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Mar 1, 2014 7:06 PM

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Dec 2013
38
lmao, every episode I keep saying to myself ok things must be explained at some point but every episode ive just kept on getting more and more confused. Im hoping the last few episodes can pull everything together nicely
Jun 5, 2014 6:14 PM

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Mar 2014
2752
Slurpentine said:
I think the recap was necessary for the people having an extremely tough time understanding the show.

Oh, because that recap wasn't difficult to follow or confusing or anything...
Seems like they just threw it in randomly. Maybe they had that guitar track and wanted to make a music video with it or something. That's what the first half of the episode felt like to me, lol.

Second half of the episode was once again just weird. It's like the show has a bunch of style to it, but no real substance, because the things that happen just all seem incredibly random and strange.
Like, it almost seems like a big "wtf" mindfuck show, with good presentation, but without any real reason behind many of the things that happen, and that's a bit worrying.
If they don't wrap things up in the last two episodes, I'm going to end up having some serious mixed feelings towards this show, lol
::End of Transmission::


Jun 14, 2014 6:08 AM

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Nov 2013
586
The first half was a series of flashbacks resulting from Lain uploading the contents of her Navi to her brain. But yeah, its main purpose was probably to recap the series, even though it was more like an acid trip.

In the second half, the part with Lain appearing in Arisu's doorway intrigued me. Lain had the body of an alien, which suggests that she's finally recognizing her other selves (Lain is Lain), unlike a couple episodes earlier when she was confused as to who or what she was. Also, this "alien-Lain" mentioned to Arisu that she's trying to fix things, specifically the rumors of her fantasies with her teacher. Could the alien in episode 9 also have been the same Lain, watching over herself and others in order to figure things out?
Sep 21, 2014 4:18 PM

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Apr 2014
1167
So this episode was pretty much an unnecessary recap.
Oct 10, 2014 4:20 AM

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Dec 2009
1004
The recap was actually her uploading everything into her brain, there were a few extra scenes that were added; I've been watching this between episodes of Samurai Champloo for the last day or so, so I'm pretty fresh on what hasn't been shown (have a good memory for that).

Anyway it just proves that Lain was there for events that she originally couldn't remember. Basically she was merging with the other Lains. That's why he said she was almost past max capacity.

Btw Lain needs to hire a house keeper, her place is a mess! lol

     
Nov 7, 2014 6:01 PM

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Jan 2014
1422
Soo this is like Alice's side of the story when lain reset everyone's memories? I'm gonna go with that

Also I really do not get the whole "god" thing. Isnt eiri that old guy who died? Who's the random floating guy in bandages and face paint?? If he's the god of the wired then what does that make lain? I thought she was supposed to be god...

And I don't really buy that lain is a program... Everything that comes out of the floating guy seems super sketchy, he's just messing with her head I think...
laputiaNov 7, 2014 6:08 PM
Jan 27, 2015 8:31 AM

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Oct 2014
3645
What the actual fuck?
Is she an alien?
My head
Feb 1, 2015 12:51 PM

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Aug 2014
5132
- I think Lain undid what happened to the short-haired girl and that's why her friends didn't bother her about liking the teacher.
- Lain seems to have somehow become one of those alien like beings
- My theory on the aliens is that they could be representative of the idea that people can watch you and get information from you through the wired, so the alien represents some random person you don't know, a person that is alien to you, can peek into your personal life and that is why the alien was peeking in on Lain and her sister. That is probably why the show kept mentioning "peeping tom"
- The reason that Lain's sister was freaked out would be because of the fact that the peeping tom got into her personal life and exposed that she had sex with that guy and probably exposed other things that were private to her if my theory is correct about the alien playing that role.
- Lain has gotten so far into the wired that now she has become one of the aliens as we saw her doing the same thing as that alien did when she peeked in the short-haired girl's room. The only difference is that it had Lain's head because the girl already knew her.
- Lain confirmed that the wired and the real world have merged in this episode
- Also, after seeing that part where the other more out-going Lain took over the Lain we know again, I think now that she was the idea of how Lain changed and how she is actually the girl that took over because that is how she acts on the wired. I'm not sure if I already said that or not.
Feb 7, 2015 12:26 PM
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Jan 2012
1067
What the hell, Lain? You appeared in Alice's house looking like an alien and scared the fuck out of her. Something tells me Alice isn't going to be exactly grateful for Lain erasing people's memories.
Feb 24, 2015 11:05 AM

