On another day at NERV Headquarters the MAGI system is undergoing a diagnostics check, under the leadership of Ritsuko and Maya. Ritsuko decides to speed up the test a bit and shows off some of her deft programming skills, much to her young assistant's admiration. After a successful completion of the test, Ritsuko takes a minute to freshen up in the lavatory. She remarks that “mother” is feeling alright as usual, but wonders if she’s the only one that’s getting older.
A little later, the three pilots run through an autopilot test, at a specialized test facility inside NERV HQ designated "Sigma Unit". The test is run a bit differently from others since the pilots have had their bodies carefully screened and cleaned for every possible contaminant and will not be wearing their plug suits inside the entry plug this time around, being required to remain naked throughout the test, much to Shinji's extreme discomfort and Asuka's even more extreme outrage (Rei, as usual, remains stoically indifferent about the whole thing). The entry plugs are inserted into three bodies that look like partially completed Evas. There, the pilots’ are recorded for the autopilot program. For recording, the MAGI are given control of the simulation plugs. As Ritsuko tries to return the MAGI to their normal state, however, there is a dilemma and the three MAGI supercomputers, Melchior, Balthasar, and Casper, cannot come to a majority decision. Ritsuko rhetorically asks Misato if she can see the creator’s personality. Confused, Misato states that she thought Ritsuko created the MAGI. Ritsuko corrects her and says that while she created the system uplinks, the fundamental theories and mainframe of the MAGI system were developed by her mother.
Meanwhile, back at the command center, Fuyutsuki is taking a look at a protein wall which was installed a few days ago which is showing signs of deterioration. The construction for that portion of Sigma Unit was cut by sixty days and Aoba remarks that the whole construction process of B Wing was rather sloppy. Fuyutsuki tells them to clear the problem up by tomorrow.
Back at Sigma Unit, Ritsuko learns of the corrosion happening in the floor above her and decides to continue the autopilot test anyways. As soon as the test begins to progress, however, the corrosion begins to glow. Alarms start to blare and the corrosion spreads at an alarming rate, and approaches the Pribnow Box, where the autopilot tests are being conducted. As everyone watches to see if the test will be affected, Rei begins to scream and her simulation Eva begins to move. Part of the Eva’s arm starts to glow and it reaches toward the box where Ritsuko and the other researchers are located. Ritsuko blows of the arm of the simulation body, and activates the emergency eject, sending the entry plugs that contains the pilots to the surface of the Geofront. Small subs are then sent inside the facility and begin to burn the simulation body away with high-intensity lasers. However, the corrosion soon throws up an A.T. field and all of the simulation bodies begin to glow. Ritsuko confirms with the blood type blue analysis that this is the eleventh Angel, Iruel, angel of fear. The facts about the emergency are quickly to relayed to Fuyutsuki, who is shocked that an Angel has been able to successfully infiltrate not only the Geofront, but NERV HQ itself, and he quickly orders a full evacuation of the Sigma Unit.
As the test facility is hurriedly evacuated, Gendo orders the general alarm to be canceled immediately and officially reported as a malfunction, announcing to the personnel that the truth about the incident is to be classified and that all the Japanese government and the UN are to be told about this incident is that it was a mere error within the alarm system, and nothing more. As Gendo and Fuyutsuki receive reports that the Angel is spreading all over Sigma Unit, the two of them privately discuss that it couldn't have happened in a worse area, as it is dangerously close to Adam. Gendo announces that the top priority right now is to clear the infection in Sigma Unit, even if it means sacrificing the Geofront. He then asks for an update on the Evas, and is told by Hyuga that they are all on stand-by in the Eva cage and are ready to be launched as soon as the pilots are recovered, but Gendo reveals that he is not planning on using the Evas; in fact, he orders that all of them are to be completely disconnected from all of NERV's systems as quickly as possible and launched outside the Geofront, with Unit-01's survival explicitly having the highest priority. Aoba questions the order, protesting that they cannot physically fight the Angel without the Evas, but Gendo reminds him that if the Angel manages to infect and get control over any of the Evas, NERV will basically be doomed, and the order is quickly carried out. With the lockdown of Central Dogma complete, Fuyutsuki turns to Gendo and asks "Well now, how will we fight an Angel without an Eva?"
Gathering in Central Dogma, Ristuko and Misato, along with the bridge bunnies, discuss what their strategy should be in dealing with Iruel should be. Analysing the data they have so far, they find that the Angel has a preference for areas that have low levels of ozone. Thinking this is a weakness, they decide to inject more ozone into the Pribnow Box and that tactic works for a time. However, they did not take into account the Angels ability to quickly evolve and adapt to the ozone, to a point where, instead of being poisoned by it, it can actually absorb it, allowing it to increase its growth rate drastically. At that moment, someone begins a hack into NERV’s network. As a trace is completed, they find that the hacker is actually the Angel, which has turned itself into an organic supercomputer. Its goal turns out to be the MAGI system and it infects Melchior and almost takes over Balthasar until Ritsuko finds a way to slow the progress down. However, the method will only hold for two hours at best.
