Episode 24, "The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya (Part 1)" (Well, at least it's not "Endless Eight"...)
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Eager to take part in North High's cultural festival, Haruhi plans for the SOS Brigade to do a project of their own, rather than pay attention to class projects. Inspired by a bad movie she watched one night, she resolves to make a great film. She casts Mikuru in the lead and insists on Kyon doing all the menial labor work, while she directs. She drags Kyon and Mikuru with her to get a camera and some other material for the movie, easily recieving them for free after talking to store owners, but Kyon has a bad feeling about it. 
Comments:
Moving onto the material of second novel, the series begins it's sort of "making of" for the "Episode 00" (first broadcast episode) of the series, the video the SOS Brigade submitted to the cultural festival (the festival we saw in "Live A Live", wherein Haruhi and Yuki performed ala Linda Linda Linda). The whole book is actually about how the group made the video. Which, not surprisingly, makes it sort of... uh, subdued, compared to the first novel.
So, there's really not a lot going on in this episode. Really a lot of Kyon trying to deny and delay the inevitable, and then giving in anyway to Haruhi's demands. It's strange that this girl just gets away with pretty much anything she wants to. It's the sort of thing you either admire or despise. Actually, I think I have both of those feelings about Haruhi. Clearly, if I knew a person like her in real life, I'd probably think she was obnoxious, but on the other hand, she's also pretty charming in her sociopathy.
Haruhi definitely seems to have some sort of condition though, since she hops from thing to thing with disregard to the rest of the world, even pushing her own feelings about things onto others as if she already knew what they felt and that it would be okay to proceed as she plans, Then again, Haruhi also seems to know that there are limits even for her, and that's probably what keeps her from destroying the world by accident.
Still, the best, or worst, is to come, because she's only going to get pushier from here. Remember, it's still awhile before that scene at the end of "Live A Live", where she actually reveals a bit more maturity.
Having read the second book, I won't reveal too much, but it's definitely going to get pretty wild, as far as the extremes she goes to in doing this movie the way she desires. Off the top of my head, I can think of a certain incident many of you will find intruiging: getting Mikuru drunk/drugging her. That's all I'll say for now. (They'd better include that scene!)
Enjoy her bullying.
Overall Score:
3 out of 5
