"Hey nice theories you got there, buddy. What if I just completely annihilated them though." --Ryukishi07
The usual warnings for Higurashi apply. Lots of anguish and frank descriptions of torture and death and all that. Be careful!
This part follows the perspective of Shion Sonozaki, the functionally disowned twin sister to Mion Sonozaki. There's a rule in the Sonozaki family that only one daughter may be the heir to the family and inheritor of 'the demon'--the other has to die. When written out, the name "Mion" contains the Japanese character for "demon". However, for reasons not revealed to Shion, Mion, or anyone else, Oryou Sonozaki, the matriarch of the family, spared Shion's life at birth, and instead favor was given to Mion while Shion was treated poorly.
Neither sister liked this, however, and, being identical, would often swap places with one another with none of the family being the wiser, both sisters sharing the burdens and benefits of being the other.
Eventually, as the sisters aged, Shion was sent away to a fancy Christian boarding school outside of Hinamizawa called St. Lucia's, and the game begins in 1982, with her making a daring escape, with an assist by a Yakuza family friend, Kasai.
Shion then gets in contact with Mion, who is happy to hear her sister's voice again and also shocked but pleased to learn of her great escape--though both twins are aware that there are dire consequences for Shion should she be discovered by Oryou. In order to grant Shion a degree of freedom, the sisters decide to do the sister swap again. While Mion is up to various business that would result in her not being seen by the family, Shion goes out and gets a part time job at a Sonozaki-owned restaurant owned by an uncle, Yoshiro. With Yoshiro, Kasai, and Mion in on it, the plan is simple--anyone who sees Shion is just informed that they're seeing Mion.
Shion is happily living her life, twirling about in town, when she kicks over a row of motorcycles like dominoes, and the hooligan owners quickly accost her and threaten her. Though Shion is equipped with a powerful overclocked stun gun, she holds off on using it... instead putting on a crocodile tears act to draw the attention of bystanders. It's then she's rescued by a soft-spoken boy she'd never seen before.
Satoshi Houjou, the oft mentioned but never before seen older brother of Satoko.
Although Satoshi doesn't really do much more than get pushed around a bit until actual help arrives, Shion is taken aback by the boy's bravery. The hooligans take off, and Satoshi comforts "Mion", saying he's surprised to see a softer side of his usually bold friend. Shion tries to protest, before Satoshi begins petting her on the head. Shion finds him disarming and sweet in spite of herself.
That night, Shion calls Mion on the phone and asks about Satoshi. After learning about him and his unfortunate living situation, Shion realizes something... she's fallen in love with him.
Shion's primary way of seeing Satoshi from that point is through watching baseball games that Satoshi plays in, and it's here that Shion gets to know coach Irie, as well as Rena and Rika, whom Shion knows little about. Irie lets Shion know more about Satoshi's home life at a baseball game, where she learns about the situation with the Houjou step parents, namely how their crumbling marriage has resulted in their aunt abusing Satoko and Satoshi having to protect Satoko from it, thereby taking the brunt of it himself.
However... she can't stand the idea of Satoko using him as a shield against his aunt's abuse. Whether motivated by puppy love or some other thing, Shion has absolutely nothing kind to say about Satoko, and blames her for Satoshi's poor mental state rather than the sibling's abusive aunt. Irie is shocked to hear this from "Mion", one of Satoko's good friends.
Rena and Shion end up caught in the rain while walking home, where Rena frighteningly sees through Shion's feelings--though whether or not Rena can tell whether or not it's Shion or Mion is unclear, both to Shion and to the reader. Rena tells her about the curse of Oyashiro-sama, and about the tell-tale signs that someone has been cursed--hearing an extra footstep wherever you walk, an unexplainable presence sticking to your back like a shadow, and how those who leave the village or those who enter it and sully it are guaranteed to be cursed, and of course, the murder and disappearance of two people a year since 1979. Rena implies that Satoshi wants to leave Hinamizawa as well. Shion assumes Rena means that Satoshi has been cursed.
Later on, after learning Satoshi had been absent from a few baseball games, and therefore not seeing him for a while, Shion asks Mion what's going on, and learns that on top of school and the abusive situation at home, Satoshi has taken it upon himself to work part time in order to save up money for an expensive teddy bear for Satoko's upcoming birthday. This stokes more hatred towards Satoko in Shion. Shion asks if she can swap places during a school day so she can scope out info on Satoshi's well-being.
