Episode 11

Episode Information
Episode #11
Title 1: {{{japanese_title_k}}} {{{japanese_title_r}}} {{{japanese_title_e}}} Title 2: In the Still Darkness
Written By	Hideaki Anno, Yoji Enokido
Directed By	Tetsuya Watanabe
First Aired	12-13-1995
Video Release Date	{{{video_release}}}
Angel Appearances	Matarael
Episode chronology
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"Episode 10"	"Episode 12"

Overview

When sabotage knocks out the power at Nerv HQ., the personnel must scramble to launch the Evas manually when an Angel appears. But will the pilots even arrive in time?

Synopsis

The episode opens as Ritsuko, Maya, and Shigeru Aoba, are doing their laundry. They then board a train and meet Vice Commander Fuyutsuki, who complains that he must meet with the city council that day, even though they are just figureheads and the Magi supercomputers make the actual decisions. He also mentions that Ritsuko will be conducting an activation test on Unit-00 that day.

At Nerv HQ, Misato boards an elevator. Kaji runs after her, and despite her pushing the "close" button, joins her. At this time Shinji calls Gendo to tell him that he needs a permission slip signed for a class function. Gendo starts to tell him that all those parental duties have been delegated to Misato when they are suddenly cut off. On the elevator, Misato and Kaji realize that there has been a power failure and speculate that Ritsuko might have caused it during the Unit-00 test. In the lab, Ritsuko denies responsibility. Fuyutsuki orders all the emergency power channeled to the Magi and Central Dogma.

Shinji, Asuka and Rei arrive at Nerv and find that their cards won't work to open the gate. Inside, Gendo and Fuyutsuki realize that the power must have been sabotaged. Just then, Matarael, the spider-like (but see link) 9th angel launches his attack.

The pilots try to call into HQ but are unsuccessful. Misato can't call out of the elevator as well. Meanwhile, a group of generals wonders why Nerv hasn't launched the Evas. Ritsuko and Maya must climb a maintenance ladder to get to the control room. Rei finally thinks to consult her emergency manual; the other pilots follow suit and they realize that they need to get to headquarters. Asuka declares herself leader and chooses Shinji to crank open the doors manually.

Hyuga, who had been picking up Misato's laundry, hears the evacuation order and confiscates a politician's loudspeaker van and heads to Nerv HQ. On the elevator, Kaji tries unsuccessfully to flirt with Misato. In the control room, Gendo, Fuyutsuki, and Ritsuko decide that the purpose behind the sabotage must have been to learn how they would react to it. Meanwhile, under Asuka's leadership, they pilots have got themselves lost. Hyuga passes above them in the van, informing everyone within earshot of the attack, but they are unable to get his attention. Rei points out a short cut and they begin crawling through an air vent. Shinji tries to speculate on the nature of the Angels, but Asuka thinks that the question is pointless; if they're attacking, they must be enemies. Asuka then leads them up the wrong path again, opens a door and has a face to face encounter with Matarael. Hyuga reaches the control room and informs them of the Angel's attack. Confident that the pilots will arrive on time, Gendo orders the Evas prepared for a manual launch.

Thanks to Rei, the pilots are on the right path once again. Asuka accuses Rei of being the favored pilot, which Rei denies. They begin crawling through a duct once again. Asuka orders Shinji not to look forward and gives him a swift kick to the face when he disobeys. They finally come crashing out of the vents into the Eva launch area. Shinji and Asuka landing in a heap, Rei nimbly landing on her feet. They find the Evas nearly ready for launch. Shinji looks on in awe as he sees a side of his father he has never seen before. Gendo is diligently working beside everyone else to insert the entry plugs by hand with a pulley.

