Something that unsettles me about Kyoko’s counsel is how she phrased it as a kind of loaded question. Like it’s saying, ‘do you feel gratitude for your situation, or do you not?’ This puts an intense amount of social pressure on Shuichi to accept her words, even though she doesn’t address, much less understand the core issue he has, as the two of them are worlds apart.

It doesn’t help that he’s speaking to someone with a great deal more experience than him, and thus, no position to present his case.

Putting Shuichi on the same level as her - to bolster her fellow detective - ends up doing a lot more harm than good, as Kyoko commits the folly of ‘judging by one’s own standards’. Though it’s likely because she trusts the judgement of the institution, and aims to squash that doubt in Shuichi, while Shuichi can only apologise for his earlier ‘lapse in judgement’.