It's probably a good job that Kanata has stepped up to the plate as well, as we find Rio more and more consumed by her own situation and worries, which sees her cooped up in her room with little to do with anybody else. Meanwhile, talk of Princess Iliya only seems to be growing, coupled with rumours of troop movements and what seems to be a potential pending breakdown of the fragile peace currently being enjoyed.
Eventually, Rio has to tear herself away from her own thoughts and memories somewhat at Kanata's insistence, as they go to visit an old woman shacked up in the mountains and clearly becoming ill and frail - However, she refuses to leave her home and the second house she is building for her son in the seemingly futile insistence that he will return. As the story of the old woman's life, hopes and dreams unfold, so their similarity to Rio's own family situation becomes clear, which perhaps gives her the clarity she needs to make the important decision that some parties have been imploring her to act upon for some time now.
Thus, we're left with a poignant ending to an episode that is imbued to overflowing with emotion from the outset - A heady mixture of joy and pain, happy memories and sad, hope and fear, blended in such a way that you aren't entirely sure whether to smile or cry half the time. I think I did both. Just like that much-admired seventh episode, this instalment of Sora no Woto manages to remove itself from the everyday frivolity that permeates the series to create something far more personal, enduring and special that almost defies a textual description - This isn't an episode that you can simply watch, you have to feel it first and foremost. In essence, this particular offering made use of its war-time setting beautifully, and I can only commend it for doing so. Impressive stuff indeed.
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Anon