WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fruits Basket: The Final Season Episode 4, "I'm... Home," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
In the season premiere of Fruits Basket: The Final Season, Akito's mom Ren stopped Rin in the middle of the night claiming she could provide information on how to break the Sohma curse. Over the next two episodes, Rin didn't appear, with Tohru growing concerned about her absence. Episode 4, "I'm... Home," fills in what's happened to Rin, and shows how Hatsuharu and Kureno inadvertently team up to save her from Akito.
Ren claimed that she'd reveal the curse-breaking secrets in exchange for Rin retrieving a mysterious boxed treasure from Akito's place. Akito caught Rin, and brutally punished the Horse in response. Rin was locked up in the cottage where the Cat is traditionally imprisoned, given barely any food and left to starve. In one of the episode's most disturbing scenes, the chains of the curse pull Rin towards Akito as the wrathful "God" chops up her hair and threatens to use those same scissors to blind Haru.
Hiro, who's growing more mature and reflective as he looks after his new baby sister, finally tells Haru about witnessing Akito's previous violence towards Rin. Now understanding the sad reason Rin was forced to break up with him, Haru is emboldened to challenge and confront Akito, charging his way into the leader's compound and even landing an impressive punch that just barely misses Akito's face. Haru finds he's not the only Sohma challenging Akito today -- the usually submissive Kureno is also rebelling against his master to help Rin.
Kureno figured out what was happening when he noticed a servant bringing food to the prison cottage. By the time Haru arrives to fight Akito, Kureno has already freed Rin and brought her to the hospital. However, as she always does, Rin escaped the hospital, so while Kureno seriously helped, it's now up to Haru to truly save her.
As she ambles about weakened and alone, it almost seems as if Rin is on the brink of death. Memories of childhood bleed into her view of the present. When she collapses, she finds herself talking to Haru in a scene animated with an eerie glow that feels like a vision before death. But this is real: Haru has actually found her, and she's going to live. As her consciousness returns to normal and she realizes she's finally together again with her loving boyfriend, one of the darkest episodes of Fruits Basket manages to pull together one of its most hopeful endings.
It turns out Ren was lying to Rin about having any knowledge of how to break the curse in the first place. However, as Haru defies Akito, we can see the chains of his own curse starting to break. The answers to how to break the Sohma family curse are closer than ever before.
New episodes of Fruits Basket: The Final Season premiere Mondays, subbed on Crunchyroll and dubbed on Funimation.
