Serial Experiments Lain/Society

Society
Season 1, Episode 7
Airdate	August 17, 1998
Production Number	07
Written by	Chiaki J. Konaka
Directed by	Ryutaro Nakamura
ADR Writer(s)	Gavin Glennon
ADR Director(s)	Lia Sargent
← 1x06 Kids	1x08 → Rumors
Serial Experiments Lain — Season One

Society is the seventh episode of the first season of Serial Experiments Lain.

Cast: Kaori Shimizu (Lain Iwakura), Ryunosuke Obayashi (Yasuo Iwakura), Yoko Asada (Arisu Mizuki), Takumi Yamazaki (Men in Black), Joji Nakata (Men in Black), Shigeru Chiba (Nezumi), Shigeru Shibuya (Office Worker), Hiroaki Ishikawa (Man at Apartment), Shinpei Adachi (Child), Kuniko Yoshioka (S), Hidetoshi Ito (Announcer), Natsuki Asaoka (Secretary), Eriko Kawasaki (Young Mother), Eiichiro Suzuki (Neighbor), Shinpo Chiba (Delivery Man), Ari Morizumi (DJ)

Plot Overview

Lain has repaired her cooling system after the Knights destroyed it in the last episode, but has strayed from entering the Wired totally because of how much closer to the real world it has become.

Throughout the episode, bits of society affected by the Wired are shown to back up the actions of Lain and those around her. This includes a business man getting an important file, a hacker apparently stealing that file, a woman getting a new Navi, a man wearing a sort of virtual reality suit that keeps him connected to the Wired even as he walks in the real world (a device he uses as an audition for the Knights). The purpose of these sections is to examine the idea that the real world and the Wired are connected in significant ways.

Arisu again confronts Lain with her obsession after school one day and asks if she and the other girls have just been a nuisance, rather than being friends. This prompts Lain to nearly burst into tears. When she realizes her acquaintances actually are friends, her ties to the real world strengthen.

Later on, the men in black appear to Lain and ask her to come with them. She gets into their car and they take her to a building labeled as "Tachibana General Laboraties: Shinbashi Office." There, she is pushed into a room with a man using old technology (including a rotary phone) asking for assistance. After she fixes his computer, she is confronted with a video of the anarchist with the mobile Wired set-up, who becomes convinced that she is the key to his joining the Knights.

The men in the office tell Lain that the Knights are watching her, but for an unknown reason. They also pose the question of whether or not she knows who she is or if her parents are really her parents. They ask her several simple questions that she doesn't know the answers to and an alternative personality takes over. The man warns Lain that the barrier between the real world and the Wired is starting to break down, which is dangerous. He then goes on to tell her that she is dangerous.

The episode ends with the man in the cybersuit dead on the ground, with the image that appeared on all of the secondary plot characters' screens and hardware in his visor.

Notes

Introduction

• "Just between you and me, let me tell you what's happening. What's beginning to take place in our society without you ever being even vaguely conscious of it."

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Knights: The Knights are again profiled in this episode and are linked with information manipulation and development and distribution of illegal information devices (most notably PHANTOMa). They are, however, distinctly removed from the "anarchists and idiots" of the world.

Characters

• Mika: Mika's slack-jawed appearance from the previous episode has affected her more gravely than thought. She can't seem to formulate words anymore.

Referbacks

• 1x02 - Girls: The delivery boy who delivers a new chip for the young mother's Navi is the same delivery boy who delivered the base model of Lain's Navi.

Quotes

• Lain: The real world out there isn't actually real at all.