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Jan 2014
1832
Alien Lain xD
Feb 24, 2015 1:43 PM
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Oct 2009
173
Why do so many of you think the Alien thing is so literal? It's a metaphor for rewriting history and making it fact AND for her feeling of alienation towards the real world
Mar 17, 2015 9:09 AM
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Jun 2013
2899
alien lain made me laugh. Looks so goofy. I still dont get whats going on. Though it seems lain has become super powerful and she actually helped her only friend. though yea I agree him messing with an 8 grader is creepy.
May 9, 2015 12:30 PM
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Nov 2014
26586
Nice guitar amv haha. Dat lain creepy smile at the end lol, very haunting.
Jun 23, 2015 1:21 AM

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May 2012
1066
guitar solos always tie everything together :p

pretty trippy episode, i like
Aug 8, 2015 11:34 AM

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Aug 2015
177
I didn't understand the recap montage thing until I read some comments here about her uploading her memories or whatever. Still, kind of a waste of time to me. And wtf is with "alien Lain"? I was hoping this series would get better once they started explaining everything, but it just seems to be getting worse... Oh well, only two episodes to go... ★2/5
Aug 10, 2015 12:35 PM
Sleepy

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Nov 2014
2003
That recap just proved how forgettable episodes were to me. Honestly, I don't mind these slower type of anime but at least give me an explaination to what's happening. It just keeps throwing random scenes at me which make no sense. Well with 2 episodes to go I'll just finish it. Expected more though.
Aug 10, 2015 7:41 PM

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Aug 2014
139
Last 2 eps better fucking do some explaining.
Nov 23, 2015 8:05 PM

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Aug 2013
337
Primity said:


Same though.
Dec 29, 2015 6:40 AM

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Jul 2015
165
happyhellhound said:
...what? I'm beginning to think they just throw in a bunch of random crap to make the writers seem smart O-o

I was also starting to think that at one point.
Jan 15, 2016 5:31 AM

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Jun 2013
3513
berserker15 said:
- I think Lain undid what happened to the short-haired girl and that's why her friends didn't bother her about liking the teacher.
- Lain seems to have somehow become one of those alien like beings
- My theory on the aliens is that they could be representative of the idea that people can watch you and get information from you through the wired, so the alien represents some random person you don't know, a person that is alien to you, can peek into your personal life and that is why the alien was peeking in on Lain and her sister. That is probably why the show kept mentioning "peeping tom"
- The reason that Lain's sister was freaked out would be because of the fact that the peeping tom got into her personal life and exposed that she had sex with that guy and probably exposed other things that were private to her if my theory is correct about the alien playing that role.
- Lain has gotten so far into the wired that now she has become one of the aliens as we saw her doing the same thing as that alien did when she peeked in the short-haired girl's room. The only difference is that it had Lain's head because the girl already knew her.
- Lain confirmed that the wired and the real world have merged in this episode
- Also, after seeing that part where the other more out-going Lain took over the Lain we know again, I think now that she was the idea of how Lain changed and how she is actually the girl that took over because that is how she acts on the wired. I'm not sure if I already said that or not.


I always like your interpretations the most. :D

For those insulting the intelligence of the other viewers who are having a difficult time interpreting the meaning of the show, how would YOU know that your interpretation is any more valid than anyone else's here? Movies, series, novels, songs, poems, etc. and the meanings they relay are up to the person reading or viewing them. The only person who knows what a show, book, poem, song's true meaning is, are the the creators themselves.

I find it hilarious that these people think anyone who doesn't appreciate or understand SEL is some sort of plebeian but they fail to give their own interpretations of the series itself. Shaming others for not finding enjoyment in the series or being unable to comprehend it doesn't make you any more intelligent. I'm sure plenty of you don't know a single thing about RNA splicing, classifying antibiotics and what Angiotensin II receptor antagonists are used for without googling them.

Anyway, I'm surprised but at the same time, not too surprised that Arisu is still playing an effective role in the series. She's Lain's only connection to the real world and wanted to reverse the ill effects the Wired have done to her life. Also Lain mentioning that there might another Arisu on the Wired was interesting. Lain looked fucking creepy with her grayish blue hand, short torso and blue leg, damn.
臭い-
Jan 22, 2016 9:05 PM

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Jan 2010
1526
this is getting considerably retarded...it's like a bad lsd trip...i'm starting to skip parts of episodes, which i rarely do...

2/5
Sayonara,papa!