There, she finds a sullen and exhausted Satoshi and a frantic, easily frightened Satoko. At lunch time, Satoshi leaves school rather than eat to go to one of his part time jobs. After he leaves, Satoko begins crying. When Shion comes to see why, it's because she dropped her empty bento box on the floor, and is afraid of retribution at the hands of her aunt. Shion is fed up with Satoko by this point, feeling no sympathy for her at all, and begins throwing things at her and screaming at her, telling her it's her fault Satoshi is suffering so much.
Throughout this entire part, it shocked me just how poorly Shion thought of Satoko and how little sympathy she had for Satoko's home situation. Everyone in town but her blamed their aunt for the abuse, but Shion seemed to shoulder the entire blame on Satoko, calling her weak and selfish. Diary entries from the perspective of Satoshi had him mention things like being jealous of Satoko for being able to sleep while protecting her from their aunt, but even Satoshi never blamed Satoko for it. Yet Shion here was being incredibly cruel and thoughtless. This was my first inkling that maybe there's something I'm missing or something I've misunderstood about Shion as a character.
Anyway, Satoshi hears the chaos in the classroom before he's fully left the school grounds, and comes back in the class, enraged at what's going on. He shields Satoko from further harm and screams at Shion--who, as a reminder, is disguised as Mion in this moment--and admonishes her harshly. It's here that Satoshi reveals a grudge he seems to have held towards the Sonozaki family for a long time, in a rare display of anger.
It's an open secret in Hinamizawa by this point that traitors to the village--those who supported the Dam project that would've destroyed the village, or at least didn't stand against it--were killed, and it was the Sonozaki family pulling the strings. The dam foreman, the Furude family, and of course--the Houjou family, who supported the dam project in return for a substantial government stipend.
When the day is over, Shion is devastated for the harm he'd caused Satoshi by being so cruel and thoughtless to Satoko, while being a Sonozaki at that. Mion assures Shion that she'll fix things.
A little while later, with the Watanagashi around the corner, Shion is idly thinking about the curse, and she hopes that this year, the two curse victims will be the ones who have caused so much grief for Satoshi... Satoko and their aunt. It's then that Shion, posing as Mion, gets a phone call from Satoshi. After some apologies for what had transpired at school, Satoshi forgives "Mion" and asks a favor of her. He wants Mion to take Satoko to the festival in his stead. Shion immediately knows why.
Satoshi is going to kill his aunt on the night of the festival.
She doesn't accuse him of this outright, but both seem to have an unspoken understanding that they're aware of what's going to happen. After Satoshi kills his aunt, he's going to be the one who disappears, as is yearly tradition. After an awkward conversation where both of them dance around this, Satoshi makes one more request before hanging up.
"I'll leave Satoko to you". Shion promises to take care of Satoko.
The day of the festival arrives. Shion still doesn't care for Satoko so she stays home, having told her Satoshi requested Mion take Satoko to the festival, so it's Mion who takes Satoko. Satoshi has already planned out his murder. Lure the aunt away from town during the festival when the streets will be empty, lie in wait with a baseball bat, and kill her while Satoko and the others spend the day at the festival. Everything goes according to plan, and as if on cue, Ooishi and the police arrive. He has Dr. Irie identify the body as aunt Houjou, and then grills Satoshi about his alibi. Ooishi reveals that although aunt Houjou was killed in a single blow, the murderer flipped her body over and caved her face in with the weapon until unrecognizable, which in his experience is a sign that the murderer knew the victim and held a grudge... and it was no secret that aunt Houjou was abusive. With as of yet no evidence to prove Satoshi is the murderer, but with a knowing smile, Ooishi has Satoshi taken home.
News quickly spreads of aunt Houjou's death, and Mion and Shion talk about it on the phone. Mion reveals that she was questioned about it and if she had seen Satoshi that night, and said that she didn't. Shion scolds her sister for not even attempting to cover for Satoshi with a made-up alibi, although both sisters acquiesce that it'd be difficult to do so, given everyone in town would have to have their alibis match up with hers.
