It looks like we may be settling into a pattern of giant robot fights every odd episode, unpacking the fallout from the giant robot fight every even episode. That's cool. I can dig it.
Spoilers start now.
In episode three, we learn that Hapless Youth still has to go to school, Eva pilot or not. We learn some of the world's history: in an event known as the Second Impact, the South Pole was basically vaporized, sea levels rose, and half the life on Earth was wiped out. This took place in the year 2000, and fifteen years later, humanity has made an astounding comeback. Or, at least Japan has. We don't know anything about the rest of the world. The Rainbow Council may be world leaders, or it may be all Japanese, I dunno. In this episode, we also learn that the government routinely hides things from the people, so it's entirely possible that anything we THINK we know is wrong. This should be fun.
It is relevant to note here that Hapless Youth is fourteen years old. So is Listless Waif. At one point, one of the NERV people makes a telling remark that the Evas must be piloted by fourteen-year-olds. I believe this is because they must be piloted by the "Children." Hapless Youth definitely is a Children (that's how they use the word, don't ask me why); they say so in the first couple eps. Listless Waif likely is, too. In fact, they are two of at least four Children: someone at NERV mentions that they haven't found the fourth one yet.
Undoubtedly connected, when this episode's Angel turns up, a data readout on it labels it Angel 04. There's clearly a link between the Second Impact, the Angels, the Children, and the Evas, though the exact nature of it is unclear so far. What IS clear is that numbers are important, and worth paying attention to as we go on.
But in the meantime, we meet two of Hapless Youth's new classmates, Tracksuit and Glasses Nerd. Tracksuit has a younger sister who was injured by falling debris during the first episode's battle, and he wants nothing more than to punch the Eva pilot in the face for being so reckless. Naturally, when some other students ask Hapless Youth whether he is the Eva pilot, he says yes. Then everyone knows, and Tracksuit punches him in the face. Like you do.
Duty calls when Angel 04 attacks, though. All the students head for their designated shelter, and Hapless Youth and Listless Waif head for NERV. Hapless Youth suits up, despite not caring for his lot at all, and the battle commences.
Meanwhile, Glasses Nerd really really wants to get some video footage of the Angel and the Evangelion. He's sick of not being allowed to see anything. He convinces Tracksuit to sneak up to the surface with him. Almost immediately, they are in peril and almost get squashed by Unit 01 when the Angel slams it into the ground. Oops.
Important fact about Evas: they work best when plugged in, like a vacuum cleaner. They have backup batteries, which are good for about five minutes. Unit 01's cord was broken.
Irresponsible Woman (Hapless Youth's "operational commander," IIRC) orders that Unit 01's power jack thingy be ejected, making space for the two idiots to climb inside to safety. She orders Hapless Youth to disengage, but instead he flips out and starts beating on the Angel with his last five minutes of power. Lucky for him, he stabs it in the eye and it dies just in time. He melts down, witnessed by Tracksuit and Glasses Nerd.
Tracksuit now feels bad about punching him in the face, but Hapless Youth isn't at school the next day. He's taken off. We spend a lot of episode 4 following him riding his midnight train going anywhere, and then following him back to Tokyo 3 on foot for some reason.
I don't think I've actually mentioned Tokyo 3 yet. It's the city where the show takes place. During Angel attacks, the tallest buildings, containing the shelters, are retracted underground, and they hang there, above the NERV command center (I think). It's really pretty cool, and an incredible technological feat for humans to have pulled off a mere 15 years after near annihilation. I don't know what happened to Tokyo 2, but until further notice I shall assume it's hanging out with Babylon 4 somewhere. ^_~
Where were we?
Right, Hapless Youth goes walkabout. Can't blame him, really. He's traumatized, he has no meaningful connections to the world, he has no good role model for making any, and he has no real reason to fight. He protects people who need it when they're right in front of him, but he's only fourteen; he can't really conceive of the big picture here, and doesn't have all the information anyway. He's just done what he's told so far because, well, what else is he going to do?
When he comes back after two days, Irresponsible Woman rags on him about mindlessly agreeing with everything she says without really listening to her. If you don't want to be here, she tells him, you should leave.
Shockingly, he decides to leave. Who would've guessed? So, he's decommissioned, and he gets all set to go back where he came from.
At about this point, though, Tracksuit and Glasses Nerd catch up to him. Tracksuit insists that Hapless Youth needs to punch him in the face to make up for earlier. Hapless Youth does so. They are bros now.
This is probably why Hapless Youth doesn't go through with leaving. He doesn't get on his train. When Irresponsible Woman figures out that he can't form a meaningful connection with her or anyone else because he doesn't know how (how could he, with Hard Bastard for a father?), and races off to try to stop him from leaving, she finds him standing on the platform. There is an awkwardly long shot of the two of them just standing there, staring.
And that's pretty much it.
As of now, I don't really understand all the hate in the fandom for Shinji. The people I know talk about him like he's this useless, spineless loser, and I mean, okay, he's not gung-ho with the fighting, and I guess if you're like Glasses Nerd and you think piloting an Eva would be really cool, I can see why you'd think that. But he's just a fourteen-year-old kid with no real family or friends, no connection to the world, no reason to care, no model for how to care if he wanted to. He's been dragged into this fight with no say in the matter by a father who doesn't love him and a strange woman who's an absolute authority figure on the one hand and trying to be his friend, maybe, on the other. It's confusing. Of course he doesn't know how to handle it. He's barely even aware of what's going on, let alone why or what it has to do with him.
I say, if Glasses Nerd thinks being a pilot is so cool, they should let him try. Except he's not a Children, so it probably wouldn't work. He's probably better off continuing to try and make friends with Shinji. I guess Glasses Nerd is sans parents, too, so they have some baggage in common that will help them relate.
Shinji will probably get called Shinji from now on. I'm starting to know him. I remember Irresponsible Woman's name, too (it's Misato), but I don't care yet.
There's another probably-important female character in NERV, too, some sort of scientist, but I still have no idea what her deal is. The only thing that's stuck with me about her is the scene from ep 1 when she was introduced, and that's only because it involved some pointless fanservice with a wetsuit. If I ever actually feel it's relevant to mention her, she will be Labcoat, because that's what she's worn since, and she IS a scientist of some sort. I'm just not exactly sure what sort.
~Neshomeh