Elfen Lied Summary (Episode 4)

So we open Nana telling Lucy that it's time to come home, and that she's already contacted the others.  And then, totally without fear, asks if Lucy is going to kill her now.  Lucy simply replies that she hasn't killed a single person so far, and begins walking off.

Lucy tells Nana to go home, despite her persistence that she needs to bring her back, but Nana refuses to give up.  Enter fight scene between the two diclonius.  Nana has longer reach than Lucy, but is also a far less experienced combatant.

That ain't no slap

Alternate with Kouta and Yuka.  Kouta tries to dismiss the question, and tries to get out of answering it by looking for Nyu (wrong move, but then again, in this situation there is rarely a winning move).  She wants to know why he wouldn't tell her that he was injured by getting on the wrong side of soldiers, to which he replies he didn't want to worry her.  She objects; "Is it not alright for me to worry about you?"  He tries to find out what's wrong, but gets slugged for his efforts.  As I said, no win scenario, especially when suffering from CGS*.

We get a flashback, of sorts, for Yuka.  Mannequins take the place of the adults around her, as a symbolic representation of what she went through as a child, with most of Kouta's family dying, and him not coming back.  She is as much upset at herself as anything else, as she knows that Kouta is the one who truly had it rough, rather than her, but it is apparent that she had very few people her own age around.  And any special attachments to Kouta.

Return to diclonius fighting.

Mayu gets some free bread (probably yesterday's bread) from a grocer, ostensibly for Wanta (her dog).  Though it's fairly transparently for her too (as the bag of bread cubes is about as big as the dog is).  Yuka runs into her as she's leaving, so Yuka decides to talk to the grocer about Mayu.

Return to diclonius fighting.  Now's when the power advantage Lucy holds becomes clear (even if her vectors lack length).

Mayu hears something coming from ahead, and comes forward in time to see the end of the diclonius fight.  She rushes forward, saying to not fight.  The momentary hesitation of Nana is all that's necessary to let Lucy win. 

And by win, I mean the removal of all four of Nana's limbs.  And Mayu, right in the middle of everything, get's to see Nana's leg get ripped off.  I'm sure that won't cause her any issues.  Though Mayu does survive, simply getting thrown aside by Lucy instead of actually injured.

Nana does survive, though, due to sniper reinforcements, but alas, the first shot misses, meaning that without the element of surprise, they're not going to be able to do jack to Lucy.  Though Kurama, truly a badass at heart, just walks up.  This morale boost lets Nana overcome the pain of becoming a multiple amputee the hard way, and does something with her vector to Lucy's head.

Lucy's vectors stop working.  Kurama walks right in front of the disabled Lucy, ignoring her to walk over to Nana.  He chides her semi-gently for not waiting for him, though she confesses that she jumped the gun a bit because she thought he would praise her if she could bring in Lucy herself.

Lucy taunts Kurama that his daughter is supposed to be dead, a fact which he confirms, though follows it up with a bitch slap.  Let me reiterate.  He may or may not know about what Nana did at this moment, but in either case, he just slapped around someone who killed 23 people in 5 minutes using her MIND.  Forget Bando, Kurama is the real badass here.

Despite all the guys with guns, Lucy manages to run away.  And by the way she jumps, either she's a ninja, or diclonius are more powerful physically as well.  Although that latter notion is rather supported by several previous events.  (1) Lucy shot a sub-machine gun one handed.  That is no mean feat for a gym-rat soldier, let alone someone who's been in a straight jacket for who knows how long until just recently.  (2) Nana is shown to be crashed into walls and the ground hard enough to create dust explosions, and doesn't seem to be phased by it.  Although this is sort of an anime staple, it does suggest a level of increased durability.

But despite Lucy, the sole purpose for them being out here, getting away, Director Kurama just doesn't care.  He's with the badly injured Nana.  She's concerned that she's no longer 'useful' to him, but he tells her that it's alright, and to not talk any more.

Now back to Yuka, as she reflects on a conversation she had with the shopkeeper.  The baker (probably) tells Yuka that Mayu is probably homeless, wearing the same clothes and picking up what scraps she can every day.

'tis just a flesh wound...

The helicopter carrying Nana and Kurama goes overhead.  Kurama is visibly distraught at what's going on with Nana.  He gets a call from his assistant.  I haven't bothered to mention her before now, as she was just kind of there.  She did exposition on Kurama, and that was about it.  But the gist of the call is that he needs to speak to the Director General when he gets back to the base.  He is surprised, and apparently displeased by this turn.

Yuka finds Nyu out near the scene of the fight.  She must have transitioned back from Lucy off screen, sometime after Lucy fled. 

Kouta, back at the house, is worried about how late Yuka and Nyu are out, noting again the broken clock, and seeing his reflection in it.  He gets a call.  Apparently Mayu, having been found and redirected to the hospital, gave them Kouta's phone number.  She promises to pay him back for the hospital money eventually, and is evasive on why she told the hospital to contact him rather than someone else.  When her stomach growls, he invites her over to eat, suspecting her living condition.  She accepts furtively.

Yuka and Nyu are already home when Mayu and Kouta arrive, but when Nyu comes in, Mayu is suddenly struck with fear, having seen Lucy dismember Nana.  When she sees how nice Nyu looks, though, she dismisses the notion, assuming that it was just a weird dream.

They eat, and after getting a bit over-emotional about having an actual cooked meal (on Mayu's part), Yuka offers for her to take a bath.  Nyu joins her, and with them away, Yuka and Kouta have a serious discussion about Mayu.  Yuka fills Kouta in on the fact that she'd probably been living on bread ends.

Budding Romance.  And that's a fade out: they aren't that close

Kouta also tells her what happened on the beach to make him not trust the police.  His story also explains to Yuka why he's been so concerned about Nyu, and that it wasn't just romantic attachment or something of that ilk.  This breaks through a lot of the tension that's been between them this whole time.  It appears to be building to a romantic moment before Nyu bursts in to disrupt the moment.

Yuka uses the kind-but-insistent persuasion of hers to get Mayu to stay over for the night, citing the fact that there are plenty of rooms around.

Now, enter the Director General, talking to Kurama in a giant office.  He tells Kurama to kill Nana, because "A diclonius [they] can't use is just too dangerous a being."  Kurama accepts, though is noticeably taken aback.  As he walks out, the Director General takes a call from a Professor Kakuzawa.

Kakuzawa's apparently the Director General's son.  He's doing research relating to diclonius to help find and apparently capture Lucy, though the exposition is rather vague.  He was mostly just calling to get more funding, and to provide a very smooth transition from the Director General to Kakuzawa and his lab assistant.  Her name isn't dropped in the conversation between Kakuzawa and herself, but it's apparent that she's competent, knows about diclonius and such, but is apparently ignorant about the actual workings of those she's with.  It's also apparent that Kakuzawa has machinations of his own, kept from both his father's and his lab assistant's knowledge.

We now find out Kurama's assistant's name is Shirakawa, as the two are about to put Nana down.  It is apparent that neither one is particularly happy about the event.  Kurama insists on doing it himself.  Even as a torso on a table, Nana is still happy to receive an affectionate touch from her 'papa'.  Nana's eyes close slowly as she 'feels sleepy', to visible thinly-restrained-resentment from Kurama, at having to do this.

Nana looks up at him, and says goodbye to him before going limp, catching him off guard with her understanding and acceptance.  The whole scene is given added weight by the force of the Saints version of Lilium.





GLOSSARY
CGS:  Clueless Guy Syndrome, I defined this "condition" in the last episode's review.