The three pilots launch and craw into a large horizontal shaft to try to come underneath the Angel. But when they climb into the vertical shaft they realize that Matarael is trying to burn his way into Nerv with highly corrosive acid. They scramble into a side shaft, losing their guns in the process. Asuka comes up with a daring plan:

One Eva will be on defense and will block the acid and neutralize the Angel's A.T. Field. The backup Eva will drop to the bottom of the shaft and toss one of the guns to the offense Eva who will open fire as the defense Eva dodges back into the horizontal shaft. Rei volunteers for defense, but Asuka has reserved that role for herself and gives Rei the backup role. Shinji will be offense. The plan works perfectly and Matarael is destroyed. The power is restored, and Kaji and Misato, who had been trying to climb out of the elevator, fall into a heap, similar to Shinji and Asuka falling out of the shaft. As the episode ends, Shinji once again speculates about the Angels' motives; Asuka thinks that such speculation is meaningless.

Notes

• We see more of what off-duty everyday civilian life is like for Nerv personnel, when we see them all stopping at a laundromat. As Ritsuko, Maya and Shigeru do their laundry at the same laundromat, it would seem that they live near each other. Misato forces Makoto to bring her laundry to the laundromat for her.
  • This is the only time in the series that we see the trio of Nerv technicians in their civilian clothes. Shigeru was previously seen to be a guitar fan last episode, when he was reading guitar magazines and strumming an air guitar while in Nerv HQ. Here, he is seen carrying a guitar case on his back.
• The plane sent by the JSSDF to contact Tokyo-3 says it is part of the "Japanese Air Self-Defense Force", abbreviated JASDF. This would appear to be the air force subsection of the JSSDF.
• Blooper alert!! Watch for the shot of the general putting out his cigarette. It disappears before your very eyes.
• After two episodes of the red tinted closing credits, the blue credits screen is back.
• Tokyo-3 is controlled by the Magi, a trio of supercomputers. The civilian "town council" in Tokyo-3 is just a puppet with no decision making power whatsoever.
• Matarael is said to make landfall in the "former Atami area".

Analysis

• It is never explained who exactly sabotaged the power supply in Tokyo-3, and this remains an unanswered mystery of the series. It could have been Seele, or the Japanese government, or an independent act of terrorism. However, Ritsuko noted that because the loss of power didn't result in Tokyo-3's destruction, it was highly probable that the power sabotage was meant to probe Tokyo-3: by examining the order in which power was restored in Tokyo-3, whoever turned it off would gain a detailed blueprint of how Tokyo-3 and Nerv HQ operate. Having surmised this, Ritsuko created several dummy programs, restoring power to the base out of order, etc. trying to confuse whoever might be trying to gain reconaissance data on the base. Given that SEELE orders the JSSDF to attack Nerv HQ in The End of Evangelion, and at that time Aoba noted to Hyuga that it seemed that Seele had been planning this attack far in advance by cutting Nerv's defense budget, it seems likely that the real culprits behind the power sabotage were Seele.
• Matarael is probably the weakest Angel in the series: it is literally the only one to ever be killed using an Eva's standard-issue pallet rifle, and a single burst at that. It is probable that had there been no power outage and the Evas had been sortied against it normally, it would not have posed a significant challenge.
• The JSSDF generals refer to Matarael as the "Eighth Angel", even though it is really the Ninth Angel, meanwhile the Nerv team inside Central Dogma refer to it correctly as the Ninth Angel. This may not be just a dialogue mistake: it seems that while the top JSSDF commanders know that the first Angel, Adam, is what caused Second Impact 15 years ago, they know absolutely nothing about the secret existence of the second Angel, Lilith, in Terminal Dogma.
• Curiously, when Fuyutsuki mentions the Magi, Maya replies, "You mean the three supercomputers?," as if they are something she's only heard of. Actually, she works with them every day.
• Gendo Ikari, commander of the entire Nerv organization, can be reached from a pay phone? What type of security system do they have? Or did Shinji say who he was, and because he's a pilot the call got through? In which case, why would Gendo answer a phone call said to be from his son, if he was so annoyed to get it?
  • Shinji could conceivably have just told the Nerv HQ phone operator his Nerv personnel ID number, thus getting clearance, perhaps anticipating that his father wouldn't have even picked up the phone if told in advance it was from Shinji.

Quotes

• Ritsuko Akagi: (After the power goes out while she's conducting a test) "...It wasn't me."
• Rei Ayanami: "Man fears the darkness, and so he scrapes away at the edges of it with fire."