This episode is filled mainly with the past of the current coach, Hyodo, with the ex-coach, Anzai, and his wife, Youko, and with what in the past bothered Yamato. With the coach, we find that it almost mirrors Halu's situation, Except Hyodo was the boyfriend that went away and Anzai was his best friend. We also get a bit more progress on Halu's and Aki's situation, as it's Halu that's becoming unsure of their relationship.

Period 5

We get a bit of hockey action here, and it's a bit less hokey looking. In previous episodes, they took too much advantage of the "slow-mo" bonding moment-type shots, in my opinion. And the music sometimes gets overly dramatic, where I feel it takes away from the intensity of what's going on.

Yamato's past and fears are highlighted in this one. As the goalie, he's the anchor of the team, yet why he started playing hockey has a bit of a tragic reason. He blames himself for the death of a young hockey player twelve years ago, before he started playing high-school junior hockey, and his excuse for becoming an iceman was to live the life that was taken away from the boy. Of course, the parents blaming him for their child's death weighs heavily in his mind, even if he knew that there was nothing he could have done to avoid the accident. A significant section is Halu talking to the parents, but the real issue is Yamato forgiving himself.

Yet, Yamato's story seems like it's only a single episode issue. What is more interesting is the link in the relationship between Halu, Aki, Hyodo, and Youko. We are finally revealed what happened between Hyodo and Youko, and how much it mirrors Halu and Aki. And it seems Halu is starting to think seriously about his relationship with Aki.

At the end of the episode, it looks like we have some potential long-running rivals now. The teams that the Blue Scorpions play against are usually nameless, but this team scouting them out is actually pointed out by name! As the series really takes after its name, it looks like we will see several more different types of pride being played out.  Let's hope this new team can up the ante in the series.  

I do wish Aki can play larger role in the series.  She's not very well developed, though it could be that she's just a normal woman otherwise.  Still, it would be nice to see that, but as this series is made for a  Japanese audience, they probably don't need to see it.