[Fish Sandwich]

Yeah I completely adored this one. The Horror stuff was at peak creepiness without tipping too far to the point where I start finding it funny, and then it's also like this extremely emotionally raw, important episode for the overarching plot on top of that. It's really, really great!

Naturally, I especially loved how everything blows up in Kouga's face at the end. It's exactly what Amon was talking about in the previous episode, where his refusal to get close to people has left him trying to maintain a comfortable uncommitted middle-ground that was always doomed to end like this. Kouga would never be cold enough to kill Kaoru, but he also didn't have the courage to actually engage with her in a way that might've prevented things from getting this bad. Like you said, this one was very much driven by the characters, and the writing and performances are insanely strong here.