Recap: With barely two months left before graduation, Senjougahara is running out of time before Nadeko makes good on her promise. Out of desperation she turns to Kaiki, of all possible people, for help.

Jel’s Thoughts: Kaiki has always been one of my favorite characters in the series in that you just don’t know what to make of him. His absolute moral neutrality makes him a pretty fascinating villain, and despite popular opinion his role in Nisemonogatari helped make “Karen Bee” one of my favorite Monogatari story arcs. His soliloqy in the restroom (why are all the bathrooms in this series modern art installations?) about his motivation was easily the highlight of this episode, and his oddly out of place protective feelings toward Kanbaru add a very interesting twist in light of Gaen’s recent appearance.

But even Kaiki and the re-emergence of Senjougahara were not quite enough to lift my overall Monogatari fatigue still lingering from our last story arc. Having the two most double-tounged characters in the series do verbal battle is great for a certain amount of time, but sitting through another episode with tons of talking and not much progress is frustrating. I also kind of found it hard to believe that Senjougahara would ask Kaiki for help, not because he hurt her family (that just demonstrates how desperate she is), but did she think he would take on a god for a relatively small amount of cash and a little sympathy? She’s historically much smarter than that, so maybe she knew about his connection with the Gaen family? I guess it’s kind of irrelevant now, but I had to wonder.

Despite my growing skepticism, I still love that we’ve got Senjougahara back in the driver seat and I’m looking forward to seeing what actions she’s willing to take to save Araragi. I love the idea that she’s been working as hard as her boyfriend on her own and off camera (and during Nekomonogatari White) this entire time. I’d watch that series! The amount they are both willing to sacrifice for each other has a great deal of potential for some bittersweet tragedy, and while I’m not banking on us going there I do have to imagine there will be some consequences… well aside from having a psycho jealous snake god counting the days to when she gets to murder you. Good times!