The following day, Shion is worried about Satoshi and wanders around town in hopes of bumping into him, and she eventually stumbles upon him at the toy store where the big teddy bear Satoko wants for her birthday is. Apparently Satoshi goes there every day to see if it's still there, and Shion playfully chides him for not having reserved it yet. Satoshi is shocked and wasn't even aware he could do that. Shion drags him inside and has him reserve the toy, and the two walk outside when they're cut off by Ooishi and a handful of officers.
Shion is panicking internally. She knows Satoshi is too timid and honest to lie, and if brought to the police station, he'd easily crack and confess. Shion then has an epiphany... Satoshi wasn't seen with Mion on the night of the festival... because he was with Shion and her uncle, Yoshiro.
Shion speaks up and introduces herself to Ooishi and Satoshi, or indeed anyone for the first time, not as Mion Sonozaki, but as Shion Sonozaki. Satoshi is a bit flabbergasted but Ooishi is incredulous, as Mion is a known prankster. Quicker on the draw than expected, Satoshi immediately understand why "Mion" had been acting so unusual lately... he was actually talking to Shion. The two of them are taken to the police station for questioning, and Shion's identity is confirmed, and a savvy Yoshiro confirms their made up alibi. Satoshi and Shion are let go... however, Shion now has to face the wrath of the Sonozaki family for refusing to remain exiled at St. Lucia's.
Expecting her punishment to be death, Shion is lead by Mion, now sporting her cold and vicious stare, into the underground ritual torture chamber as seen in part 2. Oryou and the other important figures of the family are there to watch judgment be rendered. However, instead of an execution tool, an odd "beak-shaped tool with a huge lever" is brought forward. Shion recognizes this as a tool for removing fingernails.
Shion is informed that in order to spare the lives of her two accomplices in hiding her identity in Okonomiya, Kasai and Uncle Yoshiro, as well as Satoshi, she must remove one fingernail for each of them. If she can do this, all will be forgiven--Yoshiro, Kasai, and Satoshi will be spared and allowed to continue living their lives in peace.
And uh... I sure picked the best part to enable the fanmade patch that adds the PS3 version's voice acting.
After a horrifying segment filled with much extremely well acted screaming and cries of pain and very curt descriptions of what a fingernail being removed looks and feels like, Shion is taken to a hospital to have her injuries treated, and she's picked up to be taken home by Kasai, who she is relieved to see alive and well, and who confirms Yoshiro's safety as well. Kasai informs Shion that she is fully forgiven, under a few extra conditions. She is not allowed in Hinamizawa and must remain in Okinomiya for at least a year, and she can no longer swap places with Mion. The two sisters are officially recognized as themselves and can co-exist, albeit apart from one another for a while. A day passes, and Kasai brings Shion some food. Kasai, however, informs Shion that the family wants her to forget about Satoshi. He refuses to go into detail, which makes Shion angry. Shion then thinks of a way she can confirm Satoshi's safety without needing to see him in person. If the teddy bear isn't at the store anymore, it means Satoshi was able to purchase it.
The teddy bear is gone, relieving Shion, however, she bumps into Ooishi there, who seemed to have been lying in wait. She's convinced to come to the station with him, though she's not under arrest or suspicion.
At the station, she's informed that Satoshi has been missing since the day after the festival.
There are eyewitness accounts of someone who may have been Satoshi taking a bullet train out of town, and with all the money he'd saved up for Satoko's present, skipping town would've been affordable. But the present was no longer at the store. In addition, Kasai informs Shion that the murder of aunt Houjou had been found--it was an apparent drug addict who had chosen his victim at random out of wanting to re-enact the curse for himself. They couldn't get anymore information out of this apparent murder because he'd choked to death on a plastic spork during a moment alone at the station eating.
Shion can't accept this chain of events as truth, and firmly believes it was the Sonozaki family who made Satoshi disappear. She begins independently investigating the history of Hinamizawa and the curse of Oyashiro-sama that claims two victims every year, writing her findings and theories in a massive notebook. It's then that she meets a certain enthusiast at the library... Miyo Takano. The two of them discuss the curse for a while, as well as Takano telling Shion about the history of the village--once called Onigafuchi, home to humans with demon blood who once hunted down and devoured one person a year and sent their entrails adrift down the river--and that one person is killed due to "Oyashiro-sama's anger", and one person is sacrificed by being thrown into Onigafuchi Swamp to pacify that anger. Takano also lends Shion her notebook full of notes and theories about the true nature of the curse. Takano has a date with someone so she can't stay and talk, you see. Someone fit and toned with a hat. Shion doesn't make any major new conclusions from Takano's notes, but rather is surprised to learn a lot of Takano's conjectures match up with what Shion knows definitively by being a member of the Sonozaki family. In that case, maybe the actions of the Sonozaki family aren't as imperceptible as they think.
