I've got it mostly figured out I think.
1. The voice screaming in the first episode was Okarin from the future coming back in time to try and save Kurisu, which he will probably do next episode or the one after that (and then he will realize that the voice he heard screaming was his own).
2. CERN knew that if Okarin and Kurisu got together they would successfully create a time machine (the Time Leap machine, not the Phone Microwave - I'll explain further on) before they could develop theirs, because in the world lines where Okarin and Kurisu both lived, they eventually get together and develop their version, while CERN independently develops their own which fails (turns things into jelly) until much later. To prevent Okarin and Kurisu from developing theirs first, CERN had Kurisu killed before she could get together with Okarin, and the Okarin that comes back in time to save her was probably expected, or showed up while CERN was still there, and was captured, or he ran away because he knew his past self would be coming soon. That's why Okarin didn't meet himself when he entered the room with Kurisu's body, either because CERN wanted him to help finish developing their own machine (little did they know that Kurisu was the real brains behind the development, but Okarin had the big name and recognition) so they thought it was him and took him away alive before he met himself, or because he ran away after witnessing Kurisu die because he knew that "he" was going to show up any minute. The Okarin from the future is the one we will be following for the last few episodes (and the one we've been following up until now) because he's the one that's already experienced everything.
3. To address the issue of the Phone Microwave's development, the "world" as a result of Kurisu's death "forced" the Phone Microwave to be a success by inadvertently ensuring that Okarin and Daru got it right in the same way that the "world" forced Mayushi to die, no matter what Okarin did. He *had* to develop a form of time travel, with or without Kurisu, so the Phone Microwave took the place of the Time Leap machine, which would have come later on had Kurisu lived and might have even been developed earlier. He had to be enabled to time travel no matter what.
4. The moment Okarin sent the first D-mail, Suzuha's time machine (created by future Daru) appeared on the building, because now that Okarin had changed to a world line where Kurisu's death had been prevented, she and Okarin would both live, hence would eventually develop the Time Leap machine, which in the future would lead to the final version created by Daru. As a result though, this is now also part of the set of world lines where Mayushi will die instead of Kurisu, and you know the rest of the story from there (you watched it!)
5. The Suzuha that came from the future said that Okarin and Kurisu were dead. This is because she is from the "first" future, where they originally both got together and by-passed the Phone Microwave and developed the Time Leap machine together without Okarin having seen Kurisu dead in that room, which set into motion the alternative events that we're seeing as we've been following the series. In her future, CERN killed Okarin and Kurisu because they had taken over, and needed to have a monopoly on time travel.
There is a way to save both Kurisu and Mayuri. *THERE IS*, but we don't know if it'll happen or not yet because it belongs in a completely different set of world lines that we haven't been exposed to yet. None of the time travel activity we've seen so far will have overlapped with them, so we don't know about them at this point. But we can reason them into existence, the third option that nobody in the show has thought of yet. That is, if the series decides to go there.
HOW TO SAVE BOTH KURISU AND MAYURI:
We know for a fact that Okarin can Time Leap back to times before the Time Leap machine was even invented, which means he can go as far back as he wants providing that the machine can handle it and that it's tuned properly. He's done this already, he just hasn't gone far enough back to be able to do what I'm about to describe. There has been one occasion though where he did go back even farther than it was originally able to, because Kurisu started work on the machine even earlier because he went back and told her what happened to Mayuri, so she was able to make it better than the one he used to get back to that point, so his next leap could take him back further and give him more time. This can be done again.
He has to go back to before he decided to go to Kurisu's lecture and therefore set in motion the series of events that leads him to become more interested in time travel enough to pursue the idea of creating a time machine in the first place. He basically has to go back and decide purposely not to ever pursue developing one. He's the only one who can do this *because* he has the Reading;Steiner. He can go back far enough and make a conscious decision to avoid time travel altogether. It'll mean everything he's done up until now was for nothing, but he'll make the decision and look forward to the unknown future ahead of him, one where all of his friends will get to live. And it'll be as happy an ending as this series can provide.
This would work, because remember, it was Okarin that convinced Kurisu in the first place that time travel was possible. If he hadn't done that, she would never have followed along with being a lab member, and never would have started to believe it was possible and actually invent a better version. In the world lines where she never becomes convinced it's possible, she remains unconvinced, and never pursues the idea at all, because Okarin will decide to never pursue his interest and convince her it can be done.
BOTTOM LINE: The key is Kurisu. Okarin has to go back and refrain from convincing her that time travel is possible. She was a major skeptic before, so if he doesn't drag her into it, she'll just remain that way, and none of the events we've witnessed will ever happen.
There might a small flaw or two with my reasoning, but I'm willing to bet I'm pretty damned closed to being almost completely correct. |