Serial Experiments Lain Episodes 1-4 Reaction

I wanted to write down my reaction and commentary on Lain as I watched episode by episode but didn't start until through four episodes.

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What a bold, intriguing, strong opening episode. I love the idea of there being a god in the Wired. The girl killing herself because she no longer needs her body is such a dark, compelling idea. "There is a god here" is such a memorable line. One of the highlights of the first four episodes. "We are all connected" or "everything is connected," or whatever it precisely was, is great too.

It seems there is a theme of adult sexuality discomfiting Lain. She is childlike and innocent. She's a sweet character. But I think bad things will happen to her. She seems doomed. There is no one there to protect her. Is her father "in on it"? There are signs that he is. He seems to have brought menace right into his home and introduced it to his vulnerable daughter. The scenes where his glasses glow with a bright digital light show that he is at least influenced by the Wired.

What the conspiracy to bring Lain into the Wired consists of, isn't clear yet. It sure seems a lot like possession, though. There is some 'version' of Lain, for lack of a better word, on the Wired. The Wired Lain is bold, confident, self-assured, and sexually assertive, apparently. Lain seems to be slowly getting taken over by this Wired Lain. She's not wearing full-body bear suits anymore. At the end of the third episode she's in a skimpy outfit as she works on her Navi.

The best element of the show are the quiet scenes where Lain walks through the city with only the hum of the telephone wires above her... There's something about that sound. It's so perfectly at communicating slight menace. There's something else about it I can't put my finger on.

I don't know how this show will turn out. I can't see how there will be a happy ending for Lain, though. It's fascinating looking at this show a full quarter century later. It all seems rather prophetic. We all live online now. We are all in the Wired now, aren't we?