Neon Genesis Evangelion 22
Are we...? Are we live? Can anyone read this?
Uh....... huh.
I think there's something wrong with the DVD player. Maybe if I take the disc out and put it back in again. Hold on.
Shoot. No good.
Uh, folks, I'm not sure what to say here. Might have to call this off until I can figure out what the trouble is.
"I was strangled to death in this building once."
"Shut your stupid robot mouth, you ugly little psycho!"
Oh, okay, there we go.
So uh, let me do some housekeeping first. An S2 is apparently some kind of organ in an Angel's anatomy, and the S2 Engine was NERV's attempt to duplicate this organ. They only managed to make one of these, which was supposed to be installed in Eva Unit 04 before it vanished along with NERV's Nevada Branch.
However, Eva Unit 01 scored a free S2 when it simply ate and absorbed the S2 organ from the 14th Angel. SEELE is concerned about this, becuase whatever playbook they're operating from didn't say anything about Evas running wild and getting upgrades without prior authorization. I believe this is one reason Eva Unit 01 is benched during this episode.
Also, the Eva series is named because it was created from Adam, the First Angel. "Eva", as in the Biblical Eve, who was created from one of Adam's ribs. So that's what that's about. So they're not the same as copies of Angels, or Angels themselves. I guess they're more like genetically engineered Angeloids or something?
NERV is still trying to get back to normal, more than a month after the battle with the 14th Angel. Repairs to Units 00 and 02 are still ongoing, but Asuka's synch scores have gone way down, probably due to the trauma of getting defeated so badly in the last battle. No one's really sure what to do about it, but if her performance keeps deteriorating, she'll get booted out of the program and replaced. With whom? Big Rigg Mahoney? The Dummy Plug? Maybe Suzuhara's ready to check out of the hospital.
Sorry, these goofs act like good pilots grow on trees, but Asuka's a college graduate or something and she's already on the brink of washing out. If she's cracking under the strain, maybe they should whip up some more Rei clones.
We get a few glimpses into Asuka's backstory, but it's kind of tough to make sense of it all. I think the upshot here is that her mother was a scientist who was eventually driven insane. She may have tried to kill Asuka? I guess she and Rei could bond over that........... forget I said anything.
Uh, she receives a phone call from her mother one night and talks to her in German, which is kind of weird because there's no subtitles, so for all I know the voice actress just kind of faked the whole thing. That might be appropriate since Asuka admits to Shinji that she just sort of goes through the motions on these routine calls, since it's not her real mother anyway.
Anyway, this would be a really bad time for another Angel to attack OH SHIT THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS
This is the one from the title logo, so you know it means business. The 15th Angel's special power is to stay way the hell up in space, where the Evas can't attack it.
Misato's plan is for Rei to fire a big-ass cannon at the Angel while Asuka serves as backup, but Asuka insists on taking the shot. Misato allows this, figuring that she might as well play into Asuka's boldness. Either she'll rise to the occasion and get back in her groove, or she'll fail miserably, and they'll never let her pilot an Eva again. Asuka herself seems to have figured that out on her own, so maybe she only asked for this chance just to get this settled once and for all. But before she can take her shot...
Oh, I'm sorry, the 15th Angel's special power is actually long-range telepathic assault. Yeah, this is pretty bad.
I thought this might resemble the sort of telepathic visions Shinji was having during the battle with the 12th Angel, or when he was absorbed by Eva Unit 01, but this seems much more intense and violent, and much less theraputic. I think it's reasonable to conclude that the 12th Angel was not trying to make telepathic contact with Shinji, or otherwise the 15th Angel would have a little more finesse to its attempt here.
Under different circumstances, I might consider that this might not be an attack at all, and the Angel is trying to communicate and just isn't doing a very good job because human minds are so alien to it. But Asuka screams bloody murder the entire time this is happening, and she repeatedly cries out that it's "raping" her mind. It's pretty difficult to sit through.
Rei tries to shoot down the Angel, but it's still too far away for their weapons to do any good, and Asuka's charts are...
I mean, I'm no doctor, but that can't be good.
Shinji begs his dad to let him go out in Unit 01, but what good would that do? I mean, what can he do that Rei isn't already trying in Unit 00? Besides, Gendo refuses to risk Unit 01 getting hit with this telepathic attack. Instead, he orders Rei to go downstairs to the room with Adam's corpse, and fetch the Lance of Longius.
Admiral Clownshoes tries to talk Gendo out of this, apparently because the Lance will be necessary later on, but Gendo sees no alternative. Misato points out that if Rei's Eva gets too close to Adam's corpse, it could set off Third Impact. That's what everyone was worried about a few episodes ago, but now it's treated like it's no big deal. So Misato realizes this was more NERV bullshit.
But it's worse than that. If Angels and Evas going near Adam can't trigger Third Impact, then that means Second Impact couldn't have been caused by Angels exploding. So that must have been a lie, just like the other lie about it being a meteor strike. So what the fuck caused Second Impact, then?
In any event, we've seen Rei carrying this big fork before, so apparently she just sticks it in Adam's body when she's not practicing with it. So Unit 00 can go down here and horse around with Adam all day and not trigger Third Impact.
As Rei prepares to strike, Clownshoes and Gendo continue to argue the merits of using the Lance. Gendo acts like the situation justifies using it early, and Clownshoes accuses him of looking for an excuse. Anyway, Rei chucks this thing into space like a javelin...
... And it kills the Angel in one hit. Goes right through it's AT shields, smooth as butter. The only downside is that now the Lance is stuck in orbit, and they have no practical means of retrieving it. I guess Rei put a little too much pepper on that throw.
Asuka is safe, but she's far from okay. For all the mental trauma she just endured, she seems far more upset about her wounded pride. Bad enough that Shinji had to save her last time, but now Rei had to bail her out, and that's apparently a new low as far as Asuka's concerned.
So yeah, things are going pretty bad for the NERV gang these days. At least Kaji's still dead. I mean, that's a win for me, at least.
Oh, look, in the next episode Rei's Eva gets possessed and corrupted by an Eva, and she wishes herself dead. So cheer up, Asuka. You can Rei can commiserate over this.
You know what, I'm just gonna see myself out...
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