Mion comes over to visit later that night, bringing the twins' favorite cheesecake and looking apologetic, rather than wearing the fierce duty-bound look as before when Shion was punished. The two sisters seem friendly with each other again and reminisce for a bit over their cheesecake, until Mion says something that sets Shion off.
"I wonder where Satoshi-kun disappeared off to, though..."
Shion erupts in rage. She accuses Mion of lying, saying that she does know, how couldn't she? It was the Sonozaki family that did it, after all. Shion refuses to believe Mion's denial and leaps at her, and begins choking her. Tearfully, Mion swears that she truly doesn't know, nor does anyone else in the family, even Oryou. Shion then notices something odd. One of Mion's hands has the exact same injuries as her own. In keeping with their practice of sharing each other's burdens, Mion took it upon herself to remove three of her own fingernails. She was happy for Shion that she'd found love and that she believed it wasn't fair that Shion had to suffer so much. Shion woefully thinks to herself that in that moment, the demon had taken control of her instead of Mion, and commands the demon to never come near her or her sister again. Shion releases Mion's neck and collapses, the two sisters holding each other apologetically. The two of them exhausted from the tussle, they fall asleep. As they do, Shion assures herself that as long as she lives, she'll never forget Satoshi.
Time flashes forward to June 1983. Shion is walking through town happily when she again bumps into a row of motorcycles, knocking them all down, and drawing the ire of their hooligan owners. This time, though, she's not rescued by Satoshi, but by none other than Keiichi Maebara. However, rather than doing it through an act of bravado, he lectures the hooligans on their pedestrian taste in porn and makes them all flee. Shion is confused and decidedly not charmed by Keiichi as she was with Satoshi, but is at least thankful. In the moment, she's posing as Mion too, at least unintentionally, so Keiichi pats her on the head. Unlike Satoshi's gentle and reassuring patting, it's rough and annoying. But still, she can't help but like Keiichi and find him funny.
The events of part 2 pretty much play out from here, except from the perspective of Shion. Later that night, Shion and Mion are talking together in Shion's apartment about Keiichi. The conversation starts off light, with Mion talking about how funny and lively Keiichi is and how he's been a positive force in everyone's life since he's moved in... up until a few days ago when the doll incident happens. Mion is devastated to learn Keiichi just views her as boorish and boyish, and Shion tells her that it's up to Mion to turn Keiichi's image of her around. In that moment, Shion feels happy for her sister that she has someone she loves as much as Shion loved Satoshi... but then tells Mion she's gonna playfully try to steal Keiichi from her if she doesn't put the screws to him herself.
Despite viewing Keiichi as an immature, aloof moron, Shion can't help but be charmed by him too. After all, Mion's her twin, and they like many of the same things, boys included. She does worry that she's gotten too used to life without Satoshi around, and promises to him that she's not replacing him.
One day, Shion, Mion, and the rest of the Hinamizawa game club are all together, and Shion and Mion are playing tug-of-war with Keiichi as the rope. Although it's just another bid to tease Mion into thinking she'll steal Keiichi away, Shion detects herself growing fonder of Keiichi. She tactfully leaves the group to ride home on her bike, and some distance way stops when she starts crying and apologizing repeatedly to Satoshi. Even though she promised him she'd never forget him, she's losing sight of him more and more each day. She seems to "hear" Satoshi speaking to her, asking if his continued presence is hurting her more than helping her. She tells him no, and begs him to stay. A light breeze touches her hair, and although it was a chilly breeze, to her it carried the same warmth that Satoshi's hand did when it was upon her head. She begins walking towards her bike when she hears something.
An extra footstep. And she feels a presence at her back, clinging to it like shadow.
It's Satoshi, she says. He'll always be with her now.
The day of the festival arrives and events play out the same as in part 2. Takano and Tomitake want to sneak into the ritual storehouse while Rika performs the ritual dance, Shion drags Keiichi away and convinces him to come inside the storehouse with her. While Takano regales Keiichi with grisly tales about ancient Hinamizawa, Shion walks away on her own to look around and try to speak to Satoshi... but she can't focus on him because she keeps hearing a loud thump over and over. Takano and Keiichi didn't react to it, so somehow it was just Shion hearing it. Louder and louder each time like someone's jumping up and down as if throwing a tantrum. She asked Satoshi if it was him, and briefly the jumping stopped... and then resumed again. She declares that it's not Satoshi... and in fact Satoshi seems to have been gone since they entered. This terrifying presence continues to follow Shion in Satoshi's place even after the four of them leave the storehouse.
After the festival, Shion goes to the Sonozaki family household for an afterparty. She and Mion both get a little drunk, and as a result Shion asks if she can spend the night there instead of going home with Kasai. She wakes up in the middle of the night and overhears Mion and Oryou talking about something... Four people had snuck into the warehouse and have already been killed. Tomitake clawed out his throat, and Takano was found burned to death. Shion gasps in terror--she now knows the punishment for desecrating the ritual storehouse is death.
Shion begins remembering what Rena had told her that rainy day. The extra footstep, the unexplainable presence, all of which have been amplified since she left the storehouse. According to the timetable in part 2, this is also when Shion would have gone missing... and then she's confronted by Mion in the hallway, who interrogates her about her whereabouts on the night of the festival.
Shion is then convinced. If the cold, calculating Sonozakis killed Tomitake and Takano mere moments after leaving the storehouse, they are absolutely capable of making Satoshi disappear. Shion vows revenge for Satoshi's death, and rather than allow herself to be disappeared herself, she hits Mion with her stun gun, and then sneaks up on Oryou and hits her in the back of the neck with it as well. She carts both of their unconscious bodies to the underground ritual torture room, throws Mion in a cell, and straps Oryou to a wheelchair.
Shion intended to torture Oryou for information, but she discovers that Oryou was actually dead rather than just unconscious. She was incredibly old, so the shock from the stun gun likely killed her immediately. She attempts to squeeze more information about Satoshi's disappearance from Mion again, but Mion again states she doesn't know anything. Shion dumps Oryou's body in the well and leaves Mion imprisoned for the night, once again taking the name Mion for herself.
In the morning, Kimiyoshi, the mayor, calls the house asking for Oryou. Shion, now posing as Mion, tells him that Oryou is asleep and feeling unwell. He informs her there's a meeting between the three families that night to discuss the events of the night of the festival. After the meeting, Shion lures Kimiyoshi to the Sonozaki household and knocks him out, and locks him in another cell, chained to the ceiling by his neck and a pulley which gives or takes away slack from the chain. Kimiyoshi is forced to stand on his toes in order to not get hanged by the chain. She asks him about who disappeared Satoshi, but he also knows nothing. She leaves him chained overnight, though fully aware if he slips or if his strength or consciousness gives out, he's going to die by hanging.
The night when Rika comes over to ask for soy sauce occurs. Shion is annoyed by this, but allows Rika in anyway. When Shion bends down to retrieve the soy suace, she looks over at Rika, who's wearing an impish grin. Suddenly, Shion is blinded by pepper spray, and a tussle ensues. Shion finds herself being overwhelmed by Rika's strength, despite her size and age, and notices during her brief moments of vision that Rika's holding a syringe filled with clear liquid, and she has an idea of what it does. Rika clumsily stumbles during the fight, allowing Shion to hit her with the stun gun and grab the syringe, which she then injects into Rika's arm. Rika starts coughing and convulsing before unsteadily standing up and grabbing a knife. Shion laughs at her, informing her that she'll be locked up in the torture room before long.
Rika holds the knife in the same hand she's using to steady herself, and suddenly slams her neck onto it repeatedly. Rika falls face down and, in her final moments, turns herself over, reaches for the gaping wound in her neck, and claws it open further with her fingernails. Shion laughs maniacally at the sight, when she gets interrupted by a phone call... Satoko, asking if she's seen Rika. Shion lures Satoko over with a tale about how Rika came over to get soy sauce, but instead stayed for dinner. Satoko informs Shion that she'll be right over.
As in part 2, the search for Kimiyoshi, Satoko and Rika occurs, ending with none of them being found... because the entire time, it had been Shion who had caused their disappearances, and now it was Shion, publicly posing as Mion, leading the search.
