Serial Experiments Lain/Distortion

Distortion
Season 1, Episode 5
Airdate	August 3, 1998
Production Number	05
Written by	Chiaki J. Konaka
Directed by	Ryutaro Nakamura
ADR Writer(s)	Gavin Glennon
ADR Director(s)	Lia Sargent
← 1x04 Religion	1x06 → Kids
Serial Experiments Lain — Season One

Distortion is the fifth episode of the first season of Serial Experiments Lain.

Cast: Kaori Shimizu (Lain Iwakura), Ryunosuke Obayashi (Yasuo Iwakura), Rei Igarashi (Miho Iwakura), Ayako Kawasumi (Mika Iwakura), Yoko Asada (Arisu Mizuki), Chiharu Tezuka (Reika Yamamoto), Manabi Mizuno (Juri Kato), Sho Hayami (Deus), Keito Takimoto (Taro), Keiko Kagawa (Girl), Suguru Hachinohe (Man), Rumi Okada (Doll), Kenji Kobayashi (Announcer), Yumi Otsuda (High School Girl), AKIKO (High School Girl), Masamichi Sato (Shinto Image), Ari Morizumi (DJ)

Plot Overview

While walking in a crowd, Lain is told that man has reached the end of evolution, but can escape mortality and the absurdity of life through the Wired. When she asks who is talking to her, the voice claims that it is God.

There is a flashback to Lain as a child, asking a doll to tell her a story. When she asks it to tell a story about something she doesn't know about, the doll tells Lain that she already knows everything that exists and thus cannot tell a story about something that doesn't exist. Instead, the doll tells Lain that events can only come into occurrence when there is a prophecy before it. She asks who creates the prophecies, but gets no answer. Several more flashbacks occur which question whether or not existence in reality defines humanity, whether or not the Wired is actually another world and God.

Back in the real world, Lain and her sister, Mika, both get pieces of paper containing cryptic messages concerning the lack of space in the afterlife, presumably a message from Knights. After discarding it, Mika sees Lain standing in the middle of the street, repeating "Everything is connected" over and over again. Mika starts to walk away and sees a picture of Lain appear on the monitor across from her. Later on, Lain's friends insist that she was behind hacking the monitor, but Lain has no memory of the event.

Meanwhile, as Lain continues to uncover more about the supposed prophecy, Mika's life takes a turn for the nightmarish as she appears to see messages saying "Fulfill the Prophecy" wherever she looks. A hologram of Lain's father explains to Lain, presumably in a flashback, that in some instances, the Wired may have crossed over to affect the real world. Mika returns home to find a duplicate of her self. The apparent real Mika disappears and the impostor leaves saying that nothing is wrong.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Knights: Arisu describes the Knights as a group of hackers, despite their notoriety for being anti-social.
• The Other Side: Many characters in Lain's family appear as either holograms or hallucinations, tipping the viewer off to the idea that maybe Lain's family isn't quite as real as she thinks they are.

Quotes

• Message: The other side is overcrowded. The dead will have nowhere to go.