Free! Eternal Summer Episode 3--So, How Do You Like My Swimming Now?

Yes, it's that Golden Boy reference in the title again. No, I will not stop mentioning it when talking about Rei.

 
I don't have a ton to say about this episode other than WOW, LOOK AT THAT METRIC TON OF REIGISA SHIPBAITING so I'll keep this short. While this is a Rei-centric episode, it uses a tired plot that's been driven into the ground by TV shows in general. "Oh no! Person A is feeling insignificant/unwanted/unneeded! Now they're talking to Random Person X who is completely outside of our social group! This means that they want to abandon us forever!" Misunderstandings ensue, but eventually it's clarified that no one's going anywhere and the status quo is restored.

I love these losers

I'm not a big fan of plots based around misunderstandings (I used to be a big shoujo fan, and that makes up 99.9% of the genre so I got burnt out on them), but this episode had a good amount of humor in it as well, so I didn't mind it too much. Nagisa getting increasingly annoyed at Rei for skipping out on practice was hilarious and cute.

 

THEY ARE PAINTING EACH OTHER

*Linkin Park playing in the background*

Also, Rei's problem in this episode is something that I'm glad the show decided to discuss. Given his obsession with being "beautiful," it wouldn't make sense for Rei not to want to improve his lacking swimming skills in favor of just being happy with the butterfly stroke. Which is still an impressive fluke by the way. He can swim one of the most difficult strokes but sinks like a stone otherwise... Anyway, it was good to clarify what Rei really wanted to do and then rework his swimming goals based around that.

The rest of the episode was mostly shenanigans. But they were the kind of shenanigans I like.

Nobody believes you

 

In which Gou is all of us. Again.

The twist at the end with Rin teaching Rei how to swim was my favorite part of the episode. And with Rin heavily implying that he did it to make up for taking Rei's place in the relay at the end of last season, I have zero complaints about Rin's character from here on out. I probably sound like a broken record now, but I am so happy with the growth we've seen in Rin over these last few episodes. He's shown that he hasn't only learned from his mistakes, but actively wants to make up for them. This was the kind of thing that we needed to see at the end of the first season after all that drama, but better late than never!


That said, it's pretty obvious that Sousuke will be taking over the "angsty character who injects the show with needless drama" position from here on out. The "for your friend" comment and how he reacted to Haru last episode makes me think that Sousuke believes he needs to "save" Rin (quotations used sarcastically) so that he'll be able to keep up competetively. Which would be dumb. I hope that's not the reason, but it looks like we'll be getting some backstory context in next week's episode, so we'll find out one way or another soon enough.

...I guess that's one way of looking at it

Images from Crunchyroll.com.