Elfen Lied: Episode 4

Someone with ADD edited the first half of this episode.

Nana informs Lucy that she's already radioed to Diclonius Central Lucy's whereabouts, and asks if Lucy is going to kill her, too. Lucy responds that, 'up to now, I have yet to kill a human.' Lucy hasn't seen episode one, apparently. Lucy starts to walk away, but Nana insists that she has to take her back. Lucy's four vectors shoot out into Nana, but don't do any damage. She warns Nana that if she were to move a vein in her brain 'one millimeter,' it'll kill Nana. So, Nana doesn't move, and Lucy pulls her vectors back. Nana protests some more, so Lucy tosses her against a wall. Fight's on. Lucy jumps back, but not far enough away. Nana throws Lucy into a cemetery, against a gravestone, and in a puff of smoke, reveals today's title:

Lucy's pissed. She hates plays. Nana chokes Lucy with a vector and pins her against another grave. When Lucy tries to fight back, she learns that her vectors aren't as long as Nana's. Oops.

Back home, Kouta is still pretty confused. Yuka is all jealous of Nyuu. She's waited for years to see Kouta again and give him little cutouts of birds, but all he does is worry about Nyuu and take her clothes off. Yuka slugs Kouta in the face and runs off crying.

In a tunnel somewhere, Yuka either has a flashback or is remembering a dream of the funeral for Kouta's father and sister. Li'l Yuka and a vision of li'l Kouta are the only two drawn as actual people. Everyone else is a stationary mannequin. It's either a dream about how she doesn't really care about any of the other people, or a metaphor about how she doesn't remember the funeral all that well. All I know, is that it's creepy and I want it to go away. We learn in the fuzzy scene that Kouta was in a hospital for some reason during the funeral, and Yuka cried.

Kouta sits in the dining room nursing his face. He's completely oblivious to everything that's happened so far in this show. It's like he doesn't even know he's in an anime.

Back at the fight, Nana smack talks Lucy, and Lucy throws graves.

At a marketplace, Mayu is getting a bag of bread crusts from a shop keeper. The shop keeper mentions that her dog must really be a glutton to eat that much everyday. The still dirty and pantless Mayu stutters a little. When the shopkeeper asks how old Mayu is, we learn that she'll be fourteen tomorrow. Outside, Mayu runs into Yuka, who sees the bag. And, like everyone in the show, Yuka promptly up and leaves.

Lucy throws some more shit at Nana.

Mayu eats some crust.

An editor takes his Ritalin.

Nana mocks Lucy for using her only trick, Throwin' Stuff, and throws herself into the air. Lucy is able to knock her back down, though. Nana gets a vector-hold on Lucy's right leg, and says she's going to make it so she can't walk. But before she can, Mayu runs in from behind Lucy and Nana pulls back. Bad move on her part. Lucy takes the opportunity to cut off Nana's left leg above the knee, then slices off all the fingers on Nana's right hand. When Mayu screams, Lucy just tosses her into a tree. Nana cries and asks for Papa, but Lucy don't care. Nan's right arm is ripped off - not cut off, not blown off, but ripped off - and Nana tries to crawl away the best she can with two limbs. Just like that, her remaining arm and leg get ripped off in a second.

A bullet whizzes by Lucy, as another sniper misses. The entire entertainment industry needs to take a few months off and go to a gun range. Mr. Glasses moves in and as soon as Nana sees, she launches a vector into Lucy's head. She doesn't kill her, but makes it so Lucy's vectors won't come out. A lab guy asks if Nana is finished, and Mr. Glasses walks calmly past Lucy, and leans down to hold Nana. He asks why she didn't wait for them to get Lucy, and she admits that she thought if she could get Lucy by herself, Papa would be proud. A member of the studio audience, overcome with grief and with a possible drinking problem, runs out of the studio crying. Lucy hears Nana call Mr. Glasses 'Papa,' and asks, "Isn't your daughter dead?" The reply, "Yes... I killed her!" Followed by a stern backhand that sends Lucy to the ground. Lucy jumps away with ninja-like agility, and a handful of guards give chase. Mr. Glasses leans back down to hold Nana, and Nana sort of rambles on for a while, asking if she's useless, and Mr. Glasses... just holds her.

Yuka flashes back to a quick scene that must have happened during the fight. She asks the same shopkeeper from earlier about Mayu. She tells Yuka about the crust bags and mentions that the other shopkeepers all think she's homeless. The other shopkeepers? All smarter than everyone else in this show. In the present, Yuka says to no one that Kouta should probably know that Mayu is homeless. Why? Um... I guess Kouta likes sad stories.

Above, Mr. Glasses sits over a completely bandaged Nana. He gets a call from his assistant that Chief Kakuzawa wants to see him as soon as he lands. Mr. Glasses isn't happy to hear that. His eye does that shaky thing that anime characters' eyes do when they're really sad or angry.

Yuka... somewhere, runs into Nyuu, all stupid and cute again, who's really confused and sad. Yuka looks at the little sometimes-murderess, who is currently as innocent as anything ever was, and says that there must be something wrong with her to be jealous of Nyuu. Nyuu is still kinda stupid though, so she doesn't understand.

Kouta gets a call to come to the hospital, and finds Mayu sitting on a bench with a bandage around her head. He decides to help her out and pay for the bill, which Mayu says she'll "definitely" pay back. Kouta asks why Mayu had them call his place, because the hotdog vendor at market square is smarter than he is, and Mayu stutters until her stomach growls. He invites her home for dinner.

Back home, Yuka's bi-polarness has swung back around to happy. Nyuu runs out to hug Kouta, and Mayu remembers the fight scene, and Nana's leg flying off. But one look at Nyuu's big, innocent, anime eyes calms her back down. She blurts out, "That's right... legs don't just fly off on their own..." and no one finds that odd, at all.

After dinner, Yuka suggests that Mayu take a bath, then puts Nyuu in the bath with her. Alone, Yuka and Kouta talk about homeless girls and soldiers hitting Kouta. I'd care, but I already know all this. It's decided that they can't go to the police about Mayu because they can't trust the police. Yuka invites Mayu to stay the night, and even though she says she shouldn't impose, she agrees. The house is now some kind of shelter for abused girls, being run by two college freshmen. FOX should be around to pick up the sitcom rights any minute.

Mr. Glasses meets with the Chief, who wants Nana to be put down. "A useless Diclonius is just another threat... After killing so many carriers, I won't let you say no." Mr. Glasses bows and walks away. As he does, the Chief gets a call from his son, Doctor Kakuzawa. The son is doing research into a vaccine that should repress vectors. He's calling for more money, which his dad isn't happy about. His son is working with another doctor, a woman who's looking at a computer screen with various double helixes, as if that's something a doctor or scientist would watch on an endless loop. It's the medical equivalent to that Matrixy random, green letters being pissed down a screen. Just there to look like anything. The son cuts a picture of Lucy in half and foreshadows, "You are mine."

A syringe is filled. Mr. Glasses and assistant are in a surgical room. Assistant says that the syringe will put her to sleep, then they'll dispose of her. Mr. Glasses says that he wants to do it, and the assistant leaves. Mr. Glasses walks closer to Nana, who looks so very, very small. He places a hand on her cheek, and she wakes up and pushes her face into it. Syringe in hand, he tells her that 'this is a test,' and she goes with it. She says that she's feeling sleepy, and then, just before her eyes close and her head falls to the pillow, she says, "Goodbye."