Episode 13

Episode Information
Episode #13
Title 1: {{{japanese_title_k}}} {{{japanese_title_r}}} {{{japanese_title_e}}} Title 2: LILLIPUTIAN HITCHER
Written By	Hideaki Anno,Akio Satsukawa, and Mitsuo Iso
Directed By	Tensai Okamura(director),Masahiko Otsuka(assistant director)
First Aired	12/27/1995
Video Release Date	{{{video_release}}}
Angel Appearances	Ireul
Episode chronology
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"Episode 12"	"Episode 14"

Overview

A routine test involving the Eva pilots turns into a nightmare when a wholly new type of angel appears and spreads inside the Pribnow Box, deep within the geofront. This new, computer-like angel threatens to set off the self-destruct for the entire facility, leaving Dr.Ritsuko Akagi in a race against time to save the geofront and destroy the angel.

Synopsis

The episode begins with Ritsuko Akagi and Maya Ibuki completing the 127th routine maintenance test of the Magi supercomputer system. Maya is impressed by her incredible skills at typing and coding. When the test is complete and everything is confirmed to be all right, Ritsuko goes into the washroom to freshen up. Inside, she looks into the mirror, and wonders if getting older is the only thing she is going to do.

An autopilot test for the Evas follows. Asuka, Rei and Shinji have to pass through an ultraclean-room environment, and walk to their entry plugs naked after a series of showers, to monitor the harmonics coming off their bodies without the interference of their plug suit. Shinji and even Rei seem somewhat apprehensive, and Asuka is outright rebellious. Ritsuko explains that the test is essential because the technology of the Evas is changing with time, and to upgrade their technology a constant stream of new data is required. She further assures them that the recorders on the video cameras will be turned off to maintain their privacy. Misato finally makes Asuka comply by ordering her to enter.

The pilots enter the "simulation plugs", the entry plugs for the simulation bodies kept inside the Pribnow Box, while the Magi monitor the data coming off their bodies. All three pilots notice that the sensation is different from being in a normal entry plug, and Asuka notices that her right arm is clear, but the rest of her body feels fuzzy. Rei is asked to move her right hand. As the Magi collect data from the test, a dilemma momentarily occurs among them. Ritsuko says, "You can sure see their creator's personality, can't you?", a comment that confuses and irritates Misato until Ritsuko explains that the real creator of the Magi was not her, but her mother.

Meanwhile, Aoba shows Fuyutsuki what look like stains on parts brought in three days previously, a location called the 87th protein wall. Hyuga thinks they are corrosion from trapped air bubbles, and comments that deterioration of sterilized rooms has been happening lately. Aoba makes further comments about a cut construction shedule and sloppy construction after the arrival of the angels, and Fuyutsuki reminds them to take care of the problem by the next day, "Or we will never hear the end of it from Ikari".

Maya informs Ritsuko of the corrosion in the protein wall above, but since it does not pose any problems to the test for the moment, Ritsuko decides to go ahead, saying that they can't abort the test due to minor technical issues. The simulation plugs are then connected to their Evas via their simulation bodies, contact being first established with Unit-00. Immediately afterwards, a contamination alert sounds as the corrosion begins to spread explosively.

The experiment is aborted, and several water pipes are sealed off to prevent it from spreading, but the corrosion continues to spread along the walls of the facility. Laser-equipped robots called polysomes are deployed to deal with the corrosion as it approaches. All of a sudden, Rei screams. Her simulation body is inexplicably moving and trying to break free of its corrosion-affected suspension system. It raises a hand towards the control booth, but Ritsuko blows up the arm using built-in explosives. The pilots are confirmed to be all right and ejected at once. The mass of corrosion is fired upon with lasers, but to everyone's shock and horror, it deploys an A.T. Field, revealing itself to be the eleventh angel, Ireul.

Immediate panic ensues in the command facility, and Central Dogma is closed off at once. All personnel evacuate the Pribnow Box, Misato having to drag Ritsuko out as the damaged glass cracks and the room floods. Gendo cancels the alarm, and orders that the committee and the Japanese government be informed of an error in the alarm system. He then orders the Evas to be launched pilotless to avoid the risk of infection, giving Eva-01 priority.

