FGC:Episode 02 Scene 08

Eva's True State ~ "Good Night"

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On to Episode 03 Scene 01>>

Screenshots

Cut #

Description/Dialogue

Commentary

310

Everyone watching.

Misato:“———Is the Eva…?”

Sharp-kun: Of course not! It's only Episode #02 :P

311

Eva slowly walks out of the blaze.

SE <<footsteps>>

Reichu: Well, Sachiel, congratulations. You can rest in peace now knowing that even your last resort had — yet again — absolutely no effect. Well, aside from melting the armor a little.

Keisuke-kun: And putting many people out of house and home.

312

As the Nerv personnel watch this, they are wrapped in terror rather than joy.

SE <<footsteps>>

<<Voices of commotion (men in front)>>

313

Nerv personnel watching.

SE <<footsteps>>

<<Voices of commotion (women in front)>>

314

Ritsuko behind Ibuki (shot from below). They both harbor fear.

SE <<footsteps>>

<<Voices of commotion>>

Ritsuko:“——— That is Eva's…”

315

Misato, accompanied by a sense of awe.

SE <<footsteps>>

Misato:“——— …true state.”

Reichu: "Are wa EVA no hontou no sugata." I've always wondered what the hell this line means, especially because what Ritsuko and Misato are talking about sort of determines what sugata should be translated as… (I just picked what seemed the least "problematic", although it still sounds lame.)

Keisuke-kun: Maybe they just wanted to say something cool that wouldn't "spoil the moment."

316

Ikari looking at Eva being displayed on the monitor. (He is the only person harboring a smile.)

Reichu: "That's my girl!"

thewayneiac: As I said last episode, there's a reason why Gendo's so confident.

317

Eva standing in a street lined with large buildings that had escaped meltdown. Further in, flame from the explosion.

Reichu: What's everyone so worried about? The Eva's behaving herself. She isn't running off and trashing the rest of Tokyo-3; her work's finished and she's cooperating (although I suppose we didn't necessarily know that a moment ago). In its own subtle way, EVA-01's behavior here hints that she isn't just some maniacal monster but, rather, she has her own motivations in all of this, which we won't learn about until much later on.

318

Fade-in from a black screen to Shinji, still in a daze.

SE <<(fade-in) Monitor noise and off-screen dialogue>>

Aoba (OFF - radio):“Circuits reconnected.”

Ibuki (OFF - radio):“Systems recovered. Graph placement normal.”

Hyuga (OFF - radio):“Pilot life signs confirmed.”

Woman (OFF):“LCL electrification ratio, restored to normal values.”

Man (OFF):“LCL pressure, restored to normal values.”

Woman (OFF):“LCL concentration, restored to normal values.”

Man (OFF):“Plug depth, restored to normal values.”

Keisuke-kun: "WTF just happened?"

Reichu: Considering all of the systems went haywire while EVA-01 took over, did Shinji actually experience the battle at all? Or was he just sitting in a dark entry plug for the whole duration?

HeWhoPostsStuff: Or maybe he was drawn further into it, and some kind of sensory overload knocked him out (and possibly contributed to the fears of "nerve contamination")?

Reichu: But if none of the systems were working properly, how is this possible? The Eva taking over seems to involve kicking Shinji out (as it were). Theoretically, I'd guess that his awareness of the outside world during the fight would be limited to what he could perceive from the "womb" of the plug.

But if that's true at all, it does make me wonder, like I said, why they seem to suggest that Shinji remembers parts of the battle for which he was not "present". This is a somewhat contentious issue, so I'll save the rest for some future appendix on the Eva-Pilot Relationship issues.

I also wonder how the "plug depth" changed during this incident… My best guess is that the depth would decrease, or even that Shogouki expelled the entry plug from her core altogether.

319

Shinji side profile UP. In the monitor, we can see the Eva being reflected on the wall of a building outside. Shinji is motionless.

