Serial Experiments Lain/Rumors

Rumors
Season 1, Episode 8
Airdate	August 24, 1998
Production Number	08
Written by	Chiaki J. Konaka
Directed by	Ryutaro Nakamura
ADR Writer(s)	Gavin Glennon
ADR Director(s)	Lia Sargent
← 1x07 Society	1x09 → Protocol
Serial Experiments Lain — Season One

So you want to be hurt too, do you? Do you want your head to feel like its being scraped across with a rasp? If you do, don't look away, whatever you do.

Rumors is the eighth episode of the first season of Serial Experiments Lain.

Co-Stars: Kaori Shimizu (Lain Iwakura), Ryunosuke Obayashi (Yasuo Iwakura), Yoko Asada (Arisu Mizuki), Chiharu Tezuka (Reika Yamamoto), Manabi Mizuno (Juri Kato), Sho Hayami (Deus), Keito Takimoto (Taro), Kuniko Yoshioka (S), Ken Naria (Teacher), Ken Shiroma (Female Voice), Masashi Sugarwara (Male Voice) Yayoi Yoshida, Hiroaki Yoshida, Emi Sagara, Masato Kawanakako, Akari Hujiwara, Soichiro Tanaka, Chieko Kitajima, Ari Morzumi (Voices)

Plot Overview

Lain continues to investigate the mysterious men in black and their connection to the Knights. Although finding herself at a dead-end with a connection in one of the net games, she does discover some rumors about how Tachibana General Laboratories is apparently sabotaging the newest Wired protocol in order to prevent several large corporations from gaining total control over the Wired economy.

In the real world, Lain has taken the questions posed to her by the man in the office from the previous episode to heart and mentioned them to her parents, who don't respond with anything more than a cold glare. At school later, Lain's friends accuse her of committing some act in the Wired that they refuse to explain. She remains disconnected from the real world.

Once again "God" contacts Lain again in the Wired and attempts to convince her that she is more than one person, and the true version of herself exists only in the Wired where there are no boundaries. She comes back to the real world to find everyone staring at her and the message "Lain is a Peeping Tom" on her Navi. She breaks down in tears behind a building about not knowing what her other self has been doing.

The other half of Lain finds Arisu and mocks her for carrying on a secret crush on a teacher at their school. In the Wired, both halves of Lain fight with each other until the god intervenes, saying that she is omnipresent in the Wired. She calls the god out for making duplicates of her and deletes the memories of the rumors from everyone she knows. But when she can't contact her restored friends, she withdraws again into her Navi.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Protocol 7: A new level of information transfer is developing in the Wired, but only extremely powerful corporations have access to it. This is what the men in the office were trying to dismantle.

Characters

• Lain: Lain has realized the duality of her personality, but she doesn't quite accept it.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• Final Fantasy 7: The giant sword wielded by the video game character at the beginning of the episode is likely a reference to Final Fantasy 7's main character, Cloud, who used a similar weapon that was nearly as large as he was.