Maria-sama Ga Miteru 4th season episode 8

At the Christmas party of the Yamayuri council, the atmosphere turns solemn as the girls notice how distraught and depressed Yumi looks when she gets back. Bringing the uncomfortable silence to an end, Sachiko reveals to all that Yumi had asked Touko to become her petite sœur but was turned down.

The girls are shocked to hear this, Sachiko asks that they not pry but give both Yumi and Touko the necessary peace to deal with this themselves without the involvement of others.

Unable to let go, Yumi can’t stop thinking of Touko and what happened between them while she’s home for the winter holidays. Her mood soon brightens though when she receives an invitation from her grande sœur Sachiko to spend a day and sleep over at her estate to celebrate New Year’s.

Calling Sachiko to confirm she’ll attend, Yumi becomes hesitant when she hears Touko has also been invited, but she picks herself up and says she’ll definitely be there.

Traveling to the event, Yumi meets Noriko at the station, who ends up apologizing to Yumi for what she had said before in regards to how Yumi hadn’t seen Touko’s plight. Noriko confesses she had always thought Yumi is the one perfect to be Touko’s grande sœur.
The two girls meet up with Shimako at their stop and all three head to the estate, where Sachiko, Rei and Yoshino are waiting for them.

Touko doesn’t show up for the event and everyone notices Yumi isn’t yet back to her old self though, but with Sachiko’s and everyone’s support throughout the day she cheers up.
Sachiko’s mother hosts the New Year’s event, the girls all have lunch together and engage in several entertaining activities, like uta garuta (歌ガルタ) and a board game where the sœur pairs face off against each other to complete assignments such as counting fish in an aquarium, donning a furisode (振袖), doing a folklore dance,…

At night, the girls all share a room and as Yumi gazes at Noriko’s sleeping face she ponders how a petite sœur can be so cute, her mind wanders off thinking of Touko. Once asleep, she dreams of being back in her own house, Touko standing behind her room’s steamed over window. No matter how much Yumi tries to clear the steam away to see Touko’s face, no matter how hard she shouts, Touko stays out of reach….
Having such an unsettling dream, tears roll down Yumi’s cheek.

Heading home the next day, Yumi wonders if she should head over to Suguru’s place and ask him to reveal what he knows of Touko’s background. Mulling it over, Yumi decides against it, not wanting to be the type of sœur who will pry into Touko’s affairs behind her back.

The first day that school starts again, Yumi meets Touko in front of the Maria statue. Uneasy at first, Yumi is flabbergasted when Touko greets her normally as if nothing has happened between the two of them.

A nice change of pace episode which wasn’t really a change of pace one either. Linking back to the previous episode and plot involving Yumi and Touko, it was a nice way of showing us how such an event can affect a person and their entourage, and how a change of pace can brighten you up while the feelings of doubt still do remain deep inside.

I liked the dream sequence and whole concept with the steamed up glass to illustrate how Touko remains out of Yumi’s reach.
Touko acting as if everything is normal seems to suggests she’s putting on some kind of mask, but which is the mask and which is the true Touko… the one coldly distancing herself from everyone or the one desperately trying to reach out to Yumi? I’m curious to see if the next episode will reveal more pieces of the puzzle.

Sleeping Yumi is so moe~ Just couldn’t resist to use screenshots of her. Starting to favor her with her hair down instead of the typical twin tails.