But, Shino showed him that he had forgotten the good in life, he realized his sin was being weak, useless, and a bad father, but instead continuing the cycle by regretting everything, he now understands that he can make amends by earning forgiveness from Ushio.
I felt that it was really touching and heartfelt seeing Tomoya’s emotional catharsis, it was five years in the coming. After finally coming to terms with the love he has for his daughter, his failures to live up to his promises, and admitting how much he really loved Nagisa, Tomoya’s and Ushio’s shared tears were transforming and purifying, he changed from the lifeless robot he had become back into the kind and caring person that Nagisa loved so much. I cried several times while watching this episode, but not all tears are a bad thing, sometimes they can be tears of joy.
Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog 
March 20, 2014 at 3:03 am
Clannad 😭😭😭😭