Ritsuko (OFF - radio):“Unit recovery squad, hurry.”

Misato (OFF - radio):“The pilot's safety is the top priority.”

Reichu: Ah, the recovery squad… The mysterious department who works behind the scenes to make sure the Evas are always back in their Cages after a big battle scene!

There are some major technical problems with this scene regarding the cockpit visuals. (Maybe that's why Sadamoto didn't include it in the manga?) In this particular cut, the facial piece (which I would suspect contains the cameras that I mentioned back in Scene 1) becomes disconnected from the rest of the helmet, so shouldn't the screens have become immediately filled with noise?

320

The Eva's face falls to her feet and springs up.

Reichu: This is the frontal segment of EVA-01's helmet, which only seems to be connected to the rest via a joint around the cheek area. I have no idea why it suddenly decides to fall off only now, but, hey, it makes for a cool little scene.

Referring back to comments made in episode #01, there is a big booboo here and in C-322; the little white eye slits really shouldn't be there, since they're basically stylized stand-ins for the Eva's actual eyes. Recall how during the previous battle, there was no right eye slit, owing to the fact that Sachiel pulverized her right eye…

321

Shinji looking down, eyes UP.

322

Eva's head laying at her feet.

323

Shinji facing down. He becomes aware of something to the side and turns his face.

324

Shinji in front. Reflecting in the glass of the building is the Eva's true face.

Reichu: Well, finally! Hopefully there will be no more beating around the bush as to what constitutes Eva's actual face/head in the script from this point on…

Shinji apparently has actual control over the Eva now, since when he turns his head, Sho turns her head as well. This will pose an interesting question in a moment, though.

All things considered, I would have expected EVA-01's injuries face to involve slightly more than an empty eye socket. Where's all the gore? And the lance penetrated her skull, didn't it?

The Eva's head morphology here necessitates much ranting on my part, but, sadly, this will wait until I begin work on an extended treatise on the Evas, which will provide thorough coverage of anatomical matters. BTW, for those who haven't taken notice, EVA-01's forehead should look rather familiar.

Keisuke-kun: Interesting how there are pipes going into EVA-01's head. What are they for?

Reichu: My best guess is that they penetrate the skull and are used to monitor the brain. Violating the Evas like this is one of Nerv's pastimes, after all.

325

Shinji. Eye UP.

Reichu: Again, where is the visual feed coming from? I suppose cameras elsewhere on the helmet are a possibility… As mentioned before, the Evas' own eyes are pretty much redundant, far as the pilot is concerned. Shinji can't be "seeing" through Sho's eyes anyway, considering he is seeing what her right one obviously cannot (being as it's still missing!).

326

Eva in front, her form reflected by the building.

327

Shinji's eye widens, UP.

328

From beneath the part of her face gouged out by the Angel, an eyeball appears.

Reichu: Both here and in EoE, the Evangelion eye socket is given a "stylized vulva" look that I find hard to ignore. It makes a little sense if you consider that a new eyeball is "being born"… I don't think the resemblance is entirely in my head, either. When I showed the series to a friend of mine, at this point she abruptly commented, "It's a vagina!"

Mr. Tines: I wonder whether this may be a case of "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar", as, after all, there are only a few possible choices for the geometry (pore, mouth, possibly the few-pointed star like Sachiel's palm may be). The mainly horizontal alignment of the feature, and the symmetry about a line perpendicular to the length of the slot are what one would expect of an eye. This contrasts with the key geometric cues of the vulva, which are a vertical alignment and an asymmetry about the perpendicular axis.

Reichu: Sure, they're not "anatomically accurate" if they're meant to be "faux-vulvae" of sorts — but, then, how often is anatomic accuracy a requirement for the inverse concept, the omnipresent phallus? Even if you put the eye socket stuff aside, there are at least three instances in EoE that really, really stretch the whole "cigar is just a cigar" bit; IMO, Anno is definitely using "subliminal female genitalia" to mess with our minds.