Checking in on Kimiyoshi in the torture room, he had died overnight, just as expected. Mion, still locked in a cell, screams in anguish as she watches Shion dispose of yet another body. It's at this point that Shion decides that she is the true Mion and true inheritor of the demon, and now the two of them were going to permanently switch places, accusing Mion of having them switch places on the day Shion was supposed to recieve the tattoo of the demon on her back. With Oryou, Rika, and Kimiyoshi dead, all three ringleaders of the curse were dead, and now she alone was left to be the demon and curse of Oyashiro-sama, and proceeds to torture Satoko to death in front of Mion. However, Satoko doesn't cry or scream or beg for help. She wants to prove to her brother that she's strong now and can endure any trial. This enrages Shion, who stabs her repeatedly with a knife without any reaction from Satoko... and then she realizes in death, Satoko got her wish. She got to see her brother again. She got to see Satoshi.
Shion realizes then that she hasn't thought of Satoshi at all during all of this, because she broke her promises to him.
Shion relinquishes control of herself fully to the demon, realizing she has nothing to live for now. She, or rather the demon, tells Mion she knows just how to make her suffer the most before killing her... by forcing her to watch Keiichi die first.
The sting operation at the end of part 2 happens. The demon affirms that if either of them can realize that it's no longer "Mion" they're speaking to, she'll give herself up peacefully. Keiichi and Rena come over, Rena perfectly outlines how "Mion" killed Rena and Satoko, and "Mion" agrees to give herself up, as long as she gets to have 30 minutes alone with Keiichi first.
The torture sequence from part 2 plays out, except now we're armed with the knowledge that it's actually Mion in the cell and not Shion. When Keiichi realizes his mistake with the doll, the same dialogue as before happens, except now, Shion admits she's lying about being Mion, and the actual spark that awoke the demon wasn't Keiichi not giving Mion the doll, but Shion simply being jealous that Mion had fallen in love with someone new and had seemingly moved on from Satoshi.
It was a really clever trick that had me reeling in my seat. Well played Ryukishi.
The rest of the dialogue plays out exactly the same and Keiichi is rescued by the police. Shion rushes to the cells and demand that she and Mion switch places again, so they swap clothes. Shion tells Mion to flee through the well, but then, she pulls out her stun gun and reaches down and presses it to Mion's neck as she's climbing down. Shion gives her one last chance to tell her what happened to Satoshi, when the biggest mindblowing reveal of this part comes.
Mion reveals that Oryou Sonozaki, or indeed anyone in the three families, had orchestrated any of the deaths. Oryou was simply claiming credit for them, and had everybody fooled. Every death that had occurred in the name of Oyashiro-sama had really, truly, just been a coincidence... which means Satoshi really was alive out there, somewhere.
Shion finds this too crazy to believe, however, and pulls the trigger on her stun gun, sending Mion plummeting down the well to her death.
Cut to a few days later, Shion is living on her own in her apartment again, tortured by an unexplainable presence that is neither Oyashiro-sama nor Satoshi, but Mion, torturing her for being the one left alive. Shion flees from the presence by jumping from her balcony to an outdoor fire esacpe, drives a motorcycle to Keiichi's house, and stabs him, just as in part 2. Except this time, it's revealed it was the demon in control. She drives back to her apartment, and climbs back up the fire escape, but slips and falls to her death.
In her dying moments, she imagines what life would've been like had she honored Satoshi's request to take care of Satoko. Her, Mion, Satoko, and the rest of the group are having lunch at school, and Shion playfully teases Satoko for not eating her veggies. Her daydream ends when her life begins to fade, and her final thoughts are "I'm sorry for being born".
Whew.
Now I'm sitting here questioning if my read on Mion and Shion as characters were even correct. I'd always gotten the impression that Mion was the cruel one and Shion was the kind one... but throughout this part, Shion constantly refers to Mion as being "too nice" to do certain things. But that's the truth, isn't it? Mion's the nice one; everything "cruel" she did, she did while acting as the family represenative while under watch by Oryou or some other family member. Everything cruel Shion did in this part, she did becuase she simply wanted to. And with that little reveal at the end that the Sonozaki family had nothing to do with any of the annual pair of murders and they truly were coincidences... if that's true, then everything I thought I understood about Higurashi has been thrown into disarray.
What a ride.