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Episode 13: Angel Invasion/Lilliputhian Hitcher
In all honesty, this episode reminded me a lot of episode 10 (Magma Diver). It seemed like filler except that once I sat down to review this episode I realized how much I enjoyed it. There wasn't anything phenomenal happenning but we finally got to know Dr.Ritsuko Akagi and it's interesting to see what drives her. This episode begins with Maya and Ritsuko working on Magi diagnostics. The Magi supercomputers are comprised of: 1. Melchior 2. Belthasar 3. Casper When Ritsuko goes to the washroom, she thinks to herself "everything checked out, mother's in good shape". Later she tests the EVA pilots in simulation plugs, within simulation EVAs. She has the three pilots nude so that she can get new info on their body wavelengths in the EVA. While discussing the Magi with Misato, Ritsuko reveals that it was her mom, Dr. Akagi, who created the system. Misato said the reason she didn't know is because Ritsuko never opens up and talks about herself. The systems detect some Corrosion within the walls near the testing area, but no one considers it a big problem. Suddenly Rei's simulation EVA body goes out of control and attacks the observation room where Misato and Ritsuko are. The Magi analyze the corrosion that has infected the mock EVA and the blue pattern confirms it: the 11th Angel has entered NERV. As soon as the red alert goes into effect, Gendo orders it to be cancelled and has Kouzou call Seele and tell them the alarm was an internal error. The Angel keeps spreading through NERV Central and Kouzou whispers to Gendo "it's much too close to Adam". Gendo has the EVA's launched to the surface to provide contamination, with EVA 01 getting priority over the other two, which he considers expendable. We see Kaji get out of a NERV lift and say "time to take a break", which makes one wonder what Kaji was doing all by himself in the inner sanctum of NERV. At first, Ritsuko tries to contain the main body of the Angel by pumping it full of ozone but it soon evolves and consumes the ozone. The 11th Angel is apparently an organic computer with the ability to evolve and shows its talent by hacking into Melchior and taking over part of Belthasar before Ritsuko thinks of a way to stop it. The victory isn't complete though: they have only 2 hours before the Angel breaks through the computer defenses. Misato suggests the Magi be destroyed so the Angel is killed at the source. Ritsuko venomously objects and proposes that they try to guide the Angel's evolution till it leads to death. She plans to upload a program to Casper just as the Angel invades it and it should terminate the Angel. Ritsuko, Maya and Misato physically open the Magi to manually insert the program. Inside they find lots of notes written by Ritsuko's mom attached to different places and they essentially give a road map for the Magi circuits. While inside, Misato and Ritsuko discuss the origin of the Magi and mention the "Personality Transplant." It's a way of importing a personality on 7th generation operating system to enable it to think for itself. Misato notes this system is used in the EVAs and it's surprising for the viewer, since there seems no need for an EVA to have a personality to work independently. Ritsuko reveals the Magi also used it: her mom is implanted in the system. Essentially the Magi's brain is Ritsuko's mother and the truth is, she never liked her mother much. As the Angel breaks into Casper, Ritsuko puts her plan into motion and barely succeeds. With the Angel destroyed, Ritsuko finally relaxes and begins to talk to Misato. She says that the night before her mom died, she told Ritsuko that the Magi were the three sides of herself. It was Dr.Akagi as a woman, as a scientist and as a mother. The human personality and dillemmas were put in the machine to give it a human edge. Ritsuko realizes she isn't the kind of person who wants kids, so she doesn't understand her mom as a mother. As much as she respected her as a scientist, she loathed her as a human. Ironically, Casper (the system which saved NERV from the Angel) was the part of the Magi which represented Ritsuko's mom as a woman. Meanwhile, the pilots are lying in a lake in their entry plugs, still naked. As I said before, this episode wasn't too exciting but in the end I felt very satisfied with the episode. We learned a lot about Ritsuko and the religious overtones of this show become more apparent. The Magi computers were named after the three wise men who apparently visited Jesus when he was born, and it's interesting to see computers named after them. What I found most intriguing was Misato's comment about the EVA's having personality transplant technology in them. It seemed like a throwaway comment but I have a feeling it will tell us a bit more about the EVAs. Actually, here's a thought: if the EVA has it's own personality, could that be why it saved Shinji in the first episode? And could it be the reason Unit 00 initially went out of control?