FYI, this "bubbling" of flesh is a recurring motif in NGE, tending to accompany either metamorphosis or regeneration (which are similar concepts, in a sense).

Also, if EVA-01 really has relinquished control of her body back to her keepers, why is she regenerating now? This is the sort of thing she can obviously do of her own accord, but while Shinji is in control?? Not to mention it's rather odd that this is happening now, as opposed to during the battle (when Sho bothered to stop and heal her arm).

HeWhoPostsStuff: Methinks the answer's obvious: She wants to freak him out. After a hard day's battle one has to unwind a little, after all.

329

Shinji blinks. Terror…

Reichu: I was pretty freaked out the first time I saw this, too.

330

Shinji in front of the Eva. He looks at the eye that has appeared.

331

Shinji's eye UP.

332

Eva's eye UP.

Reichu: Kind of odd… Shinji's pupil is contracted, but the Eva's dilate — all four of them! (Along with the whole regeneration bit, that her eye is doing the opposite behavior of Shinji's makes me wonder if she really is under anyone else's control at this moment…) The three auxilliary pupils are a nice touch that will turn up again later.

333

Shinji's eye UP.

Shinji (OFF):“Uwaaaaaaaa!!! (bleed)”

Incisivis: I love the way Megumi Ogata screams in this shot. Positively chilling.

Reichu: And she has a rather disturbing talent for it, as well! One wonders how the woman avoided permanent vocal cord damage.

Incisivis: I think it's rare that a VA's performance can be so stressful there's permanent damage, based on my limited experience. It usually seems that some actors with difficult performances get pushed to their limits in a session and have to stop, but are fine later (this happened frequently to Richard Horvitz while recording for "Invader Zim"). Although, the first dub actress for Excel from Excel Saga had to quit because the hyperactive performance would have damaged her vocal cords. Don't know of any Japanese cases, but I'd imagine things are the same.

334

Eva's eye UP again. (Screen turns black.)

OMF: I've always wondered what happened after this. Surely everyone in Central Dogma heard him screaming his lungs out. Did he just pass out, or did Gendo have the recovery squad knock him over the head with a baton? (I think he would have gotten a few cheap laughs out of that.)

Reichu: Considering Shinji wakes up in a hospital bed, "pass out" sounds about right.

335

Suddenly, we are returned to the current time frame. Shinji.

Incisivis: The slow, shocked way Shinji turns over and starts to curl up after the flashback… for some reason, it really communicates a sense of trauma.

Reichu: You captured my thoughts about that shot exactly… I wasn't sure how to verbalize them.

336

Misato drying her hair.

337

Misato in front of Shinji's room, a bath towel wrapped around her body.

338

Shinji lying down.

Misato (OFF):“Shinji-kun… I'm coming in.”

SE <<Fusuma opening>>

339

Misato's shadow beyond Shinji.

Misato (OFF):“I forgot to tell you something…”

340

Misato's silhouette, a cowering Shinji in front.

Misato:“You did a very praiseworthy thing today.”

tv33: Coming to a boy's room late at night wearing nothing but a towel? What a tease.

Reichu: Well, it is her apartment, after all…

OMF: Misato is really the only person in the show who comes close to saying something like, "Oh! Thanks for saving the collective ass of the world, Shinji. Appreciate that." Mostly, he's lucky to get the time of day.

Reichu: Is Misato really thanking him for "saving the world"? She was right there when the Eva took over and, ahem, completed the mission; aside from getting into the Eva in the first place, Shinji had nothing to do with the battle's outcome…

341

Shinji UP.

Misato (OFF):“You should be proud of yourself.”

OMF: He doesn't look it.

Reichu: If Shinji's to be proud of anything, it's that he went against his own inclinations — and his antipathy for his father — to do what could be, from a certain perspective, considered "the right thing". And taking into account the frightening nature of what all that entailed, Shinji's taken an enormous step.