Analysis of the Angel reveals it to be composed of billions of nanomachines the size of a virus. It is continually evolving in order to cope with its environment in the most efficient way possible. Misato proposes the destruction of the MAGI supercomputers, a motion that Ritsuko hotly denies. Ritsuko proposes a method by which some kind of self-destruct program can be inserted into the Angel by the uncontaminated Casper. Doing so however, would also cause Casper to become infected, and so it would be a battle of speed to see who was faster, Casper or Iruel.
Ritsuko lifts Casper’s body, revealing a small door that leads to the core of the MAGI supercomputer. The passageway is covered with notes written by Ritsuko’s mother containing access codes for Casper. Ibuki is thrilled when she sees this and remarks on how much faster they will be able to program with this information. Ritsuko agrees and silently thanks her mother. Interestingly, one of the notes scribbled on the passageway says “Ikari, you jerk!”
As Ritsuko works inside the supercomputer, modifying its insides, Misato asks her to tell a little bit more about the MAGI. Ritsuko tells her that the MAGI was the first system on which a personality transplant was used. With that, an individual’s personality could be transferred into a seventh generation organic computer. Ritsuko reveals that her mother tested the transplant using her own personality and that, in a way, the MAGI is her mother. However, that is not the reason why she wants to protect the MAGI. She says that she never really liked her mother. As Ritsuko cuts into the core of Casper in order to connect to it, it is revealed to be something very similar in appearance to a human brain.
At that moment, Balthasar is completely taken over and Iruel starts invading Casper. Ritsuko begins to upload the self-destruct program and finishes just before Casper is completely taken over. The endeavor is successful and the Angel is eliminated.
As things starts to settle down in NERV HQ, the pilots are still trapped in their entry plugs, all of which are currently floating around in the Geofront lake. While Shinji wonders what is going on outside, Rei is quietly meditating, and Asuka is growing increasingly frustrated with the fact that she is still naked.
As Ritsuko waits for the MAGI system to be restarted, Misato brings her some coffee. Ritsuko tells her that the night before her mother died, she said that each supercomputer in the MAGI system are three different aspects of her personality: herself as a scientist, herself as a mother, and herself as a woman. Ritsuko respected her as a scientist, and could not really understand her as a mother since she has never been one herself. But she completely hated her as a woman. However, Caspar, the computer she used to defeat the Angel, is the aspect of her mother as a woman.
Tropes
- Brain Uploading: Subverted. The MAGI system is a neurocomputer hybrid, modelled after its designer, the deceased mother of Ritsuko. All supercomputers have an artificially grown enlarged human brain in their units. Ritsuko's mother designed the computer around the Rule of Three: Herself as a scientist (Melchior), herself as a mother (Balthasar), and herself as a woman (Casper). Ritsuko admired her mother as a scientist, couldn't relate to her as a mother, but absolutely hated her as a woman. She noted how poetic it was, that the latter part was the one that held out against the Angel the longest.
- Computer Virus: What the Angel of the week is this time around. The Evas are of no use against it, only Ritsuko's computing genius stands in its way.
- A Day in the Limelight: The episode is very much centered around Ritsuko and the MAGI.
- Foreshadowing:
- We get an early hint that Unit-01 is central to Gendo's plan when he makes its survival a priority over that of the other two Eva Units.
- Gendo and Fuyutsuki are worried about Iruel spreading beyond Sigma Unit and that it's too close to Adm. This is the first hint of Terminal Dogma and that Gendou's got something hidden down in the basement.
- Just in Time: Actually ever-so-slightly downplayed. When Misato asks Ritsuko to hurry up as she works on manually uploading the kill command to Iruel, Ritsuko calmly ensures her that it shouldn't be a problem as she is ahead of Iruel with a whole second. When Misato points that it is one measly second, Ritsuko answers that it is a whole lot better than zero or a minus, and indeed Ritsuko actually manages to finish uploading the kill command when the countdown reaches 2.
- Out of Focus: Shinji, Rei, and Asuka spend most of the episode offscreen, trapped in their entry plugs. This means that, for once, the adult members of NERV have to defeat the Angel themselves.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: The Angel is trying to destroy NERV HQ by triggering this, and infects the MAGI system via Melchior-1. But its order is overruled by the unaffected Balthasar-2 and Casper-3 supercomputers. So it begins infecting Balthasar-2, and once fully taken over, orders the self-destruct again. Casper-3 refuses, and the highly-adaptive Angel spreads again to force all three AI to consent. The Angel is mutating so fast the technicians can't keep up with it. So Ritsuko manages to road the Angel onto an evolutionary dead-end at the last second, freeing the MAGI system and aborting the command.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode has quite a few striking similarities and overt visual and plot references to the 1971 film version of the Michael Crichton novel The Andromeda Strain, to the point of being almost-but-not-quite a Whole-Plot Reference.
- The episode's title refers to Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels.
- Technobabble: A LOT. The whole series could fall into this trope but this episode takes the cake.
