Poor poor Shion. This whole episode was depressing.
So beginning with the Kai series I never had the impression they would be going back and showing game 2 of Higurashi through Shion's eyes. I thought they would be showing a new game through Shion's eye. Boy did that surprise me.
The whole first half of this episode takes place in 1982, one year before the Keiichi moves in and Satoshi is still chilling around. Now this whole first half is just the set-up for the second half. It was pretty cheery and only go really down near the end when Satoshi disappears.
During the second half they time skip to 1983 and Keiichi is around now, with a sprite! Shion has recovered from Satoshi disappearing, but I know there's something wrong with her. You see because Shion starts getting a 'presence' that follows her around everywhere which she believes is Satoshi, this isn't normal at all. She is very heartbroken over Satoshi when she hears he disappears and thinks he's dead. Dead people can't follow around other people as ghosts. This isn't normal at all. This can't be real.
As Watanagashi draws near Shion is definitely not a normal healthy human being at all. She hates a lot of people and talks to the Satoshi ghost that follows her around. One of the main things in part 1 of Meakashi is how much hatred Shion has for Satoshi's younger sister Satoko. I mean she hates her more than the abusive aunt and uncle! Also during the Watanagashi just like in game 2 she pulls Keiichi away and breaks into the Shrine Storage with Tomitake and Takano.
After the Watanagashi Shion stays over her sister Mion's house, wakes up earlier than expected, eavesdrop I don't even remember between Mion and her Grandmother Oryou, and then proceeds to stun gun both of them. I think Mion was questioning Shion over what she heard and it was really creepy. She might have even put her hands on Shion. Anyway, this gave Shion the perfect excuse to take both out and throw them into the underground shrine room which lies beneath the Sonozaki household.
This is when things get bad.
If you've played game 2, Watanagashi, then you'll start to realize GAME 5 IS GAME 2. Yes, that's exactly what Ryu07 did. After bringing them underground, Shion is completely out of control. She has finally been able to release all the hatred in herself and the Oyashiro-sama curse that is following her ACTUALLY SHOWS ITS PHYSICAL APPEARANCE TO HER which I think is pretty significant. Anyway, Shion finds out she killed Oryou by accident and justifies by saying she was going to kill her anyway. Mion, on the other hand, she throws into a cage and locks her up in it.
At this point you should realize Shion disguises herself as Mion for pretty much the rest of the game. Yes in game 2 you were seeing Shion the whole time, something I had thoughts of when playing game 2. It's all pretty crazy. As part two goes on you find out for the first time Shion was actually Mion at one point when an unfortunate playful switching event at the wrong time lead to Shion actually becoming Shion when she was in fact Mion.
As the game goes on you pretty much see game 2 with the killer's perspective. Although the funny thing is a lot of things still aren't explained. Like what the hell is up with Rena and Rika. Those two are very very suspicious in my eyes since a lot of them is still very mysterious.
Rika, for instance, had possession of that syringe. The same syringe that Rena and Mion had somehow in game 1 when they try to make Keiichi eat it and then forcefully shove into him later on. I don't remember a syringe in game 3 besides Tomitake's death, which is a given.
At the end of this game,
Shion kills five people.
1982,
Satoshi's Aunt is murdered (it's implied like 99% that Satoshi did it to protect Satoko)
Satoshi disappears
1983,
Tomitake "kills himself" by ripping his throat out
Takano is found in her usual barrel, burned to death after being strangled
Oryou is killed by Shion
Kimiyoshi is killed by Shion
Rika is killed by Shion (kind of, Rika rips her throat out)
Satoko is killed by Shion (in a heart-breaking scene)
Mion is killed by Shion
The only real survivors are Keiichi, Rena, and Ooishi. But Keiichi dies shortly afterwards in July from "acute heart failure", yeah. Also apparently Kasai dies from liver cancer much later on. Kasai kinda disappears when part two starts though.
The ending of Meakashi was very sad. Seeing Shion completely lose it was morbid. It reminded me of Tenma's ex-wife in Monster. Especially the "I am such a horrible person why am I alive" which always gets to me. The image at the top is one of the last things you see in Meakashi.