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Episode 15: Lie & Silence/ These Women Longed For The Touch Of Other's Lips & Thus Invited Their Kisses
I think I have Evangelion figured out now. The point of these latest episodes is to make us become attached to everyone, even the peripheral characters so when the truth is revealed we'll hurt along with the characters. If this episode is any indication, they are doing a good job so far. We start this episode with Kouzou telling Gendo that Chairman Keele (of SEELE) is putting more pressure on NERV and is hinting as dismissing GENDO as head of NERV. Gendo reminds him that "Adam is going well...the Dummy Plug system is working" but Kouzou expresses concerns about the Instrumentality project and that Gendo cares too much for Rei. Kouzou asks Gendo about "you know who" and Gendo replies, "Let him do what he wants, along with Marduk. We'll make use of him for a while." As we begin to wonder who "you know who" is, the scene shifts to Ryoji Kaji who has made his way to Kyoto. As he asks "what started here 16 years ago?" he meets the Lady he talked to in episode 10 (who carries a cat with her). She tells him that 107 of the 108 companies backing the Marduk Institute have been found to be "dummy" corporations. Another interesting thing to note is that Marduk is a group under the Human Instrumentality Project and it's main job is to select EVA pilots. The lady reminds Kaji that he was ordered to investigate NERV (which is consistent with him telling Misato "I was ordered to hang around NERV"). At the school, Asuka tries to call Kaji and when she can't contact him she wonders why he has been away so much. Hikari also asks Asuka to go on a blind date, which she does finally agree to. In the classroom, Shinji stares at Rei while she wrings a wet cloth, somehow fixated by her action. Later, Shinji tells Rei he is going to meet his dad the next day and asks her what Gendo is like because he doesn't know what to say to him. She says she doesn't know and Shinji tells her she wrings a cloth like a mother would and that he is sure she will make a great mother. Rei blushes and tells Shinji "You embarrass me". As Shinji lies in his room at home, Misato walks in and tells him that she knows he is worried and he has to move forward. The next day while Misato, Ritsuko and Kaji attend a wedding, Shinji goes to the graveyard to see Yui Ikari's gravestone. Her gravestone says "1977-2004" and its revealed that Shinji hasn't visited this place for 3 yrs (when he ran away). Shinji says that for some reason he doesn't believe that his mother is really buried there and is saddened by the fact he can't even remember her face. Gendo tells him, "Burying memories is man's way of surviving, but there are some things man should never forget." and notes that it was Yui who taught him that. Even though he has no pictures of her, Gendo says, "Everything is kept in my heart. I am satisfied with that." As Gendo walks away to leave in a NERV carrier, Shinji says he is glad they had a chance to talk. While playing the cello at home, Shinji is interrupted by Asuka who ditched her date half way because she thinks "Kaji is the only man in my life." Meanwhile, Misato, Kaji and Ritsuko have made their way to a bar and are discussing the "good old times" when Misato and Kaji lived together and all three were friends in university. When Misato leaves to puke, Kaji gives Ritsuko a coin that he says, "the cat dragged in", and she notices it is from Kyoto. She warns Kaji that if he keeps digging too deep he will get "burned." As he begins to flirt with Ritsuko, Misato returns and tells him "you never change." "The act of living is an embracement of change", Kaji says and soon Ritsuko leaves. Kaji carries Misato back home and soon she begins to walk and reminisces about their life together. Misato says that she didn't dump Kaji because there was "another man" as she originally said; in fact, she was just too scared of becoming a woman. She realized she had fallen in love with a man exactly like her father, a man she hated. She joined NERV to escape the world and feels like she is no better than Shinji. Kaji tells her that it was her choice and she doesn't need to apologize to anyone for it. Misato begins to cry and say she is a child, someone who needs to be drunk to tell the truth and that she doesn't deserve to be Shinji's guardian because she is so pathetic. Enraged at how the woman he loves is abusing herself, Kaji kisses Misato and the two begin to rediscover the passion they believed dead. Back at home, Asuka is finding herself very bored and so she asks Shinji to kiss her. At first he is shocked, but through taunting Asuka is able to make Shinji submit. She plugs his nose and the two young pilots kiss (and they sound like they enjoy it). At long last, Shinji runs out of breath and while he recovers from the lack of oxygen Asuka rinses out her mouth, vowing not to kill time by kissing. Kaji brings Misato inside the house, placing the drunk Major on her bed and then leaving, despite Asuka's desperate pleas for him to stay. The next day, we see Gendo and Rei in "Central Dogma" which is far below the NERV command central we always see. Gendo watches Rei while she floats eerily in a large tube filled with a liquid that looks like LCL. Farther below, in "Terminal Dogma", Kaji tries to open a door marked "Keep Out" using Misato's ID card. He feels a gun pressed against his head and realizes that Misato is behind him. She says she knows he is a spy for the Japanese government and that it was her initiative, not Gendo's, to intercept him now. Kaji admits he knows Gendo is just using him but he also tells Misato that Ritsuko and Gendo are hiding something from her. As he dramatically swipes her ID card through the scanner, the doors open and Misato sees Adam, grown large, and pinned with the Lance of Longinus to a red cross. As Misato realizes her peers having been hiding the "key to the Second Impact", she says, "I don't know NERV. I don't know NERV at all." This was another strong episode, which created tension through emotional, not physical, conflict. Each of the characters is gaining a life of their own and as we learn more about the secrets of NERV, the more we can be sure that the past will become more and more important. The kissing scene between Asuka and Shinji was hilarious and it was touching to see him explain why he still plays cello. Shinji's playing because he was ordered and continuing to play because he wasn't ordered to stop was a great character moment, and the scene was only accentuated by Asuka's understanding. The final scene of this episode is chilling and will certainly have severe repercussions when Misato confronts Ritsuko (presumably next episode).