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PLOT-
The final episode of Serial Experiments Lain is called: Layer 13 Ego. The opening shot of this episode is on a screen. Lain appears on the screen and says, “Well, it became unclear again. Where am I? Here, or where you are? I exist everywhere where you are. I know it. Because I am connected to you. But I…. Where is the true Me? Well, I know there is no true me. I am only inside of people who know I exist. But is this really me talking right now? Am I myself? I… Who am I?” (Lain 13) Then the screen turns off.
In “current” time in Lain’s room, Masami is reassembling a mass of moving body parts. Lain and Alice watch as he does so. Alice is terrified, but Lain tries to get her to remain calm. Pieces of Lain’s computer set up fling themselves at Masami as Lain asks him “You said that your flesh wasn’t necessary, didn’t you?"(Lain 13) Masami then disappears, no longer holding his position as “god”. Alice keeps screaming after he is gone and Lain tries to calm her down, but Alice strikes Lain on the face and Lain becomes upset. She tells Alice that she didn’t mean to hurt her, but it seems that she always messes things up for her. Lain then hugs Alice and tells her how sorry she is.
Another computer scene appears and reads, “All Reset…Return” And the text is clicked and all the scenes from the anime begin to move like they are being rewound, then the computer screen turns blank.
After this, we see scenes of the world without Lain in it. Her family sits around a table and eats a meal. The spaces Lain used to occupy are all empty, her chair, her room, and even the place she always stood on her normal train to school are empty.
After that, we see the school that Lain used to attend, and Alice is walking and soon caught up to by her friends. They ask Alice to go out with them that evening to Cyberia and Alice explains she will have to “mail her”. But when her confused friends ask her who she has to mail, she does not know. It seems like she almost remembered Lain, but at the last second, did not. Alice’s friends then assume Alice was talking about Chisa, a girl who kills herself at the beginning of the series, but now is alive. The friends explain “Yes, Yomada Chisa. We took her to Cyberia once because you suggested it.” (Lain 13) Alice then thinks a strange thought, that if there is no memory of something then it might as well not exist. Her friends are puzzled by this, and they all make their way into the school.
We also see the children, Masayuki, Myu Myu, Taro, and other characters from the series living lives that are not connected to the Wired. The two men in black who watched Lain are electricians working on power lines, and even Masami Eiri is just a disgruntled employee in this new reality. Then there is a black screen that has the words. “It never happened if there is no memory of it. Human memory is just a record. You can rewrite the record.” Then we hear Lain say, “Really?”.
In the middle of a city with no one in it, Lain is all alone. She crumples down and cries. Then another Lain asks her, “Why are you crying? Is it because you deleted yourself from everyone’s memory?” and the crying Lain just continues to cry. The other Lain then asks her, “Isn’t this what you wanted?” A crying Lain says “Yes but..” The two continue to have a conversation where they discuss where exactly Lain is. After some back and forth, the second Lain says to the first, “The Wired is not the upper layer of the real World. He was wrong. The network is a field to transport information. Information doesn’t stand still. Information always functions by flowing.” The first Lain then says, “I see. Human memory…Personal memory…and the history of mankind.”The other Lain replies, “Yes. Commonly owned unconsciousness.” (Lain 13)
The two Lain’s then discuss if Lain should or could become a god, and the second Lain says it would be easy to become a God, all Lain would have to do is sit and observe and everyone would like her, no one would be mad at her. They walk through parts of the city together, through Cyberia and the classroom Lain used to learn in when she was a normal human girl. The first Lain is not excited to possibly be a god so the second one yells at her to just reset everything then, because she already reset things once. The main Lain tells the other to “stop it!” The second Wired version of Lain leaves while asking Lain, “So what are you, Lain?" The main Lain goes to her knees and asks, “I…I…what am I?”
Then we hear Lain’s father’s voice and there is a large version of him in the sky looking down at Lain, and he tells her to come to him. Lain in her bear suit is sitting at a table with her father. He tells her she doesn’t need to wear the bear suit anymore. She begins to tell him something, and he says what she cannot, “You love everyone? Isn’t that right?” and Lain sobs. Her father tells her next time that he will bring tea and Madeline cookies. He says, “That will taste good”.
Then the scene changes again, and we see a couple walking down a busy street. The girl is an adult Alice. The adult Alice sees Lain watching her from a walkway bridge and goes up to greet her. Alice is sure they have met before, but Lain tells her they have never met. So Alice introduces herself and Lain introduces herself. Alice tells Lain that, maybe she will see her again sometime, and she and her boyfriend say goodbye to Lain and walk away. Lain says, “Yes. I can see you anytime.”
