Episode 2 shows us how terrifying the bond between an EVA and a kid can really be. Shinji's scream in the last few minutes isn't fear of what he sees. It's fear of what he now knows.
Hi there, if you're new here, my name is Oren and I'm a nerd who likes to talk about my favorite shows, games, and books. Today we're talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion episode 2.
Video: Oren Cohen's YouTube channel.
Shinji suffers a spectacular defeat
The first few minutes of this episode made me physically cringe. The Angel is not only hurting the EVA, but it also seems to hurt Shinji himself. It's Shinji who suffers when the Angel breaks the EVA's arm, or when it pierces the EVA's head.
And it makes sense, right? Nobody watching this expects Shinji to know how to fight. He barely makes the EVA walk before falling on his face.
In all ways that matter, it seems Shinji lost the battle. But somehow we cut to an absurdly bright room where Shinji wakes up.
Shinji survived and we assume he was defeated
One of the early frames after the fight is the EVA's head being transported. We also see his father in the elevator looking down at him with a stern expression. Like a disappointed parent.
These scenes immediately planted in me the thought that Shinji was rescued.
It's what comes after that breaks all of these expectations. But before we talk about that, let's talk about Misato's apartment. The episode makes us wait for the truth, so we'll wait too.
Misato invites Shinji to live with her
After seeing that Shinji and his father would not share a home, Misato intervenes and prevents Shinji from living alone.
When we get to her apartment we discover a den of chaos with trash everywhere. She definitely has a drinking problem, too. I guess that's one of the perks of making a show for ages 15 and up. If you're gonna show disturbing imagery with robots being picked apart with blood running from their injuries, you can also show some suggestive themes, too, like Misato's cleavage right in Shinji's face, or Shinji himself running out naked from the bathroom after encountering Pen Pen. What do you think? Would you let a 15-year-old watch this show? Let me know in the comments.
It's only after dinner, when Shinji is alone in his bed, where everything comes flooding back.
Shinji remembers the EVA looking at him
Looking up at the ceiling in his new bedroom, Shinji finally remembers, and we the viewers see what happened after the cut away from the fight.
Just like when it protected Shinji from the fallen debris, the EVA wakes up again. And again witnesses call it impossible. The fight that follows is nothing like what Shinji demonstrated. It ends with the Angel self-destructing around Unit-01, which is exactly why the recovery footage looked like a loss. Even the wreckage implied defeat.
Very appropriately, Shinji is absent from this entire sequence. We don't know how much he experienced from this fight. We only see him holding his head in the same area where the EVA suffered its head injury, and it's implied he lost consciousness. But did he?
Before the episode ends with Misato telling Shinji people will be proud of him for what he did, we see him sitting in the cockpit and witnessing the EVA's biological eye regenerating and looking directly at him. Shinji's scream ends the memory. That scream is my answer. He did witness everything. He knows the fight wasn't his, and he knows what the thing he sits inside is capable of. The eye is terrifying to behold, but that's not why he screams.
In the next episode, three weeks have passed, and knowing what the EVA is has not been healthy for Shinji. Let's talk about it next.