"Just how a mirror reflects you,people will also reflect your heart."
~Athena Glory,Aria

"Whatever happens,happens"
~Spike Spiegel's thoughts on dying(Cowboy Bebop)
Jan 23, 2016 7:38 AM

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Aug 2014
1867
I Dont give a shit about the wired anymore lol , Bad Episode .
Mar 1, 2016 1:52 PM

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Aug 2014
5049
Lain face's on that alien's body is the creepiest thing ever...
Apr 10, 2016 1:58 AM
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Mar 2013
302
She's removing memories. How cute
May 24, 2016 10:20 AM

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Feb 2016
1117
I would go for an in depth essay about this but i'm eating pizza right now so I'll rather go by saying that the first part of this episode was something an anime should never do. Flashbacks without any dialogue.
Jul 30, 2016 12:51 PM

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Jan 2016
1694
I swear this kid has the weirdest smile in TV history.
Oct 9, 2016 10:28 AM
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Oct 2016
11
Henrrieta said:
I actually managed to make sense of most of the show.

Essentially, Lain is an entity that is able to exist both in reality and the Wired. She was created by the creepy looking guy in order to serve as a pawn to him, to connect every human through the wired. Most of what she sees is not real, but a result of being mixed in with the wired and receiving stray 'transmissions' and they often end up becoming very distorted, which explains to more creepy stuff. An artificial family was created to make her environment seemingly normal, and her father was made a computer maniac so that eventually Lain would get into computers and fulfill the dream of 'God', an person whose psyche now exists in the wired. When she finally realises this, she does connect and manipulate every human using her power over the wired except for the one that mattered most to her, Arisu, and leaving a message hinting at what she has done.Arisu eventually goes to see Lain, and remind her that she needn't forsake herself. "God" tries to intervene but convincing Lain to assimilate Arisu as well, but Lain refuses, and destroys him when he tries to attack. Deciding that power like the Wired is too dangerous for humanity, she essentially rewrites reality, removing memories of the Wired and herself from everyone so that it wouldn't matter if the Wired existed. Lain decides to stay in the Wired isolated, but a conversation with her other personality, now being able to separate from her due to the nature of herself and the Wired, helps her understand a little bit more, and she destroys her other self. She is then rescued by 'father', probably another entity like Lain that was created to nature her, and decides to continue existing as an immortal entity.

Does that make sense?


This is EXACTLY how I've interpreted what's been happening. THis show is so good!
Jan 11, 2017 2:21 PM

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Jan 2017
11
the recap was a little.... i didn't like it so much and the guitar gave me a headache so i watched it on mute.... but i know a recap was necessary since so much has happened. im excited to finish this series! 2 more episodes to go
May 10, 2017 7:29 PM

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Jul 2009
57
TowardsTheStars said:
Didn't like the recrap.

I think I'm too stupid for this show, or I'm not paying attention enough.


no you are not. they just developing the story poorly. they only wil show the truth probably in the last episode. i hope im not disapointed
Jul 20, 2017 5:51 PM

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Mar 2011
25
I like to think that the recap is there to imply the importance and beauty of
her life on Earth. A slice of what is shown to us, are her good memories. After all, we see Lain refusing to accept Eiri's claims that her physical presence on Earth is insignificant. She wants to believe her life on Earth matters and is wonderful in itself.
filepileJul 20, 2017 5:55 PM
Dec 12, 2017 10:21 AM

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Jan 2017
622
At this point i'm wondering why there's so much discrepancy between Wired's Lain and real world Lain. Like, not only when it comes to personality issues, but her goals; Wired's Lain seems to side with Masami whereas the other is doing the exact same opposite, it is cause Masami can somehow control Wired's Lain so that everything she does matches his goals?
SEIZON SENRYAKU: Hungry 100% of the time.
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Apr 23, 2018 8:37 AM

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Mar 2018
387
In that whole recap sequence and elsewhere, did anyone else notice the odd juxtapositions of pairs of characters with similarly-drawn faces?

- The bearded man-in-black (Karl?) looks similar to the cigarette-smoking, sunglasses-wearing club guy (5:40).
- Mika looks similar to the delivery man (5:55).
- The men-in-black's boss looks similar to the boy who took Lain on a date (Taro?) (6:35).

I mean, the boy with the gun at around 15:45, who tries to make Lain shoot herself, he is obviously similar to (the same as?) the guy who shot himself in the nightclub. This leads me to suspect that the other pairs of similar-looking characters might also be significant. Perhaps it is meant to suggest that all the people in the "real world" are not real at all, but just a small set of "actors" who each take on several roles (controlled by Eiri/God and/or Lain, who may or may not be one and the same).

And what were those strange electrical towers that Lain glimpses at about 16:30 (at the end of the conversation where the boy wants her to shoot herself)?
SpectrumDTApr 23, 2018 8:46 AM
Aug 25, 2018 12:02 PM

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May 2018
313
So Lain is a... software??? I really like the recap part...
"No matter where you go, everyone's connected." Iwakura, Lain.