The final scene of the anime is a computer screen with Lain’s image on it and Lain says, "I’m here. So I will always be with you. Always." Then the screen switches off.
ANALYSIS-
The ending of Serial Experiments, Lain has been interpreted in many ways, and I think that is a testament to how intricate and multi-faceted it is. My interpretation of this ending is that Lain is a super-user of the Wired, and through the Wired reset reality now only exists in the ether of the Wired. I think it could be possible that she is a computer program that her “father” and Masami created that became a physical manifestation through the power of the Wired, and this is the reason she was so adept at working with it and traveling through it. But as I said, there are many different ways to interpret this ending and the series in general.
One of the main themes in this episode that may seem surprising is the importance of connections and love. We see through Lain’s relationship with Alice, that in the end, Lain protects her human friend, her only real friend outside of the Wired, over joining Masami or becoming a god. Lain also used her control or power over the Wired to reset everything for everyone who was hurt by her or by the Wired. She let the people she cared for, and even strangers she didn’t know, start over at a point before the Wired damaged them. This is a sympathetic choice, a selfless choice, and a possibly dangerous choice. Other works of sci-fi explore the theme of love in connection in the virtual vs physical world as well. In Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (not a book I enjoyed, but it works well for this example) the story centers on a world that lives mostly inside a digital online or virtual world, and most connections are found in this space. But Cline shows that human interaction is still needed even with a place like the OASIS that is very close to a real second reality. Although Wade’s connections begin online, they carry over into the real world, and at the end of the book, Wade realizes the importance of having an offline life. Similarly In Serial Experiments, Lain, Lain realizes that Alice was possibly the only genuine and stable relationship in her life, and she sacrificed her connections physical and virtual to let Alice and everyone else who was harmed by the evolving Wired have a good life. Even if this meant their lives would start over and continue without Lain. She is not quite a martyr, but she sacrifices a lot for her friends and many other people. When her father tells her, she “loves everyone” this is a true statement, Lain loves everyone. And even though most are unaware of what Lain has done for them, they should all “love Lain”. We the viewer are even invited to be under Lain’s ever-present view, and we too can “love Lain” and she, of course, loves us. In this way, we the viewer are part of the connection that Lain now has in her current form and the ending feels more interactive.
A lack of connection is something that our modern society is often concerned with. In an increasingly digital world, many people fear that in-person connections could be lost. Also, many people become incredibly lonely, because we do not have the same social structure as we once did, and people often stay home rather than attend social events. While there are still numerous ways to meet people, a large number of interactions seem to happen online now, or even if you are at a social function, there is a QR code you must scan or a Facebook group you can join. This is not necessarily negative, but it taps into a dystopian concept that is common in sci-fi novels. In this episode of Lain, we see through our views of the characters’ lives without Lain that even people who have limited contacts can touch many people's lives.
Lain as a series and in this episode also touches upon themes of Post-humanism, and also the more specific genre of trans-humanism. These are two common themes in works of sci-fi, but especially Cyberpunk. In Sci-fi and specifically the Cyberpunk genre, the typical trans-humanist concepts are virtual reality, body modification or enhancements, like cyborg body parts, genetic engineering, or nanotechnology. This episode and earlier ones have characters who have extended their consciousness or connected themselves to machines. Transhumanism refers to the characters using technology to enhance their abilities, the “trans” meaning transitory, crossing over. Many characters are becoming more and more machine, and some even cross over into beings in the Wired. Most of the users of the Wired are mildly transhuman because they attach themselves to the Wired either mentally or slightly physically, like VR goggles to enhance the interactions they have in the Wired. The Knights group can be seen as trans-humanist personas, as they employ technology to amplify their abilities and exert control in both the real world and the Wired. Lain herself at the beginning of the series begins as a transhuman character because she builds new technology and uses advanced technology to augment herself into the Wired. But at the end of episode thirteen, she arguably becomes more of an example of post-humanism.
