I was very disappointed to hear that Suzuha never got married. Although there are always extra-marital affairs to keep my hope alive. I was hoping that Suzuha would turn out to be Daru’s mother and we would get some infinite recursion. In the limit case, will their genes become identical?

This was a great episode all around. As predicted, Daru turns out to be Suzuha’s father (but the mother is still a secret – my guess is Moeka). But the part that was not expected was that the only person who figures this out is Mayuri. So far, Mayuri has come across as the slowest and dullest of the lot, but here, she’s the only one who can see what is obvious to the viewers. And I think this makes a lot of sense. Okarin and Christina think too much like scientists and look at facts and specific details. Daru and Suzuha are too personally involved to see anything clearly. Mayuri is the only one who can use something vague like the idea that “they look good together” to reach the conclusion that is right in front of everyone.

I complained in the earlier episodes that Mayuri was one of the weaker characters and seemed like a rather standard moeblob / damsel in distress, but this is simply not the case. She’s slow, childish, and less witty than Okabe and Christina, but she certainly isn’t an idiot. She’s probably the most level-headed lab member. The creators of Steins; Gate are doing an excellent job at the characterizations.

They also threw a great curve ball with Suzuha’s trip to the past becoming ineffective due to memory loss. Getting to see what happened to her and her relationship with Mr. Braun were great. (This brings to mind something else: Mr. Braun’s daughter. Who is her mother?! Could it be Suzuha?) But the part where this twist paid off the most was for Okabe’s decision to send the D-mail. You can see clearly his transformation from eccentric mad scientist to founding father of the resistance, willing to make everyone but himself forget Suzuha to save Mayuri and defeat CERN.