Everyone’s reunited, and they’re going home! Everything’s over.

Or is it? Obviously, it’s not. We’re in for a time skip next week too, from the look of it. I’m quite looking forward to this. It’s a rare storytelling technique— usually a single continuous adventure narrative is preferred— but when someone does pull something like this off, it usually goes to good effect. We’ll actually see how the adventure changed these people down the line.

So what’s changed?

1. Loss of innocence. Our heros are cheering when people are killed, and bragging about their exploits in war.
2. Trust. The children no longer possess the absolute trust in their elders that they once did. On the other hand, they have developed some level of trust in the queerats like Squealer and the local colony’s leader.
3. Knowledge. They know a bit of their own civilization’s past. They know that the wider world is nothing like their peaceful town.

None of this will work out well when they return to their own lives. But I think the most important thing may be that they have lived outside the village. They no longer remain absolutely dependent on their local hierarchy for survival. The priests no longer possess absolute control over the childrens’ Cantus. And most importantly, they have friends outside the village.

They’ve walked the line between life and death, and lived. They likely understand more of the world than anyone in their village.

My favorite part of the last few episodes, though, has been Squealer. He’s an enigma to the children, and to the viewers as well. The children are extremely suspicious of everything about him, and he does indeed do some very suspicious things, like getting captured in this episode. But my feeling is that things like this come from his misunderstandings of the children’s powers rather than any ill will. As we see in this episode, he is loyal to them even after his initial goal of avenging his colony is fulfilled.

I think that much of the children’s fear of Squealer comes from his appearance. Note how terrified Maria is at seeing him upon their reunion. Yet at this point, Saki and Satoru think it’s no big deal and introduce him as their friend. They have a higher opinion of Squaler than Squealer himself does.

My biggest question at the moment is what happened in all these time skips. We didn’t see anything of what happened when their canoes were captured. And we didn’t see any of what Maria and friends did while Saki and Satoru were off fighting wars. It could very well be nothing at all, but I’m very suspicious of these time gaps.