The Starry Sky scene is one of the all time best scenes in anime & functions well as an unconventional confession scene. Instead of trading traditional "I love you"s, Hitagi spends the entire episode making Araragi uncomfortable before confessing all her hopes and insecurities.

The way she opens up to her most vulnerable confession is perfectly foreshadowed throughout the episode. Mentioning studying, Kanbaru, and her father to test the waters on Araragi's reactions only to end with the stars to show that's "all she has" is sadly poetic but beautiful.

A few aspects stood out this rewatch - specifically how ridiculously passive Araragi is towards everything. He thinks so little of himself that he can't even take credit for helping Hitagi help herself, which makes the convo between him and her father so heartwarming.

Taking Araragi's complete passiveness into consideration, the most melt inducing part of this scene is when Hitagi expresses her fear of losing him and he immediately grabs her hand to reassure her that she won't.

These lines are all perfect but Hitagi accepting the negative parts of her life lead her to greater happiness with Araragi is next level perfection and makes me want to cry every time I think of it.

That's not even mentioning how the amazing piano version of Staple Stable, known as "Senjougahara Tore" (perfect throwback to "Senjougahara fascination") fits the scene like a glove and leads to the perfect recontextualization of the ED.

So essentially: