in the shell

[Freitag]

Synopsis: Motoko is dating! Her present boyfriend (six in the last 6 months) is a cyborg specialist. Separatists in some foreign war have brought part of their struggle to Japan (formerly involved).
An investigating policeman is killed and the evidence is washed away when a dam bursts (it's not clear if the dam was blown to remove the evidence or if the dam was blown for other reasons and it coincidentally removed the evidence).
Motoko's boyfriend, Akira, is involved. He makes a type of explosive that can be hidden in a prosthetic limb.
The terrorists bear a tattoo that ties them to Scylla a now deceased separatist leader (revealed later to be a pseudonym of Motoko for an operation run by the 501st). In this iteration Scylla is an operation run by Akira, a separatist "business woman", and a third party represented by her bodyguard (and possibly a fourth). These groups do not fully have a common goal.
Although the coincidence of Akira meeting up with Motoko is never explained (did his searching out of Scylla lead him to her?) he learns of her identity when his partners try to kill him. Motokos malfunctioning leg (a bomb planted by Akira - suggesting that he really didn't know who she was) had them out of the target area when the assassin arrived.
Akiras former allies implant him with a cyberbrain virus that he is able to resist long enough to commit suicide to contain. The virus may or may not have been modified by Akira but is at least a direct descendant of a memory virus created by Scylla/Motoko.


Sean Lennon sang on the closing song. I still miss Yoko Kanno.

I am reminded of Hideo Kuze and Marcelo Jarti. Elements of both are present between Akira and Motoko. Akira has Kuze's heart for his people and Scylla/Motoko was the rebel leader everyone wanted to follow.

More false memory stuff in this episode. In this one it manifests a couple of ways. People with no military training are able to use advanced tactics as if they remember going through training. Additionally the rebels captured early in the episode are deemed to have a lot of false memories hiding the truth. It's revealed in a conversation between Akira his co-conspirators that they are not even his countrymen even though they are fighting for his cause. Suggesting they are just people kidnapped off the street and implanted with memories to give them an allegiance to the cause.

At the end of the episode Motoko invites Togusa to join the group. It turns out his investigative nose (his ghost whispers?) were right on target and he was in fact ahead of Motoko and her group in finding the suspects (without knowing their motivation - which seems to be the strength of her group)
_________________
People tend to look at you a little strangely when they know you stuff voodoo dolls full of Ex-Lax.

[GhostLine]

I love how Togusa does his duty and Motoko flips out on him, not being able to handle the truth. And when she approaches him for work, he runs off to tend to his wife going in labor.