The episode begins at the rocket launching competition, with the leader girl from the other school giving her speech. Umika is sitting in her spot, panicking about her own speech. When the opposing school launched their rocket, they managed to get a score that put them in first place. Then came the turn for Umika’s school, and Umika was extremely nervous when it came to walking up to the podium and giving her speech. In the end, the group didn’t make it past the qualifying round, as their rocket soared higher than the target altitude. We then see the group pack up, with Matataki walking off from the group. When Haruno tries to stop her, Matataki snaps and points out how Haruno doesn’t care whether it’s win or lose, but to Matataki, it matters.
Later, Umika and Yu are packing up and preparing to go, with Umika saying that she’ll take the small items with her on the bus. Yu tries to talk to Umika, but Umika ends up saying things to Yu like how they’ll never make it into space. When Umika goes away, Yu comments that she can’t see sparkles from Umika anymore. We then go forward in time to a week after the competition, and Umika has holed herself up in her room for quite a while. Her little sister does manage to get her to leave to get groceries, and during that trip, Umika runs into the president from the other school again. The two have a conversation, where the girl from the other school helps to build up Umika’s confidence. After that talk, Umika headed to Yu’s lighthouse, where Yu appears to be out. After a phone call from her sister, Umika decided to look for Yu.
The lights in the lighthouse do not work, and Yu’s stuff is nowhere to be found. Umika runs to the top of the lighthouse and calls out for Yu, with Yu appearing. The two talk, with them deciding that Umika would stay in the lighthouse that night. During the stay, Yu manages to recall a memory from her home planet – a song that she sang as a child. She sings the song as Umika thinks her own thoughts.
I feel like this writeup really oversimplified the episode, but in my defense, I have the feeling that this episode is better experienced than reading somebody do a writeup of it. This episode is very solid, and adds a slice of drama to this otherwise cute girls doing cute things show. It’s nice that the show had Umika and the others fail. Not because I was hoping for them to fail, but because everyone fails from time to time, and having the group fail made the story feel more realistic, and gives more opportunities for the characters to grow. I can’t wait for next week’s episode, though, I have to keep reminding myself that every week that goes by means that I’m another week closer to saying goodbye to this series, be it for the short term or the long term.
Additional posts about Stardust Telepath:
Sara Talks Anime 
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