Notes watching Serial Experiments Lain

These notes will probably spoil the show for you, so don't read them unless you've watched it! I'm also writing as I watch as a way to make sense of what I'm looking it.

Episode 1

• Lain seem like she's not really there. The environment is faded. People barely notice her.
• Yomoda Chisa died by jumping off a building in Shibuya. She sends email. She was in class D.
• Lain is studying programming (C, it seems).
• She says she's not very good with computers.
• The shadows have a strange color with red dots.
• Lain seems to get back home at 6pm.
• She has a red computer. Uses "Communication OS".
• Her ID is "lain"
• It's locked by voice. Everything on the computer is driven by voice.
• Death is a theme. Suicide too.
• She seems to love teddy bears. She has a lot and even a pyjama.
• The Wired is mentioned. Is that the Internet?
• Many computer interfaces.
• Speaking of computers, they seem to be called "Navi".
• "Even a girl like you can make friends right off the bat, Lain."
• Her dad has like 10 computers on his desk. Her mother doesn't seem to be into computer that much?
• Iwakura is her last name,
• Seem as if Lain is able to see parts of the Wired in the real world.
• The Wired almost look like a different dimension of its own. One where some people go in the after life?

Episode 2

• Layer2: girls
• Cyberia? It's a club. Someone that looks like Lain is there.
• Accela?
• Creepy people outside Lain's home.
• Accela, smart supplement. Secrets a hormone that affects the time-sense. Makes it seems as if one's awareness is accelerated. Multiply the brain's operational capacity by 2 to 12 times. It only lasts 24h.
• Lain has what looks like a smartphone -- capable of receiving emails. Which is definitely not something we had back when the show was created in 1998.
• Arisu is her friend.
• Lain received a new Navi.
• Lain's dad associate a good computer with good relationship with people.
• The new Navi runs "Copland OS Enterprise", by TachibanaLab.
• Lain's older sister is Mika
• The email application on the phone is called "Lain's Pokate Mailer", which I think is really cool.
• Cyberia - Cafe & Club. That's a cool name.
• Info Guard Center?
• Someone shot people at the club.
• The shooter seems to know Lain. Is it the guy who took the Accela?
• "The Wired can't be allowed to interfere with the real world!".
• "No matter where you go, everyone's connected".
• The shooter shot himself.

Episode 3

• Layer 3: Psyche
• The Navi seems to have an AI.
• A black car in front of the house.
• The psyche can increase the power of a Navi.
• Accel is a way to increase psyche? Designed by the Knights?
• So Lain knows Cyberia?
• So the chip Lain recevied is called a Psyche.
• Looks like we can get inside a Navi.
• We need to connect the chip to the board.
• Apparently it manipulates the data on its own.
• People seems to know Lain from the Wired.
• People take a personality on the Wired that's different from real life.
• Apparently the Lain in the Wired is very different.
• Lain connected to the Wired at the end?

Episode 4

• Layer 4: Religion
• "I don't need parents. Humans are all alone. They're not connected to anyone at all"
• A young girl with a dog teddy bear follows someone. The person is terrified.
• Lain is reading "HackerZ Heavens vol 5".
• There's a game on the Wired apparently.
• The young girl that was following the person is back. Was she just playing in the Wired?
• Phantoma is the name of the game.
• Okay so people playing the phantoma game are actually in the real world. So if they fall, they actually can hurt themselves. A sort of real virtual reality. Looks like one can break their Navi to get out of it though.
• There are "PK" in the game.
• Phantoma has been linked to a "tag game" played by kids. Thus the little girl?
• Looks like the Knights are behind it?
• "The border between the wired and the real world isn't so clear"
• "The knights can be thought as a religion that is spreading through the Wired"
• Lain has made people go away with a special power. Were they in the real world or the Wired?

Episode 5

• Layer 05: Distortion
• The Wired / Network is mentioned as a way to escape.
• Lain seems to be very good at hacking, but she isn't aware of it.
• "It's reasonable to see the Wired as an upper layer of the real world.
• Strange how no one in Lain's family wants to talk about Lain's relationship with the Wired.
• There's mention of a prophecy.
• People in the Wired can affect the real world, in the form of a prophecy.
• Something wrong with Lain's sister.

Episode 6

• Layer 06: Kids
• There's a valve with a throttle and a url beneath: mebious.co.ul
• Lain's computer says "coma"
• She speaks to the Knights
• "A net-pal isn't the same as a real friend" - i like the term "net-pal"
• Lain appeared in the sky?!
• She's able to translate her real life form well in the Wired.
• Lain is apparently searching for someone who appears to be an old man. Professor Hodgeson.
• He wants to live in the wired.
• KIDS?
• Experiment data from 15 years ago?
• Kids are playing now, reproducing an experiment?
• Th Kensington Experiment?
• Psi, parapsychological ability is present in most children, but faint in most.
• ESP?
• Outer receptors is what receive the Psi
• KIDS: individually their Psi is weak. Wanted to collect it.
• KIDS was smashed to never be rebuilt.
• But the schematics have been found. Rebuilt without outer receptors.
• KIDS emulation is ran. Ran by Rogues? Knights?
• Lain's room exploded. Someone wanted to get her? Knights?

Episode 7

• Layer 07: Society
• Some strange person seem to be walking outside with a Navi.
• We see a program written in lisp. It defines the "life" function.
• The strange person wants to break the barrier between the Wired and the real world.
• Is Lain a Knight? She doesn't seem to know she is.
• Is Lain the real Lain? She doesn't know when she was born.
• Border between real world and wired starts to crumble.
• Looks like the strange person is no more...