Meanwhile, Ritsuko and Misato attempt to fight the angel without the Evas. The angel appears to be vulnerable to dissolved oxygen, and pumping ozone into the infected zone causes the angel to initially retreat, but it soon evolves to thrive off ozone and spreads even further. Next, it turns into a system of electronic circuits, and proceeds to hack into Nerv's computer systems, reprogramming the Magi Melchior and attempting to initiate self-destruct for the facility. Unable to get clearance from the other Magi, it starts hacking into Balthasar as well. However, a temporary firewall is set up that prevents the Angel from hacking any further for the time being.

Ritsuko explains the nature of this new angel: a colony of microscopic entities working together to evolve and form intelligent circuits. Misato plans to physically destroy the Magi computer system, the host body of the angel, but Ritsuko vehemently refuses, insisting that she can counter-hack the angel and program it to reach an evolutionary dead end, where it will have no choice but to die.

Ritsuko opens up the entrance into the physical structure of the Magi Capser, the sole uninfected Magi. The crawlspace is covered with post-it notes containing access codes and back doors to the Magi system, which can help them program faster. Misato chats with Ritsuko about the personality transplant operating system used on the Magi and the Evangelions. Ireul, meanwhile, breaks through the firewall and completes infecting Balthasar, and with one second to go before Casper is defeated, the counter-hacking program is installed. The Magi are promptly restored to their normal status, and Ireul dies out.

In the aftermath, Shinji is left wondering what has happened, and Asuka is still whining. Misato hands over cup of coffee to Ritsuko, happy that she kept her promise again. An exhausted Ritsuko opens up a little to Misato, explaining that the Magi represent the three aspects of her mother's personality. She admired her mother as a scientist, but did not really understand her as a mother, and even hated her as a woman. Casper, the third Magi and the one responsible for stopping the Angel, was the one with the personality of her mother as a woman. "She remained a woman to the very end, just like my mother."

Notes

• The English title, "Lilliputian Hitcher" is a reference to Gulliver's Travels.

• The Magi supercomputers, mentioned by name several times before and explicitly identified as such in Episode 11, are the focus of this episode. We learn that they were built by Ritsuko's mother, Naoko Akagi. Naoko felt that each of the "personality" of each of the Magi represented one of the three aspects of herself: Naoko as a scientist (Melchior), Naoko as a mother (Balthasar), and Naoko as a woman (Casper).

• Ritsuko appears deeply influenced by her deceased mother: she refers to her mother several times in this episode, and her comment on growing older seems to indicate a drive to be as accomplished as and worthy of her mother as a scientist.

• Misato's drive to destroy Angels and sense of intution, which worked so well in the previous episode and Episode 5, comes to a point of dangerous irrationality: she suggests the physical destruction of the Magi so that the Angel has no growth medium. This time, it is Ritsuko's logic and clear thinking that wins out.

• The only appearance of the simulation bodies in the entire series. The simulation bodies appear to be coreless Evangelion torsos, perhaps parts from the failed Evangelions seen in Episode 23. At least one body (Rei's) is missing its left arm, and all of them lack legs and heads. What purpose they actually serve is unknown, and it is not known if they are restored or used again afterwards.

• The first appearance of an angel directly inside Central Dogma. It is never explained how it managed to go so deep inside the Geofront undetected, but comments made during the episode suggest it entered through a construction defect.

• Ireul is an angel composed of a series of microscopic organims acting in concert: The angel's A.T. Field isn't a single polygonal barrier, but a moving, pulsating grid of hexagons.
  • In the sole magnified image of Ireul that we see, it displays the same rainbow-like pattern of colors seen in SEELE's logo, before changing to a tangle of lines (Similar to one briefly seen in Episode 23), and then to a form that visibly resembles electronics before the screen cuts to static.

• The Evangelions are launched with priority given to Eva-01, with the other two Evas to be sacrificed if necessary. Once again, a hidden hint to how special Eva-01 is.

