In the fifth episode of\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain<\/i>, THIS SHOW HURTS ME. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
WHAT IS THIS SHOW. WHAT IS IT.<\/p>\n
Lain<\/b><\/p>\n
I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be best for me to examine this based on the two characters \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Distortion\u00e2\u20ac\u009d follows, though I admit that I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just shouting into the void at this point. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve now accepted that\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0will never make this easy for me, so here goes: I believe that the Wired (or someone in the Wired) told Lain the truth. The other option is that what Lain was told was a lie, one probably intended to manipulate her, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see a reason why that would be the case. As far as I can tell, the Wired really does exist, and some power within in it is able to bleed over into Lain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world. And I was gonna type, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the real world,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d BUT THAT MIGHT NOT EVEN BE THE CASE. Lain may have stumbled on to a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153solution\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to the limited nature of human existence.<\/p>\n
And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a heavy thing to be dealt this early into the show. Lain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reality might just be a physical manifestation of a\u00c2\u00a0higher<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0reality, an illusion, a mass hallucination that covers the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real\u00e2\u20ac\u009d world. (Did this influence\u00c2\u00a0The Matrix<\/i>? This sounds a lot like\u00c2\u00a0The Matrix<\/i>.) It would explain a great deal of what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen, from Chisa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death to the bizarre ways in which the Wired invades Lain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reality. And now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wondering if the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153prophecy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the Wired spoke of was actually made by Lain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father. Didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he speak of the importance of the Wired, at least in a very cryptic way? The man told her this was the future; what if he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done? I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW, YALL. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m quite aware that I am grasping at straws, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all the show has given to me.<\/p>\n
Mika<\/b><\/p>\n
Which is why I want to rely more on Mika\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experience in this episode than Lain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. In her world, Lain is cut off from practically everyone else. Loneliness and isolation has always been a part of characterization since the start of the show. Accepting that, then I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to see how her narration might be flawed and limited, too. So I found it fascinating that the writers chose to give us a great deal of the story in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Distortion\u00e2\u20ac\u009d through Mika, who is only marginally online and can observe Lain through a different lens.<\/p>\n
I was going to say a more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153objective\u00e2\u20ac\u009d lens, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terribly fair. As we see in this episode, even\u00c2\u00a0her<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0experience is fractured and confusing. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still struggling with the act of piecing together her visions, her observations, and reality. What\u00c2\u00a0actually<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0happened here? What did she imagine? Does her proximity to Lain mean that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to experience more and more bizarre events like she did here? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how to answer that. (Or practically any other question I brought up here.) (I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know who I am.) (Or what my life is.) (This show is nothing but existential angst.)<\/p>\n
All that I can wrap my head around is that Lain begins to observe the changes that happen in her sister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. By chance (OR BY DESIGN??? I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW), she happens upon her sister as she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talking to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153God\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the Wired. From Lain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s having a powerful conversation about reality, but when Mika sees her, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s standing in the middle of the crosswalk as traffic rages past her. This comes\u00c2\u00a0after<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0the horrific accidents caused by the disruption of the computer system that guides all the auto-driving cars. So when she sees a glitch on a giant electronic advertisement, one where Lain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face appears, Mika starts to connect the dots.<\/p>\n
Can you blame her? Her sister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior has changed in a number of ways, from the way she acts in public to her deliberate isolation in her room, which has also been transformed into a terrifying HR Giger-esque amalgamation of wires and cables. She has\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>become utterly obsessed with the Wired. Thus, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also understandable that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so frightened by the ways in which someone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c perhaps the Knights? \u00e2\u20ac\u201c invade her life to tell her to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fulfill the Prophecy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Why\u00c2\u00a0her<\/i>? Why must she do it and not Lain? What role could Mika play that Lain could not? I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW. What I do know is that there were many moments in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Distortion\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that I found downright horrifying, especially that scene in the bathroom. I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just five episodes into this show, but\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0does psychological horror really well.<\/p>\n
So what of Mika\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s visions? Did they really happen? Or did she start having them as she looked into her drink at the dinner table? I could perhaps propose a loop theory to explain how she saw herself walk in the door, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not even sure that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth it. At the end of this episode, Mika still knows that Lain has changed. But does she remember that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed to fulfill the prophecy? Was that entire loop meant to remind her of that?<\/p>\n
Wow, this show is confusing.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Distortion\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b> In the fifth episode of\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain, THIS SHOW HURTS ME. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Serial Experiments Lain.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[661],"tags":[662],"class_list":["post-5823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-serial-experiments-lain","tag-mark-watches-serial-experiments-lain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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