This week’s is an episode of comings and goings.

First, their house blows up. Gotta leave.

Then, Lisa leaves after Nine tells her everything is her fault. Albeit indirectly, he casts her out and says she is unneeded.

Next the police hierarchy casts Shibazaki out.

After that, Five casts out Lisa, going so far as to tell Lisa that she should have died and that her life means nothing to Five.

And finally, Nine and Twelve have a falling out as they diverge on what to do with Lisa.

We end with Twelve finally breaking the pattern of rejection as he sets out to search for Lisa and bring her home.

What’s interesting is how differently all the characters react to their rejection. Lisa is dejected and despairing when Nine casts her out. But when Five goes so far as to say her very life is worthless, Lisa appears to recover a bit of a backbone.

Shibazaki, meanwhile, draws strength from his rejection. Now that he’s about to be fired, he has nothing to fear, and is able to do things he normally wouldn’t consider. Although they are rather unethical, so I’m not sure this is necessarily a good thing…

But all of this builds into a central theme of abandonment, as we know Five, Nine and Twelve were cast out from normal society into the Athena project. We’ve already glimpsed how differently their responses to this abandonment have become. Yet all seem to gain a certain inner strength— or perhaps recklessness, or audacity— through their abandonment.

Further Thoughts

Ahaha.

I’ve thought about this before too. If the American Revolution happened now, they would be called terrorist. Martin Luther King was considered likewise back in his time.

Still, Nine and Twelve actually are using violence against civilians… although they haven’t actually killed anyone yet…