Oct 31, 2018 10:34 PM

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Oct 2016
602
Apparently, the first half of the episode was a "summary", but can it mean anything? with this series I do not even know what to think about each scene.
And about the rest, Lain is being a goddess? She can erase what the "other Lain" could do.
Apr 14, 2019 8:53 AM

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Oct 2012
7188
I don't know where the story is going for
I guess there are a lot of Arisu, I don't know which one is real though
Is the one told Lain isn't needed in real world real? Prob only Lain's imagination

That ending is a bit creepy for me :P
"Signature removed"
Apr 26, 2019 11:14 PM

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Sep 2013
3373
We got some solid answers this episode, but I felt the 10 minute Jimi Hendrix wanna-be guitar solo flashback scene was unnecessary. I get that it was Lain uploading a ton of info into her brain, but they could have done the same thing in about 10 seconds and had a stronger impact. It felt like they were just filling time.

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Aug 2, 2019 7:54 PM
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Apr 2016
5
most boring episode by far
Nov 10, 2019 9:08 AM

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Jun 2015
1720
Jean_Claymore said:
Lolz, yeah sure. Talk about mindfucks... TBH, I couldn't even get a single part of the story either XD Though I think the authors intentions of making the plot with dark atmosphere and unreal world weren't that bad, it was rather too vague and confusing for some to comprehend its flow. Maybe I should try manga for extra info?

I would recommend you to play the PS1 game. It seems to complement the anime.
Apr 21, 2020 12:38 PM
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Feb 2015
235
This recap was useless and too long, I've never hated an electric guitar this much in my entire life.
AyXiitApr 21, 2020 1:19 PM
Apr 29, 2020 10:42 AM

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Feb 2019
3432
OST during recap was kinda good. They showed arisu's part in latter half. Seems like she went through a bit as well.
May 16, 2020 7:07 AM

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Dec 2013
2571
I don't think the recap isn't that bad. I literally covered my screen when Arisu's door opened, I thought there's going to be a jumpscare. In previous eps, (EP 3&8) some ppl in wired mentioned that they saw a little kid/child like in red and green striped shirt. Their description doesn't seem to be like for an alien like what Lain saw before. So maybe what they saw is Lain that appeared in Arisu's doorstep? IDK, maybe I'm overthinking. Okay time to finish this anime



★━━─
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵?
𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺?


May 20, 2020 1:53 AM
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Feb 2020
2
Something I noticed in the recap, at around 7 and a half minutes in it cuts to a real life skyline shot with the time "1:23AM" in the top right, that would be the actual time when it was airing live on TV back in 1998, since it started at 1:15 AM.
Jun 23, 2020 10:21 AM

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May 2016
12380
It looks like Lain took the viewers down memory lane. I think that her act of transferring her experiences recorded in Navi into her own mind was something done in desperation in order to preserve her own sense of identity because those memories at least gave her the feeling that she's a real person in a sense and not just a software program riding a hologram made out of artificial ribosomes. I kinda liked the semi-recap because of that~

I didn't expect to see Arisu's perspective and her situation being pretty similar with Lain's in terms of how complicated it is. I guess that Lain's trying to fix things in her own way but things don't exactly look like it got better or anything so far.








Aug 12, 2020 12:35 PM

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Feb 2020
1286
Last two episodes have been mindblowing... Like, even more than usual.
This episode in particular was definitely weird. I mean, half of it was nothing but a kind of weird recap of events that happened in the series. I'm sure there's a meaning but I didn't manage to get it.
I'm a bit confused. I'm not sure whether or not Lain having been created by this God is true or if she is imagining things and is the real God. After all, last episode they exchanged bodies at some point...
I don't know what to believe anymore.... Still love it though but wow that's confusing. (However I hope it'll actually make sense at the end, I'm really afraid to be left with a bad conclusion that whether doesn't explain anything or doesn't actually make sense.)
And incredibly creepy too.
What was up with Lain coming to Arisu's room ?! I mean, I get that she destroyed the barrier between the Wired and the real world which allows her to go wherever she wants but why did she look like that ? Does it have something to do with the alien from episode 9 ?
What's also confusing is how Lain seemed to find totally normal the fact that she hacked the system so well she is capable of undoing events, but it isn't really in-character for this version of Lain...
Is she going insane or something ?
However she seems to keep insisting that Creepy Lain isn't the same Lain as her, even though God told her that's not the case...
And of course it's important to mention that scene at the end. Lain apparently managed to undo what happened with Arisu, but the Lain who appeared wasn't Regular Lain despite what it first seemed.
Arisu immediately pointed out that Lain smiled. And well, it's not the first time we see Regular Lain smile, and it's not the first time Arisu does either. What the really issue is is the fact that Lain smiled like Creepy Lain !!! And that's a pure psychotic smile, so different from her regular, innocent one.
Was it actually Creepy Lain or is it more complicated than that ?
And let's not forget what happened at the end of episode 8. It turned out the one who got erased from reality wasn't Creepy Lain but Regular Lain. Could this have something to with everything that has been going on in episodes 10 and 11 ?
FafetteAug 12, 2020 12:40 PM
Sep 30, 2020 12:02 PM

