WARNING: The following contains spoilers for To Your Eternity Episode 11, “Gift From the Past,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Episode 11 of To Your Eternity brings back old memories with heartbreaking and heartwarming reunions. Gugu wants to change who he is and create a new life for himself by working out to get stronger, becoming a big brother to Fushi, and carving out a new home and family -- but he didn't think his past would catch up to him.
Similarly, Gugu has also carved out a space in viewers' hearts and, coupled with the time skip, we all believed we'd watch him and Fushi grow up together. However, To Your Eternity can't let its characters live in peace forever.
Fushi's peace in To Your Eternity has lasted for four whole years. Because he's never had to transform in that time, his body ages until we see a glimpse of what the Nameless Boy would have looked like if he'd lived. For once, Fushi wanted to live life as a normal human being, which meant not transforming or creating anything out of his body. The Nokkers also seem to have retreated and left him alone. Despite that, Gugu still remembers how dangerous they were and has been ready to fight them again if they ever return.
Meanwhile, Rean invites Fushi and Gugu to her sixteenth birthday party. Not only is this a momentous milestone, but it also signals Rean's impending betrothal to someone whom she doesn't even like. There seems to be a simple solution for her problem though, at least in Fushi's eyes. Gugu likes Rean and Rean likes Gugu, so they should get married.
Four years after Shin abandoned Gugu -- and after Gugu gave him Rean's ring -- Shin returns. He looks nothing like the malnourished and bruised young man Gugu found in the alley. But then again, Gugu looks nothing like the small and disfigured child he was back then either.
Ever since then, Shin has turned his life around and now sells farm tools. He apologizes to Gugu profusely, revealing that he never sold the ring, and asks whether the two brothers can work together in realizing their dream to live in a mansion once more. However, Gugu wants nothing to do with him now. He has a new life with Rean, Booze Man, Pioran and his brother Fushi and he's not going to do to them what Shin did to him. Shin understands but insists Gugu can still turn to him if he ever needs to.
On the day of Rean's birthday, Gugu and Fushi arrive at her mansion with Gugu outfitted in a new mask that allows him to make fire without a torch. Although Rean is delighted to see the two of them, the rest of her family and friends think otherwise. The way they dress and Gugu's mask make them both a target of ostracization as they ridicule Gugu's gift: the very same dream bellflower that Rean was picking when she got hurt.
Gugu thinks he isn't allowed to be with Rean because of the preordained "rules" dictated by their difference in status, but Fushi reminds him that his life is something to win for himself. In other words, he's echoing Gugu's thoughts about taking charge of his destiny.
Rean has an important realization: Gugu was the boy to whom she gave the ring, and the one who risked his life to save hers. She can't marry a total stranger because she has fallen in love with Gugu. Rean rushes out to find him on a balcony overseeing a cliff and confesses that she knows the truth. Just as they're about to confess, the Nokkers make their reappearance and interrupt their moment, causing the balcony to break off and sending Gugu down the cliff.
To Your Eternity has a knack for taking beloved characters love away from its viewers, from the Nameless Boy to March. Now it feels like Gugu will be next. Just before leaving, Booze Man told Gugu that he treated him like a grandson and wanted to see him grow up to "choose his own path and become what he wants" -- but was sad that he won't be able to see it in his lifetime. While touching, it also instills a sharp feeling of dread and foreboding. This may be the last time we see Gugu ever again.