The beginning of the anime’s over-arching theme of Post-humanism can be found in earlier episodes, even episode nine, which I also discuss, but episode thirteen examines the idea more deeply. A person uploading their mind of consciousness to a machine or non-human body can also be a Post-human trope. The first episode introduces a character, a girl named Chisa Yomoda who had committed suicide but seems to be alive in the Wired. The character’s status is uncertain, as she could be viewed as transhuman due to her existence in the Wired, which can be perceived as enhancing or extending human capabilities rather than fully transcending them. Meaning she maintains an existence that is human, but just in the Wired. But she could also be viewed as Post-Human because she has completely transcended her physical form and, therefore, is not really considered human any longer. It is also possible that the Chisa who contacts her old classmates is just an AI mimicking Chisa, and her consciousness was in the Wired in this way. On the other hand, Masami, who also died and became an entity in the Wired, seems more certain to be a post-human entity because he can act not only in the Wired, but in physical reality. In episodes 12 and 13, Masami seems to have powers outside of the average user of the Wired, and also beyond human ability. He begins to become a hideous creature of flesh (which is a great example of body horror) and this creature, although made of familiar human parts, is nothing close to what we would recognize as a human form. This could be an exploration of the post-human idea that in the future the human form will not be necessary, but this leaves philosophical questions about what “existence” actually is, and what defines “human existence”. Currently, becoming an entity that lives strictly online is not considered "human” and we associate our existence as having a physical element, and things such as reproduction, physical touch, and death are major parts of being a human. This leads to the question, if someone becomes a digital entity, are they an AI or does something about them having been born a human and later transferred to the digital realm make them something else, something beyond AI? The human mind is often considered to be like a complex type of computer, so what would be the difference between a consciousness functioning on one “computer” versus another non-biological computer? If we transferred our consciousness to a digital realm, would it be the human mind elevated, or in what ways would our consciousness change or transform? These are questions that Serial Experiments, Lain, and other sci-fi stories seek to explore or answer.
Along with these questions Serial Experiment, Lain also explores the idea of extended lifespans or immortality. We see in episode 13 that in the end, Lain has had a transcendent experience after she “resets” the world. She could be considered post-human because it is never revealed what Lain is or what she becomes in episode 13, or who she has been in the whole series. We see she seems possibly immortal, or at least to have an extended lifespan. We know this because we see her in the “future” interacting with a now adult Alice and she is no older than she was when she “reset” the world. This hints at some sort of truth in the digital afterlife transcendence that Masami and Chisa achieved in the earlier episode. This makes the watcher wonder if it is still possible for people to transfer their existence to the Wired, or if somehow Lain made it impossible for others to transcend into the Wired, and perhaps she is the only person who can physically transcend to the Wired. We know she can still exist in the physical world because she meets with Alice, but she also can exist in the Wired. This is an interesting exploration of what a digitally post-human entity could be like. There are, of course, numerous questions that remain unanswered, but this series is open-ended and encourages thought after a viewing.
Another aspect of post-humanism in Lain has to do with AI and godhood. Masami tells Lain that he is not only her creator, but he is a God in the Wired. There have been questions raised about whether an AI could become like a god in the study and fictional exploration of post-humanism. It also brings up the question that literature also has explored. If Masami made a sentient creature, then he is similar to a god. It doesn’t matter if Lain is software or a real girl who somehow transcended by merging with the technology that Masami created. Then is he a god? It is obvious that whatever Lain is; she is possibly a new type of being, something beyond human, therefore she was created by a creator. But there are other reasons Masami may be considered a god. In theological discussions, there is a rather wide definition of what a “god” is. But some common elements are that the god is everywhere, a creator, beyond reality, outside of the physical reality and that the god can manifest in the material world.” All of these ideas of god could be abstractly applied to Masami. Lain too could be considered a god, after all in episode 13, Lain defeats Masami and then resets reality. This raises another question about the possibility of an AI or some other sort of digital creation becoming so powerful that it could control both the physical and digital one in some way. While this is science fiction now, we don’t know what AI and computers in general will be able to do in the future. In Serial Experiments, Lain the final episode is ambiguous as to what has occurred when Lain “resets” the world or how she did so, but it does appear to be the work of a powerful being, a being that some may consider a god.
There is much more to be discussed about Serial Experiments, Lain, perhaps I will explore it more later, in different essays. The final episode is perfect in the way that we see LAin not only defeat Masami who wants to control her, but she also takes responsibility for the mistakes she has made. But she also becomes almost like a digital martyr and sacrifices her existence as she knows it to save others (even saving some people's lives) and most importantly, make her best friend happy. This story is also noteworthy because it predicted many of the technologies and social problems that came from the rise of those technologies. While this is a series that pushes the boundaries of story-telling and what Sci-fi can be, it’s a wonderful example of how creative sci-fi can be.