Online
Jan 2016
1620
This series peaked at like episodes 4-7.
Sep 30, 2020 11:56 PM

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Jul 2016
8101
The first half of this episode had to be the trippiest recap I have ever seen in my life. Well, guess it was the same case for Lain since that summary of events was basically what she was experimenting while copying her Navi into her physical brain.

Interesting episode overall. If I have to guess, its main purpose was to explore Lain's conflicted psyche regarding the pros and cons of having a physical body (hardware). Mostly everyone wants her to leave it behind since she's basically a software at this point but she feels she will lost her own sense of identity by doing it so now, I'm particularly interested in seeing how this situation will conclude.

As for Alice, the poor girl sure was about to have a mindbreak moment with such bizarre visit from Lain. That part and the following sequence at the school gates were kinda confusing tho. I mean, didn't Lain already reset everyone's memories a few episodes ago?... Unless it was some sort of flashback from Alice's POV, perhaps?

And well, as for Lain appearing with an alien body, I will simply go with the idea of it being a metaphor of her alien version resembling her feeling of alienation towards the real world. I think you don't have to think too hard about this aspect at least.
SouthRzVaOct 1, 2020 12:02 AM
Oct 3, 2020 3:04 PM
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Aug 2020
629
Henrrieta said:
I actually managed to make sense of most of the show.

Essentially, Lain is an entity that is able to exist both in reality and the Wired. She was created by the creepy looking guy in order to serve as a pawn to him, to connect every human through the wired. Most of what she sees is not real, but a result of being mixed in with the wired and receiving stray 'transmissions' and they often end up becoming very distorted, which explains to more creepy stuff. An artificial family was created to make her environment seemingly normal, and her father was made a computer maniac so that eventually Lain would get into computers and fulfill the dream of 'God', an person whose psyche now exists in the wired. When she finally realises this, she does connect and manipulate every human using her power over the wired except for the one that mattered most to her, Arisu, and leaving a message hinting at what she has done.Arisu eventually goes to see Lain, and remind her that she needn't forsake herself. "God" tries to intervene but convincing Lain to assimilate Arisu as well, but Lain refuses, and destroys him when he tries to attack. Deciding that power like the Wired is too dangerous for humanity, she essentially rewrites reality, removing memories of the Wired and herself from everyone so that it wouldn't matter if the Wired existed. Lain decides to stay in the Wired isolated, but a conversation with her other personality, now being able to separate from her due to the nature of herself and the Wired, helps her understand a little bit more, and she destroys her other self. She is then rescued by 'father', probably another entity like Lain that was created to nature her, and decides to continue existing as an immortal entity.

Does that make sense?


that make sense to me
Nov 12, 2020 4:02 AM

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Oct 2013
4354
Yeah, that's basically how a Serial Experiments Lain recap should look like. Honestly, liked it more than most of the show hitherto. The convoluted surrealist nonsense ironically brings the show together.



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Dec 6, 2020 12:55 AM

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Feb 2019
966
I kinda get it and kinda dont.
Based Certified.
I love anime armpits.
Jan 31, 2021 5:13 PM

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Nov 2020
70
SouthRzVa said:
As for Alice, the poor girl sure was about to have a mindbreak moment with such bizarre visit from Lain. That part and the following sequence at the school gates were kinda confusing tho. I mean, didn't Lain already reset everyone's memories a few episodes ago?... Unless it was some sort of flashback from Alice's POV, perhaps?


I think you're referring to the end of episode 8 but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure that entire sequence was Lain's hallucination. I'll include a wordy recap in case you don't remember what happened:



The way I see it, that scene was just Lain's mind playing tricks on her and showing her something she feared, which was the idea that there was more than one of her and that she's not entirely in control of the other Lains. She wanted to believe that she had successfully erased her friends' memories and that they had forgiven her, but in reality, she was just hallucinating. I hope that helps clear it up a little, sorry it was long.
sakata-shiJan 31, 2021 6:57 PM
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