In the second episode of Steins;Gate, Okabe embarrasses himself again, only to discover that maybe there IS something terrible going on. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Steins;Gate.
Trigger Warning: For brief discussion of cissexism/possible misgendering
What the fuck is this show? WHAT WAS THIS????
Kurisu
So she’s alive, and what Okabe witnessed didn’t happen… in this world line? I feel like that moment in the midst of this episode that gave us the story of John Titor was more than a story. What is they were right? What if this is a show about someone who can either jump or erase world lines? Of course, that leaves a huge unanswered question: Why is Okabe the only person who can observe the changes between world lines?Â
I went into this thinking that Kurisu’s dialogue with Okabe in the past episode was evidence that she knew something else was going on, but the opening of “Time Travel Paranoia†not only dispels that, it features Kurisu dunking on the very concept that time travel or time machines are possible. SO THAT’S FUN. It’s also hilarious? We are only two episodes in and Okabe has interrupted two lectures and been immediately shamed for it. Not only that, but he was so convinced that she was part of all this, and this is like… the most extreme counter to it imaginable.
AND THEN SHE FUCKS ME UP BY SHOWING UP AT THE END OF THE EPISODE. How the fuck did she find out about the Future Gadget Laboratory? (Actually, there’s a part of me that is certain that Okabe talks about it online all the time and has actually said where it is. Another part of me thinks that this is genuinely creepy because he is so paranoid, so perhaps he’s always been secretive about it the whole time.) What’s her goal here? Does she have a sense of what is going on?
Ruka
So, trying to learn from my recent misbehaving over on Mark Reads. I am just going to pose a question rather than make any definitive statements here. I was a little shocked by Okabe’s repeated statement that Ruka is a guy, so… what is actually going on here? If that’s a spoiler, then ignore me and I’ll figure it out, but I wasn’t sure how Ruka identifies or what the intent of their character was. Were they misgendered or did I completely misinterpret this?Â
Beyond that, I am confused for an entirely separate reason: what the hell was that exorcism bit??? Are these characters role-playing some sort of epic fantasy/sci-fi struggle or something? Because we see it later with Mayuri at her work with one of her friends, and I honestly don’t understand what all that was.Â
Suzuha
I’ve got a lot of new characters to keep track of due to this episode, and one of them is Suzuha, who now works for Okabe’s landlord. Okabe is frequently an asshole to the people around him, including his landlord, and his reaction to Suzuha is right in line with how he seems to see everyone around him. They’re either lesser than him or part of some grand conspiracy to take him down, which is… not a very great way to interact with others. Plus, I’m guessing that Suzuha is important to this story given the weird subplot with the IBN 5100. There’s no way that’s a coincidence, y’all. If she’s great with electronics, perhaps that’s how she’ll contribute?
John Titor
I’m fascinated by the contrast between Okabe’s perceived conspiracies and the actual conspiracy that is unfolding around him. He is an irrational person who overreacts and is prone to paranoia, and most of the people in his life—especially Daru—make fun of him for this. He’s off-base frequently; both this episode and the first one reveal that he is wrong about something he is absolutely certain of. However, he isn’t wrong about John Titor. He remembered someone posing as a time traveler online in 2000, an event so important that books were written about this person.Â
Books that no longer exist on Okabe’s shelves. And there is no history online of John Titor ever existing beyond the posts Okabe finds in the present day. WHICH FEELS INCREDIBLY CREEPY, Y’ALL. Again, I don’t get how Okabe is the only one who is aware that history has changed!
IBN 5100
Except I think that the introduction of Moeka is confirmation that SOMEONE ELSE KNOWS HISTORY HAS CHANGED, TOO. Moeka took a photo of Okabe on the street, which… was a very weird moment? Did she know that he was paranoid about that? Did she exploit that so that she could get information from him? That computer that she showed Okabe, according to Daru, is more myth than reality, and that makes me think that Moeka knows that this strange time manipulation is happening. Why an IBN 5100? I don’t know. But Moeka’s intensity has to mean something, right?
The Experiment
YOOOOOOOO I AM STILL REELING FROM THE FINAL SCENE IN THIS EPISODE. Again, Okabe is trying to be a mad scientist, and he wants to disrupt world powers, but he mostly fails at… well, everything? His Phonewave device (whose name might change at a later date) is the only thing he’s constructed that does anything, but even that is a bizarre mess. It can turn bananas into a green gel. Which is not helpful in any situation ever. That’s precisely way I was just as shocked as everyone else when the single banana disappeared from the Phonewave, only to reappear back on the bunch in gel form. HOW. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? I suppose I was also excited because Daru witnessed this as well, and he’s been such a constant form of skepticism that I wonder if he’ll change his outlook on all of this. He saw something! He knows that Okabe didn’t imagine it! WHAT THE FUCK.
The video for “Time Travel Paranoia†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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