A Certain Scientific Railgun S - Episode 17

Now that the whole Sisters dilemma is over, there's time for Misaka to take a bit of a breather and deal with some of the fallout of the whole incident as we also get to bring the rest of the main cast back into the series to a greater extent.

In spite of her frequent forays outside of the dorm without any permission, Misaka is more than a little surprised to find the dorm supervisor signing off on herself and Kuroko being allowed out to join Uiharu and Saten as part of a study group as their summer draws to a close.  Of course, this meet-up isn't just about studying, so each individual also goes on the hunt for some suitable ingredients to make said meeting memorable to boot.

This hunt for ingredients is interspersed with other odds and sods as the characters go about their business - Misaka checks up on the health of the sisters now they're freed from their experiment, Kuroko runs into Kongou Mitsuko (who I still wish had been introduced into this series as per the manga, rather than the half-baked way she's shoe-horned into this adaptation), Saten plans on how she's going to get Mikoto to spill the beans about who she's been making cookies for, and Uiharu seems to fretting about Harue somewhat.  Throw in another far less high stakes encounter between Misaka and a couple of ITEM's number, and you tick pretty much all of the boxes required of such an episode.

After all the tension of the previous arc, it's actually quite hard to get used to the big shift in pace for this week's episode of A Certain Scientific Railgun, and there isn't really anything particularly important to speak of here aside from a smattering of foreshadowing about things to come.  It's certainly nice to see the wider cast of the show brought back into the fold, but to be honest this wasn't a particularly interesting way to do it, so hopefully the remaining episodes of the series can strike a better balance of elements with wherever it decides to head next.