• Misato thinks that the same "Personality transplant" operating systems used by seventh-generation computers to think for themselves are also in the Evangelions. Misato is rarely in the know, and whether or not she is right or wrong on this issue is an open question: Ritsuko does not answer her, and the question is never brought up again. However, the problems associated with "thought noise", especially during Eva-02's activation in Episode 08, suggest that such a system might be used as an interface between the pilot and the resident soul.

Analysis

• Casper's personality, in particular, comes to be of vital significance in the End of Evangelion.

• It is never explained what the simulation bodies are made of, although parts from failed Evas seem the most likely. How the pilots synchronize with the simulation bodies themselves remains unexplained: there aren't any souls inside, and the simulation bodies visibly lack cores. It also raises a question as to whether Evangelions are born with cores, or if these are somehow manufactured.

• Ireul's method of entry is never revealed, but dialogue suggests that it either got in through trapped air bubbles, or a crack, or got on a construction part (A tiny angel hitching a ride on a construction part, hence the English title: Lilliputian Hitcher). The initial, vaguely cross-shaped mass of the angel is right on top of a junction between plates, to add to that possibility.

• The event of Ireul spreading to the simulation bodies and Rei's body moving has a number of oddities:
  • Asuka says that her body feels fuzzy but her right arm is clear, and Ritsuko responds by asking Rei to focus on moving her right arm. Aside from the unusual nature of the tests(Rei and not Asuka, is instructed to move her arm), why does the right arm on Rei's body actually move later, when Asuka is the one who feels strange?
  • Precisely when Rei's simulation body is linked to Eva-00, Ireul expands explosively. This might make Ireul, and not Bardiel, the first angel to attempt contact with Eva-00/Rei.
  • Only Rei's simulation body tries to break free, and seemingly at the moment it comes into contact with Ireul and not after being fully covered. It also moves the same way Eva-00 does when it goes berserk, pulling at its shoulder restraints. The other two simulation bodies remain unaffected. Notably, Ireul shows no sign of actually fusing with the simulation bodies the way Bardiel and Armisael later do, and the pilots seem unaffected.
    • The moment Rei screams and the simulation body tries to break free, Ritsuko is standing right next to Misato, and the arm moves up towards Misato in the control booth before Ritsuko blows it off at the shoulder. Gendo in Episode 5, Misato in this episode, and Rei herself in Episode 14, stand behind a window while Eva-00 (in this case, a simulation body linked to Eva-00) attempts to strike the glass in front of them, and, next episode, Ritsuko is convinced that Eva-00 wanted to attack her. The simulation body was connected to the Evangelion at the time of its sudden movement. What really made that body move- Ireul, or the Eva?
    • Ritsuko stares at the glass, unmoving, just before it is about to break and shatter, and she seems unusually preoccupied when Misato asks her why she takes all the blame. She looks in a similar way the next episode, when she is convinced that Eva 00 was after her. She might have an inkling of why it moved.

• Ireul's A.T. Field pulsates as a grid of hexagons that change size or pop in and out of existence. This, the method of the angel's expansion, and Ritsuko's analysis of the angel, imply that it is a colony angel that reproduces and spreads, which is at direct odds to what happened after Second Impact- no new angels could be born. There cannot have been new souls for each component of Ireul produced, so it might have simply been the same microscopic angel copying its own soul, or its own soul was capable of existing in multiple places at the same time. Ayanami Rei, the vessel of Lilith's soul, can manifest her existence in multiple locations and even at different times, so Ireul could easily have done something similar.

• From the image seen, Ireul was extremely rapid in its evolution to electronic circuitry, and Fuyutsuki commented that it was searching for something within the files. Ireul then reprogrammed the Magi to initiate self-destruct, possibly at the risk of destroying itself. Since it already had broken into the computers and read all the files inside, it might have found out that the Angel in Terminal Dogma was Lilith, although its reaction(trying to destroy NERV headquarters) was very different from that of Tabris, who let himself be killed.

• Ritsuko's intent on blaming herself for the Angel's invasion and the Magi's corruption might be due to feelings of her own inability to build on or even protect her mother's work, and prevent the Magi from being taken over in this way. By "keeping her promise", she seems to be trying to keep up with the image of her mother once again.